Red!

When Mike got home from Iraq 2 years ago, we went to the Lumber Liquidator store and bought enough bamboo flooring to do the entire downstairs of our house. Both of us loved the look of the bamboo as well as the fact that its so much quicker to renew itself than oak or maple trees, but neither of us have ever redone a floor. As I have stated before, Mikes brother got all the handy man genes in the family, he tries, but inevitably his seriously critical nature kicks in and unless he is sure that what he is about to do is going to come out perfect...well...he just wont do it, not until hes got all the information and knowledge he needs to do the job in the way he thinks it should be done. I am quite the opposite, I realize that there is no such thing as a universal "perfect", it is nothing more than opinion, and although you can do something well or badly, everyone will look at it differently and to different degrees. its better to just do it and be happy with it than to try and impress the world, after all , there is no pleasing everyone.

So you cannot imagine how ecstatically happy I was to see actual progress on the floor!! I had cleaned out the back room, which we had kept as an office/craft room/ store-all room, and moved everything we were keeping into our bedroom. And just as I thought the room was going to be empty forever, he cut some boards and nailed them to the floor, called his brother and got the floor nail contraption and stared putting the tongue and groove planks together. It took him a few days. Probably longer than it should have, but the fact that it was his first floor and he nailed and glued the planks down (its an old house and that floor was sooooo uneven) probably explain the extended time frame.

This is a tiny room. 8x12. And I painted it Red...bright, bold, dark RED. and I LOVE it. The Aries in me is absolutely giddy. At night the lamps give off a soft red glow. The old plaster ceiling was left when the rest of the house was gutted back in the 80's, its the only room in the downstairs with an actual ceiling, the rest of the house is open beam, which is lovely to look at, but when kids are upstairs playing it can get really loud. So this is my tiny, QUIET get away. with only one window and it being in the back of the house away from everything, its like a sanctuary. I could have painted the room a light color. My mother suggested it, she hates color that bold on the wall. But I had my own reasons for such a dramatic color, it was my theory that since it was such a small space and our bed was so big, even if I painted it white or cream, it was going to look small..and the bed was going to look huge and out of place. My bedding is red and gold, so I figured that by painted the room a color close to what the bedding was, the bed would essentially "disappear" in the room. My other reason for painting it red was that I miss being able to play with color in the decor. This house is an old farmhouse, and decorating it any other way that that just doesn't work. Bright, bold colors would make it look small and dark, not warm and cozy.

So in the end, I love the floor, i love the paint and I love the room. So do my kids, every night we pile on the bed (and every night I complain that I need a bigger bed lol :-P) and watch TV, or read or just hang out and talk. I'm excited to be moving ahead on the floor, and now that Mike knows how to do it it should go much quicker. we have one more room at that end of the house to do then we move on to the 'main' part. That will include a complete kitchen overhaul which excites and terrifies me at the same time. If my husband works as slow on that as he did on the floor my children may never have a home cooked meal again..but then again...not cooking for a year..hm...that might not be so bad..:-P lol