Renovations

We had a flood in our house when the laundry room sink was left on overnight.  Most of the floors on our first floor were destroyed.  We had huge fans in our home for a week that were so loud I felt like I was in an airplane hanger.  It was not the best timing (not that there ever is a good time to have your floors destroyed) because I had my gallbladder removed two days after the flood and my mom was here visiting.  Now that some time has passed and we have money from our insurance company, it is turning out to be a good thing.  We had plans to replace the floors when we saved some money because they were outdated or worn out.  We are also stretching the insurance money by doing most of the work ourselves, so along with replacing floors, we are removing popcorn off the ceilings, painting walls, and we had the fireplace resurfaced.  I hated my fireplace.  The stone was man made and I didn't like the hearth.  Since the floors were coming out, we went ahead and pulled off the ugly stone.  The kids have been helping a lot in the process.  They have carried out the stone and floorboards and did some of the demolition too.  I removed the popcorn and smoothed the ceiling.  It is extremely messy and is really hard on your neck, shoulders, and arms.  I often sanded in my bathing suit so I could hose off and jump in the pool when I needed a break.  I also sanded the walls with the help of my friend Jenni and primed the walls with oil base primer with the help of Alycia.  The walls still need calk and paint, but I already love the difference in just primer.  Sam wired the fireplace so we could mount our TV on it and has put in wiring for surround sound that we someday hope to install.  The floor removal is really difficult.  We have to use a demo hammer and then hand scrape the adhesive off the floor.  It is exhausting and the cement is still sticky.  We have a long way to go, but it is a start.