I Know How to Lay It.

Current mood: accomplished

I think there were quite a few people who kind of poo-poohed the idea of me doing any home improvement stuff before we unload the place. After all, I've not had great success with the cordless drill. It left me in tears one afternoon when I couldn't get the screws to the new curtain rods in the wall so they would hold, even with the stupid wall anchors. I did it right, I just couldn't get it right.

Not long after we moved in, we had our first invasion of little rat bastards. Travis wound up ripping up all the carpet in the laundry/dog/bird/utility room and found all 947 (or something like that) of their nests. Since then, the floor has been raw concrete.

We've had the intention many times of covering the floor with one thing or another. Travis wanted traditional linoleum, but we couldn't really drop that kind of money on it at any particular point. We have to have the flooring down so we can claim that as square footage, so now it is kinda crunch time.

I went to Home Depot about three weeks ago for light bulbs and paint brushes and masking tape and easy caulk and wound up spending a ton of money. You see, I found 12 inch sticky tiles on clearance. Ah, clearance. I love clearance. I bought eleven boxes of them at $28.70 each. If you do the math, that'll put me at about .96 a square foot. I couldn't find anything for less than that with installation, and those are an easy install and I can do some now and some later.

Since I got them, the boxes have been stacked in the hallway. They have joined the stacks upon stacks of packed boxes which are now bordering two rooms of the house. All these stacks of stuff really frustrate me because it is hard to make a room look clean when there are 25 boxes against every wall. I feel like I can't relax anywhere because the whole house is a little (lot) disjointed.

I guess the insanity finally got to me. I had asked Kori to come help me with the floor sometime in the next couple of weeks, but we came home from lunch with Kori and our kids yesterday and I scooted past the boxes in the hallway and I snapped. I grabbed a box of tiles and the broom and started laying tile.

Any moron (let me correct that- most morons) could figure out how to lay this tile. You lay them out and line them up so you don't have to do a lot of cuts and then you start peeling the paper backing off, line up the tile and stick it down. Pretty easy. Before I knew it, I had laid 15 sq. feet. I got tired and had to get stuff together for the week, so I stopped.

Today, I threw a load in as I was getting the kids up and around, hung a wet load outside, changed for my walk, got the hooigans to school, ran to the bank, got a Diet Coke and hit the mall. Granted, it isn't that much, but I walked about 2.5 miles with a very sore back and neck from sleeping wrong for three nights in a row. It was just what I needed because by the time I had finished, I could barely feel my neck and the lower back was just fine. I ran on-post to register Nolan for flag football, talked to the sports guy for a while about our move, ran to the commissary for a few neccessities, came home, put the stuff away, and went to the laundry room to finish the box of tiles I started yesterday.

It wasn't my intention to do any more than finish that box. I get overwhelmed easily so my goal was to just do 10 sq. feet or so a day and within a month, I would be done. Not only did I finish the box I started yesterday, I moved some stuff out of the way and finsihed a second box. I grabbed a drink, checked my emails and went back to the hall for another box. I carried it out, put it on the deep freeze so I could open the box and before I could grab the box-cutter, the box fell and the corner of it landed right on my bare big toe. Holy crap.

It didn't hurt for a few seconds, but then the burning rush of throbbing pain hit. Holy crap. Oh, holy crap. I grabbed an ice-pack, flopped back in the recliner and thought I was going to die. I lived. But the corner of the box did take a serious chunk out of my toe polish.

So, I went back to the laundry room after dinner. I got almost another box down. I am somewhere between a third and half-way done. For most of the next part, I'll need help to move the deep-freeze, the washer and dryer, the shelving unit and the treadmill. But, what I do have finished looks friggin' great.

I can't wait to see it all finished.

I am kinda proud of myself.