Ants in my pants

I've never been good at being patient, or sitting still for that matter, and I've NEVER liked carpet.  When we moved into our bungalow in Lincoln, it was a beautiful...the potential was beautiful.  It was very clean, but the kitchen cabinets were a kind of pinky flesh color, the hallway floors that vibrant avocado green linoleum, and throughout the house, thick, plush dark brown carpet.  I saw the possibilities as soon as we first walked in and Tim knew it when he saw my eyes sparkle.  It didn't take long to begin painting and replacing hardware on cabinets.  It also didn't take too long to investigate what was under that thick brown carpet...amazing red and white oak floors.  After making that discovery, it didn't take me long to begin tearing up carpet.  Little by little while Tim was at work and little boys were napping, I peeled back carpet, pryed off tack strips, scraped padding from the wood and scrubbed a little and then carefully laid it back down until I had finished an entire room.  At that point, I enlisted Tim's help to move the piano and remove one room was finally carpet free, and Tim even liked it too.  Eventually the entire main floor was carpet-less and I was tickled pink.  The majority of the carpet was removed when Tim was out of town.  I don't know why I feel motivated to do big projects when he is gone.  I have no good answer!

When we moved into our current house, the carpet was in decent shape, but it was off-white.  That is not a good color for us.  After four and a half years, we finally ripped it all out and laid what I think are the most beautiful pine floors with these fabulous big knots and inconsistancies in the grains and colors.  I love it.  I really love it.  Did I say I love it??  I do!  There is still carpet upstairs that we installed when we finished that space and until yesterday, there was carpet downstairs too.  Now...now there is concrete.  I will sit on this for a while until I figure out exactly what I want to can do with this space.  I'm thinking acid stain, but I need to investigate a little more.  I'm excited.  Excited that I don't have to wonder what is in the carpet anymore.  Excited that I will be able to wipe up spills and wash off...well, yucky stuff that makes the carpet smell terrible.  (YUCK).  The stairs will get a makeover too, although I haven't decided just what...stain, paint, both?  I'll need to just sit and stare at them too for a while. 

Yucky carpet on the stairs

No carpet on the stairs!

Concrete revealed.  There are some construction spills that we'll have to deal with.

Most people think I'm crazy.  That's probably not far off.  :)  I just like to create.  It is not that I am always unhappy with what I have.  I guess it is just something I enjoy--changing the paint color on the walls, rearranging and repurposing furniture. 

I recently defended my desires when I was told, "You don't want to paint your kitchen cupboards."  "Why, yes, I do.  I really do want to, I just don't know if I'm going to or not."  I have this vision of my kitchen that no one else quite gets.  I actually haven't talked to one person that is sold on my idea, which is why I haven't touched them yet.  We'll see...I may settle for painting the bathroom vanity just to see without as much risk.  For now, the doors have been off one bank of cabinets for about a month just to get an idea.  Here is my inspiration:

And yet another after in different colors:

And as all of these things aren't enough, we've thought about painting our fireplace too.  We'll see.  :)

In the meantime, since we don't have trees out here on this open hill, we don't have any fall leaves to crunch, so Bran Flakes seemed like a good second choice.  This was not a planned activity by the way, but it was stinkin' CUTE!