In progress: Living Room Floor

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had an amazing holiday week! Despite the fact that our pipes freeze about every other day, we're starting 2010 with a lot of hope and excitement. Soon we'll have a living room--which will double our current usable living space. (Woohoo!)

S and I were both off work during the holiday break, so amid all of the fun and traveling we found time to nearly finish installing the hardwood flooring in the living room. All of my fingernails are broken and S's knees will probably have bald patches for years, but we have a lil system and we're getting pretty good. Here's the lowdown on our progress this week:

Rosin paper serves as the moisture barrier.

My job: Sort, choose and lay out the pieces, and chop the ends to finish each row. (Note: S caught me at a lax moment without eye protection. I hope my dad doesn't give me a retroactively failing grade in woodshop!)

S's job: Tap the boards in place, minimize cracks and operate the pneumatic nailer. (WHAM!)Below: Our progress after the first day. (The first row is the hardest.)And below, our progress after the second day!

Almost done! In total we'll have spent about 15 hours on this floor, which to us was pretty encouraging.

What do you think about the color? I actually didn't expect the coloration to be this variegated, but I like it. Not bad for $1.50 per square foot! It's not a color I've ever really seen before, but I think the variations give it a unique rustic look that will fit well with our rustic modern vision. I'm looking forward to getting some paint on the walls, finishing up the woodwork and finally getting some furniture and rugs in there. I can see it starting to come together, and that's awesome.

We've got a lot of fun (and no-so-fun) projects planned for the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more updates soon! I'm praying that 2010 will be a great year for all of us, so let's all find some motivation and work hard to get it off to a good start, yeah?