Projects and my 9 miler!

O-kay, so I'm totally blowing it with the Sunday Sampler posts.  I'm really sorry that I didn't get one out this weekend, but you'll soon see why.  My husband had a three day weekend, so we decided to get some house projects done.  We know that when the weather starts getting nicer that we will be out running, riding, or playing outside with our boys.  The last thing we want to do is be inside doing projects!  So, we took this weekend as our opportunity to get some things done.

First on our list:  Redo the tile on our kitchen floor.  We have lived in our house for almost 6 years and we have hated the tile from day one.  Now, there's nothing wrong with black and white tiles, but it's just not our style.  We would have replaced it sooner, but I think timing is everything when it comes to projects.  Redoing tile, especially in the kitchen, is a lot of work and takes several days to get a complete product.  Add two young kiddos to the mix and it makes it even more challenging.

Here are some pics of the demolition:

We dreaded ripping up the tile, but thankfully, the black and white tiles were pretty easy to get up b/c we soon realized the previous owners that installed them only used 2-3 blobs of GLUE to attach them to the floor.  Yes, you heard me right, they GLUED the tiles to the floor....what idiots!  No wonder the tiles were cracking!

Here's a pic of our boys "helping."  They wanted to be a part of the process so we let them use their little dust pans and brooms and pick up the scraps/dirt.  They had a blast and didn't feel left out.  

Oh, do you notice our refrigerator?  Yeah..it didn't fit through the door way, so we had to leave it in the kitchen while we demoed and put in the new tile.  Because of this, we had to do everything in steps which took even more time...uggh!  

A layer of red vinyl tiles were underneath the black and white tiles.  We guessed that this must have been installed in the 80's.  This was a pain in the a** to get up.  My husband and I had to get on our hands and knees and literally scrape the vinyl off using a hammer and a hand scraper!  It took us a LONG time, but we finally got it all up!  And what did we find underneath?

A lovely layer of linoleum that looks like rocks.  WHAT?  Who in their right mind would put in a floor in their kitchen that looks like rocks?  I called my mom and she said my grandma had it in her kitchen in the 70's and it was all the rage.  WOW!






Now, I grew up around the construction business because my dad is an amazing builder!  He can literally do everything when it comes to building, fixing, repairing, etc.  He is amazing!  Growing up, we were always going to the job sites with him, helping him as much as we could, and learning valuable things at the same time.  One thing he always taught us was that if you're going to do something, do it right the first time.  Obviously all of the previous owners cared less about that lesson!  We thought about taking the layer of linoleum off, but after talking to my dad, researching online, and thinking about how long it would take us to get it up, we decided to just leave it.  Unlike the previous owners that installed their tile on top of the linoleum, we put down an layer of hardibacker and screwed it into the floor to make a solid foundation.  We were finally ready to tile!  Here is the finished product:

Hooray for beautiful, new tiles and being able to use our kitchen again!  I cook dinner pretty much every night of the week, so being without a kitchen for 3 days was kind of rough.  At first I was excited about not having to plan meals and cook dinner, but by last night, we were all sick of eating out.  As crazy as this sounds, I am really looking forward to cooking dinner tonight! :)

Wait, you thought we were done?  Oh no.  Not only did we decide to tile the kitchen, but we also decided to repaint the dining room and living room.  I don't know about all of you, but after 6 years of the same colors on the walls, we were itching for a change.  So, while my husband did the tile work, I painted!

Now, for any of you that have ever painted before you know it's not as easy as just putting paint on the walls. You have to get everything prepped by removing all the stuff from the walls, taking off the outlet covers, and  taping certain areas.  It is a process in and of itself!  It took me a little over 2 hours to paint each coat (cutting in and rolling).  So, let's see: 2 hours X 2 coats each X 2 rooms = 8+ hours of painting!  Yikes!  Of course I didn't do it all in one day, but it took all weekend to get it done.  My shoulders and arms are killing me.  Who needs strength training when you can just paint?  Ha ha.

Our boys were so patient all weekend.  Remember when I said timing is everything?  Well, I don't think we could have gotten this done if they would have been younger.  Now that they are 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 they are more independent, which makes it really nice.  They played so well together, got to be outside "exploring," and had fun going to "special" lunch.  We call going out to eat "special" because it doesn't happen that often!  They probably watched a little too much t.v., but like I've said before, you gotta do what you gotta do.  

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I did get to do my 9 mile run on Saturday!  It was 56 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze.  It was perfect!  I decided to drive to Cherry Creek State Park and start on the trail there instead of running from my house b/c I wanted to explore more of the trail system.  I was excited to get off the  main trail and head into the trees, but I actually got really freaked out.  Once I left the main trail where there were tons of bikers, runners, and walkers, the isolation in the trees gave me a really eerie feeling.  I'm not quite sure why b/c usually I love running in the trees.  Maybe subconsciously I was thinking about that girl that went out for a run and never came back.  Maybe I was thinking that if something happened to me in the trees, no one would know where I was.  Plus, my Garmin kept losing the signal and I had to keep stopping to walk around mud, snow, and water...it was pretty gross!  Anyways, I booked it out of there, got back on the main trail, and continued with my run.  I ended up doing an out and back (minus the tree trail), and the way back was a slight, but noticeable uphill all the way back.  By mile 7 I could really feel it in my legs and calves, but I kept on and finished strong.  Here were my stats:
Miles: 9.06     Total Time: 1:20:29     Pace (with stopping for mud and Garmin glitches): 8:52/mile

Notice the white sweat marks on my visor....gross!  

And after a long hot shower, these were waiting for me:

Chocolate milk and my Zoot recover tights!  

Oh, and some more painting of course! :)