The floors look mahvelous anyway, dahling.

As for the living room floor, sanding it and applying the walnut stain was $1200. Leaving it the same and just reviving it a little was $300. You guess which route I chose. Of course, then I moved in, and created new scratches. But at least they're MY floor-ruining scratches.

The house currently looks like a bomb hit... a very colorful bomb mixed with cardboard. When you are dealing with small spaces (i.e. small bathroom, small closets) you have to get very creative with storage and organizing. Hence the successful book industry on "Storage Solutions", I suppose. I spent a small fortune this past weekend at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Linens 'n' Things, purchasing more STUFF, to organize the STUFF I already own and am not willing to part with. I did part with a lot, however: five garbage bags full.
That feels goooood.

I also parted with some wine bottles, but made sure to empty them first. No one can accuse me of being wasteful!

Makin' plans...

Looks like I'll be meeting with three alarm system companies and three flooring companies over the next few days. I'm getting quotes on installing a new alarm system, as well as prices to refinish the wood floors. Two rooms have beautiful yellow pine, but they could use a good cleaning and another coat of polyurethane to bring out their great color. A third room has dreary oak floors. I'm in a quandary with this room. These oak floors butt up against the yellow pine, which causes them to compete against one another. I don't want that, because the pine will always win as far as brilliance goes. So... I'm thinking since it can't compete, to go 180-out and let the oak have it's own uniqueness. I have to allow the oak to look completely different than the pine, which means either bleaching it so it's really light with more of a no-color look, or staining it a dark, dark walnut. I think both would be beautiful, but I'm leaning towards the walnut.