A New Life.

Last week we had our hardwood floors in our kitchen and living room, and connecting hallway re-finished. It has been long overdue, but I must say, I couldn't be happier right now!!! We have lived in our little house almost 3 years, and one great thing about our house (and a major selling point) was that it has hard wood floors. Unfortunately they looked like this:

And the hallway was stripped but looked like this:

And our living room was covered in carpet when we bought the house, so we had no idea what to expect until AFTER we signed our life over to the mortgage company. It was pretty beat up and stained, and just really, really gross:

But we are optimists. We saw the beauty even though we looked at the yuckiness for years. YEARS. How did I live like that? All that HGTV we watched could have never prepared me though, for what we came home to last Friday:

The hallway: And the beginning of the kitchen. Oh the kitchen.

Look at that old heart pine! I nearly cried to see such a pretty room that had been so abused and ugly for so long. We had been going back and forth about doing them ourselves, or paying to have them finished professionally. We finally chose the latter and I couldn't be more grateful to H&H Hardwood for making our blah house, into a beautiful home. Our house feels clean and less overwhelming and I am so happy about that. I love sweeping these pretty floors. Like all the time. I am OBSESSED about sweeping every crumb. Its sad really. And I am really excited about mopping! I bought a new mop for the occasion. I don't remember the last time I mopped our floors. I am being serious. It has been MONTHS. And the worst part is, my children eat off the floor sometimes.

And see that rickety table? It is from Ikea, but we bought it off Craigslist when we bought the house. It wobbled a lot. When we moved the high chair, it could barely stand on its own. The highchair was holding it together! So Nick has been talking about building a table, and for the past few weeks he has been busy making one. He brought it home on Sunday and it is just stunning:

This was his first furniture project and I think it is the prettiest table I have ever seen! He made it out of re-claimed barnwood but you can get all the details here on his blog. It compliments our floors and adds a whole new level of life and permenance to our home. I just LOVE it. And more-so, I love the man who made it, and all the heart he put into it.

And, now that it is no longer a secret, I can say Nick is now a partner with Mike of the Strong Oaks Woodshop (barnwoodfurniture on Etsy). So now all of you can buy an awesome table like mine! ;) I must say, that all of these changes really make me feel like we have a new house and a new life. Things feel like they are finally coming along for us and our life in our little house in the country. And speaking of changes, this little guy is getting bigger, and cuter every second: I mean, how can I make a blog post about anything without posting a picture of my cuddlekins? Oh my is he cute. And he just woke up... so I better get him back to bed. So that is the newest news here! Hope all is well in your corner of the world too.