Have Yourself a Merry Little Makeover

It all started so innocently....(kindof like this little shopping angel-love her personal favorite shoes-Diane would be proud!Plus, who couldn't use two purses?!). But, I digress... Ok, so we had a "little" flood at our house in October. It's amazing how much damage water can do in a small period of time. Our wood floors downstairs took the biggest blow. Seeing as all of the floors downstairs are the same, we were faced with replacing all the wood downstairs. I'm not sure why I thought now would be a good time to commence the project, but nonetheless, we dove into the project last week.

 

They say home improvement(or restoration) projects tend to snowball and that definitely is the case with this one. We decided now would be a good time to finally retire the hideous family room mantle. We called in our local expert Demolition Man (aka Robie) and within about 5 minutes, the super stylish mantle from the 80's was finally history.

 

 

I love the look on Mark's face!

 

Now the real fun began.

 

This is our demolition crew. They are very enthusiastic. They each had their own style and passion with which they attacked the rubble. We are just pretty lucky nobody lost a finger. Or got whacked in the head with a flying hammer.

 

 

Who'd of guessed they were so good at throwing the hammer around? (I was a little frightened by David's passion, I guess as long as it is positively channeled...)

 

 

The next day the professional demo team showed up. They moved all the furniture to our garage and playroom and then they spent the entire day tearing up the old wood. It took 5 men all day to get the floor removed. Mark originally thought he should/could do that part himself. Thank goodness he came to his senses.

 

So the project continues. I've got more to post on the progress soon. The moral of the story is, we are skipping Christmas this year at the Mendenhall home. At least downstairs. There is no garland, no mistletoe, no tree, no lights. So sad you say. Not really! Call me Scrooge, but I don't really miss it. Maybe it's the thrill I feel peeking down the stairs and seeing my new floor being pieced together. Or maybe it's the joy on the children's faces as they ride the scooter around the concrete with reckless abandon. Or the glee Oakley experinces as we kick the tennis ball around the open space that used to be our family room. Don't lose all hope for us, we do have a mini tree with blue lights in the boy's room and Abby and I bought her a special tree for her room. I guess we just have our own way of celebrating this year...