Large Home Project

Over the past year this has become a home improvement blog as much as an art blog.  At the end of this month it will be one year that we moved to MI.  Since then we have been spending most of our time working on our new home.  I haven't had as much time to paint but doing the house remodeling has been fulfilling  my creative side.  I have to admit I don't do much of the actual work, I am just the idea person.  Roger and our son Brian are the workmen in the family but in the case of our most recent project I was able to join the work crew!

We bought this house from a family who had young children and pets so the carpet was not in good condition and we wanted to change the floors but weren't sure what we wanted. In Arizona all the floors in almost every one's houses was ceramic tile.  No one had carpet.  When we had people visit from back east they all loved the floors but said it wouldn't work where they came from because the floors would be too cold in the winter.  We found out that was true so tile was not an option. We finally decided on hardwood.  After months of comparing different kinds of wood we chose bamboo.  On Sunday, July 31 we started work.  We had friends from Ohio visiting us for the weekend and they volunteered to help us pack up our chess set collection and move the heavy furniture. (A big Thanks to Mark and Mary.) They left on Monday morning and Brian arrived on Monday afternoon.  By the time he got here Roger had removed the carpet so they were ready to lay the floor.  It was easy to do because it is a floating floor and the pieces snap together.  Brian installed the sub floor, Roger cut all the end pieces and I snapped together all the straight pieces. It took one week from start to finish.  Here are photos of us working and the finished floor.

I love my new floors and all the other home improvement projects we have done.  It is really starting to feel like home.  If you would like to see the other things we have done just click on "old posts" at the bottom of each page and you will be able to see everything we have done to the house in the past year.

I thought I would show you the painting I was working on before we got into doing the floors.  Here is how far I got on my painting of poppies.  We are going to take a short trip so I will not be able to finish it until we get back.