Fun with flooring

The stark realization that Captain Husband will be home in less than a month has finally hit me. And in that vein, I've been trying to take care of all of the little projects and loose ends that I had mistakenly thought I'd have all of the time in the world for in the year or so that he's been gone. One of the more recent tasks that I wanted to have accomplished was changing out the carpeting on the stair landing with, well, anything. Apparently before Trish was diagnosed as having diabetes, she had taken to peeing in corners...specifically the corners of this particular stair landing. No matter how many times I've employed the SpotBot, scrubbed on my hands and knees, or dumped boxes of baking soda on the offending areas, I could still smell her evil misdeeds and it was driving me crazy. Especially since the last thing I wanted greeting CH when he came home was the scent of urine wafting down the stairs as he opened the door to his house. Gross. So I did some research--and realized there was no way I could pull this little project off by myself-- and called my dad, who is now retired and therefore free to come and spend his time helping me out.

Dad came down on Sunday and the two of us headed out to Lowe's to do some shopping. I spared every expense on my purchases and managed to get out of there with enough "wood" laminate flooring, molding, and padding to do the landing for under $100. With our fates rather up in the air, and having no idea what's going to happen to the house if we are PCS'd (permanent change of station...one of the only military acronyms that I know that doesn't involve swear words), it didn't really make any sense to spend a lot of money on a real hardwood floor. Besides, it's only a landing.

Monday was the grossest part of the entire operation; removing the carpeting and the padding, which had definitely soaked up more than its fair share of cat pee. Normally I take before, during, and after shots of these kind of projects, but I was so embarrassed by the nastiness that I had to abstain this time around. Dad cleaned and prepped the surfaces so that there would be no lingering scent issues.

Tuesday was, as my dad said, "the fun stuff," as in figuring out the flooring configuration and making the proper cuts, etc. When I left for work that morning, he was measuring out the cuts he would have to make, with his trusty helper, Sandy, by his side. Sandy was pretty much my dad's shadow the entire three days he was down here; every time he left a room, she would follow. If he went out to work on something in the garage, she would wait for him by the door. It was pretty cute, especially if you know just how much my dad generally dislikes cats.

Sandy, waiting for my dad to finish up with the tape measure

By the time I got home from work though, he was completely finished and this was what I saw:

A new "wood" floor! And the best part--no cat pee smell! It had been finally banished from the house! To celebrate, I took my dad out for dinner at the local sports bar where we played paper football while waiting for our meals to arrive. He tried the "Pittsburgher," an ode to Primanti's, and thought it was pretty good; after we finished eating, we stayed and talked for a bit. I honestly think it was the first time my dad and I had a for-real adult conversation; we talked about Captain Husband, my brother and his various issues, mom, and so on and so forth. It was really nice and I'm glad that we were able to spend so much time together and hang out, while getting some work done around the house.