Gorgeous!

Drink in this photo of our new maple flooring... it's just beautiful! I can't thank Ted and my dad enough for their hard work installing the new floor--Dad was at our house all week last week laboring away, and Ted spent three full days working as his apprentice. This is the best shot I have right now showing the expanse of hardwood from the dining room (which is where Ted was standing when he took this photo) through the kitchen and hallway.

You may also notice, if you look at the right hand edge of the photo, that I also decreed that the dining room MUST be painted before the furniture was replaced. Yes, I made my poor husband paint after a tough week of work, both at home and at "the office." In my defense, though, I will point out that I did at least half the painting, even going so far as to climb up on the ladder (but only VERY carefully and tentatively, and with respect to my physical limitations) and crawling around on my hands and knees painting trim. We (okay, mostly I) selected the color "Drizzle" from Sherwin-Williams, and I bought the "zero-fumes" Harmony paint, which, as luck would have it, was on sale last week. We painted all Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and--honest to God--you could not smell it when you walked in the house. Amazing!

The dining room is now fully painted, including the walls on either side of this photo. The muted greenish-blue really sets off the lovely variation of maples in the floor, and I'm just tickled to be done with it--and to have eliminated three more white walls in my house! As I've told Ted, if I had my way, there would not be a single white wall in the whole place.

We're still in the process of putting furniture back in place and dusting everything, as every surface in the house is covered with wood dust from the floor project, so I do not yet have my official "After" photos. Stay tuned for beautifully staged photos of the end result.

In the meantime, here are a few more pics of the project and on-site laborers.