Life, paint, and horses
I got the carpet out of the living room yesterday and was reminded fresh exactly why we chose to put carpet down years ago. I swear that in all the years this house was a rental nobody bothered to clean up a single thing that was ever spilled and the spots remained under the carpet until I pulled it up to give them light again. My own children have added several to the collection over time so now it looked even worse. The floor is beyond saving. Enough of the wood would need to be replaced it would be called a new floor, not a repaired one. I don't have the money for cheap vinyl, much less new hardwood at this point. Something had to be done though. The carpet had to go just as surely as this floor needed fixing. I hate carpet. Impossible to keep clean and even if it appears it's clean on top, the underneath of it all hides a multitude of yuckies. I've swept up enough sand to fill Jake's sandbox even though I've owned the "best" vacuums on the market. It's no wonder our allergies are slightly better with each piece of carpet removed from this house.
Still, I wasn't sure just how I was going to make do with this floor. All day I spent strategically arranging furniture to hide ugly spots. If the couch went here, and that went there, tv over yonder, then the rug could just about cover all of that dirty spot over there. Problem was, no furniture would face each other much less the tv. No, I needed floor. Floor I can't afford. It seemed like paint was the only thing to do (and I can afford a can of paint).
I was in the middle of deciding furniture placement when my daughter reminded me it was time to go to the farm. She's missed the horses since she left work on the farm to return to school and today she had arranged to meet Nicole during feeding time so Leirin could take pictures. It was time to leave and we had to climb over a table to get out the front door and I still had no idea what I was going to do. (I have a tendency to start jobs like this, even big huge major ones, with no clear picture of where it's going. Thankfully, it ends up working most of the time, but I have no idea how it does. ) So we got in the van and went to the farm. Leirin and her friend Sophia (along for the ride) immediately took off to visit Sonny, the horse Leirin has missed the most since leaving the farm. Many times I'd go to pick her up after work and find her standing in the pasture with her arms wrapped around the neck of that horse, her face tucked into the dip where her long neck met shoulder, and Sonny's sweet nose would be laid gently on Leirin's back. I'm quite sure Sonny loves Leirin too. But my mind is wandering...
I stood at the back of the barn talking to Nicole and Robin because I was too tired to walk acres and acres of pasture in the blazing sun. We stood outside, propped on the iron pasture gate like a bunch of cowgirls, Nicole with a lead rope draped across her shoulders. It didn't feel like the wild west, but it sure felt good. There on the top of that hill, with a slight breeze blowing the scent of grass, hay and horses around, I found perfect rest. Ripley, the most beautiful thoroughbred I've ever seen was feeling frisky. He would trot from one end of his area to another, beautiful shining mane lifting in the wind as he ran. I may not be a cowgirl but I understand the wanting to run. The freedom of flight, even in an enclosed pasture. Watching him, I missed throwing my legs over the wide back of a horse and running to nowhere in particular. Of course its been so long since I've been on the back of a horse I wouldn't last two steps without a saddle. And in a run, even with a saddle, I doubt I could keep seated. But I remember...
I went back to the car after about an hour to wait for the girls to finish up. It was the first rest I'd had all day. I can rest on the farm like nowhere else, except maybe the porch at my dad's house, but it's the same kind of scenery minus the horses, and the open fields of pasture, and the smell of horses. Well hell, it's not similar at all I guess, but it feels the same. It's country - nature. And it's where I belong. So I was sitting there watching the horses and what to do with the living room came to me. I dropped the girls off at home when we left the farm and I made a quick run to Lowes for paint.
The floor is a not-quite white with a creamy barely yellow undertone. The whole floor will get painted in that color and I have another white (still not quite white) that I'll use to stamp leaves on the floor...kind of like a damask cloth. It should be lovely when I'm done. I am having to do the room in sections because I have no other room I can put all that big furniture into while it's being done. And that's where our front door is so I'll have to paint in front of it in small sections we can step over as it dries. Ah the pleasures of doing stuff like this while still accomodating family.I am discovering that the wood boards make painting in sections pretty easy. Thank goodness. I'll be taking some pictures and putting them up somewhere later on today after I shift furniture again. Warning...the befores are going to be practically gross, but that should only make the newly painted floor look even better :)
I got the carpet out of the living room yesterday and was reminded fresh exactly why we chose to put carpet down years ago. I swear that in all the years this house was a rental nobody bothered to clean up a single thing that was ever spilled and the spots remained under the carpet until I pulled it up to give them light again. My own children have added several to the collection over time so now it looked even worse. The floor is beyond saving. Enough of the wood would need to be replaced it would be called a new floor, not a repaired one. I don't have the money for cheap vinyl, much less new hardwood at this point. Something had to be done though. The carpet had to go just as surely as this floor needed fixing. I hate carpet. Impossible to keep clean and even if it appears it's clean on top, the underneath of it all hides a multitude of yuckies. I've swept up enough sand to fill Jake's sandbox even though I've owned the "best" vacuums on the market. It's no wonder our allergies are slightly better with each piece of carpet removed from this house.
Still, I wasn't sure just how I was going to make do with this floor. All day I spent strategically arranging furniture to hide ugly spots. If the couch went here, and that went there, tv over yonder, then the rug could just about cover all of that dirty spot over there. Problem was, no furniture would face each other much less the tv. No, I needed floor. Floor I can't afford. It seemed like paint was the only thing to do (and I can afford a can of paint).
I was in the middle of deciding furniture placement when my daughter reminded me it was time to go to the farm. She's missed the horses since she left work on the farm to return to school and today she had arranged to meet Nicole during feeding time so Leirin could take pictures. It was time to leave and we had to climb over a table to get out the front door and I still had no idea what I was going to do. (I have a tendency to start jobs like this, even big huge major ones, with no clear picture of where it's going. Thankfully, it ends up working most of the time, but I have no idea how it does. ) So we got in the van and went to the farm. Leirin and her friend Sophia (along for the ride) immediately took off to visit Sonny, the horse Leirin has missed the most since leaving the farm. Many times I'd go to pick her up after work and find her standing in the pasture with her arms wrapped around the neck of that horse, her face tucked into the dip where her long neck met shoulder, and Sonny's sweet nose would be laid gently on Leirin's back. I'm quite sure Sonny loves Leirin too. But my mind is wandering...
I stood at the back of the barn talking to Nicole and Robin because I was too tired to walk acres and acres of pasture in the blazing sun. We stood outside, propped on the iron pasture gate like a bunch of cowgirls, Nicole with a lead rope draped across her shoulders. It didn't feel like the wild west, but it sure felt good. There on the top of that hill, with a slight breeze blowing the scent of grass, hay and horses around, I found perfect rest. Ripley, the most beautiful thoroughbred I've ever seen was feeling frisky. He would trot from one end of his area to another, beautiful shining mane lifting in the wind as he ran. I may not be a cowgirl but I understand the wanting to run. The freedom of flight, even in an enclosed pasture. Watching him, I missed throwing my legs over the wide back of a horse and running to nowhere in particular. Of course its been so long since I've been on the back of a horse I wouldn't last two steps without a saddle. And in a run, even with a saddle, I doubt I could keep seated. But I remember...
I went back to the car after about an hour to wait for the girls to finish up. It was the first rest I'd had all day. I can rest on the farm like nowhere else, except maybe the porch at my dad's house, but it's the same kind of scenery minus the horses, and the open fields of pasture, and the smell of horses. Well hell, it's not similar at all I guess, but it feels the same. It's country - nature. And it's where I belong. So I was sitting there watching the horses and what to do with the living room came to me. I dropped the girls off at home when we left the farm and I made a quick run to Lowes for paint.
The floor is a not-quite white with a creamy barely yellow undertone. The whole floor will get painted in that color and I have another white (still not quite white) that I'll use to stamp leaves on the floor...kind of like a damask cloth. It should be lovely when I'm done. I am having to do the room in sections because I have no other room I can put all that big furniture into while it's being done. And that's where our front door is so I'll have to paint in front of it in small sections we can step over as it dries. Ah the pleasures of doing stuff like this while still accomodating family.I am discovering that the wood boards make painting in sections pretty easy. Thank goodness. I'll be taking some pictures and putting them up somewhere later on today after I shift furniture again. Warning...the befores are going to be practically gross, but that should only make the newly painted floor look even better :)
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