I Got An Itch

I love our house.  I love the unpainted, original woodwork.  I love the location.  I love the people that live here and the memories that we have made and will make here in the years to come.

I do not love the beige carpeting.  It probably would not have been too bad if it weren't for the dogs and the mud, but beige does not stand up to hard use well.  There is a mysterious stain that reappears in the middle of the living room after any steam-cleaning no matter how thorough.  Muddy paws?  Fuggedaboutit.

A couple of weeks ago I finally talked Shad into pulling up just a small corner to see what was underneath.  We chose a corner near the front door, both due to ease of access and location.  Logic dictates that the floor which should have received the most traffic would be indicative of the rest of the floor, right?  Right?  RIGHT?  Tell me I'm right, please, because this is what we found....

*Squealing in my head like a small child*

*eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

You have to know how excited I am by this.  You remember #38, right?  I mean, the whole floor is probably just like this!  Nothing more to do than to just yank up all of that carpeting, pop the tack strips up, run a mop over it and ~presto~ the beautiful hardwood floors of my dreams! 

I know.  I know that it won't be that easy.  It couldn't be that easy.  Intellectually I know this, but it doesn't quiet the small squealing child in my head.  Doesn't stop her from jumping around excitedly either.....

I am keeping in mind that there are several reasons to wait for a more opportune time of year to start this little project.  The carpet will keep the house warmer.  We'd have to buy area rugs to go over the hardwood floor and its probably not cheap for the size and style that I would probably want.  We'd have to move furniture around.  We might have to re-stain or polyurethane the floors and you can't safely do that without opening up the house to air out the fumes.  We may need to do patching or other repair work that would be better done in the warmer weather.  The carpeting isn't really that bad.

I wanna!  But I won't, for now.