Buried treasure

Leave it to us to start the new year off with an impromptu home project. Ever since we moved into this house almost two years ago I've been threatening to "pull up the carpet" in the living room. The carpet was fine and in fairly new condition. It didn't match the carpeting in the rest of the house and I really just wanted one room with a wood floor. I know it may sound strange, but walking across a wood floor in my bare feet reminds me of my childhood, or at least my childhood home. Also I like the practicality of wiping up spills easily and not having to haul out the carpet stain remover every other day. Or every other hour, depending on kind of day we're having.

So yesterday Ernesto was trying to find the spot in the carpet where an old cable had been pulled up through the floor. We had removed the unused cable when we moved into the house making the hole in the carpet difficult to find. but now Ernesto wanted to run some speaker wires up through it from the stereo below in the family room.

"Well, you could always pull up the carpet," I offered, shrugging. I was quite unprepared for him to agree to do it this time.

"You have to live with whatever is under here, though," he warned me.

We decided to go for it and several hours later we had the job completed (um, Ernesto had the job completed- I had to deal with the kids) and a new (to us) wood floor was laid out before us.

Needless to say it's not in pristine shape, though the area in the center of the room where a rug most likely laid for many years was in near to perfect shape. There are scratches, worn and darkened spots and now lots of little nail holes to fill, and it will certainly need to be refinished as soon as the time and/or money presents itself to get the job done. But I love the look of it and I was thrilled with the herringbone details along the border. Someone went to a great deal of trouble to make this floor unique and I'm so happy we've uncovered it.

And most importantly the kids and I can now take our "socks skating" tournaments out of the kitchen into a larger rink. That is probably a post for another day...