Home Improvement

Hello, my name is Anna, and I watch too much DIY Network.

There you have it.  Don't judge me or hate me, just learn to accept me.

My latest escapade involved staining our concrete floors in our house.  Since we built our living quarters/house in the south end of our shop, it came with industrial, jailhouse-gray concrete floors.  Excuse me, correctional facility-gray floors.  Sometimes I forget to be PC.

I watched one of those remodeling shows on T.V. and it took them roughly the three minutes of time between commercial breaks to stain their floors.  I roughly estimated that this would equate to three days "real time".  I bought the materials, watched the instructional video AND planned ahead by doing an extensive taping and protective-barrier-making job.  (Yet one more way that I am slowly turning into my mother... no more 'winging it'.  Sigh.....)

Although the video and instruction manual all swore that this was a simple, one step staining process... they lied.  Big time.  Three coats later I decided to call it quits and we would just live with it, no matter what the floors ended up looking like.  Poor Wesley, he got quite an earful about how I was going to write a strongly worded letter to the makers of this staining product.

I applied the clear coat sealant and..... vuala!  Amazingly beautiful, shiny floors.  Emphasis on the shiny.  Needless to say I was quite happy with the outcome and Wesley and I had to sit down for one of our "chats" where we remind the other spouse that "patience is one of the greatest of virtues, my dear".  (One of my grandpa's favorite sayings.)

Annnnnnnnnddddddd, much to Wesley's dismay, this temporarily disgruntled attitude did not dissuade me from pursuing further home improvement projects.  Next up, bathroom floors!  Stay tuned...

Correctional facility gray.  We lived with this for a year before I worked up the courage to change it.

Yes, I lined our walls with deconstructed beverage boxes.  It was a cheap alternative to purchasing expensive drop cloths. 

Bottom half of picture: crappy stain job (or so I thought)
Top half of picture: pure genius (or so I thought)

Our final, finished product once the clear sealant had dried.  Its very condusive to sock-sliding.  Not that I would know, but I've heard...