Are we having fun yet?

I can tell you what NOT to do when acid staining your floors. I think I'll have to write a book about it.

Saturday morning I decided we were ready to begin staining the floor. If it doesn't look good, I can always carpet it or add laminate flooring or something. 1-800-588-2-300 Empire! kept running through my head. I figured, it's not the end of the world if it's not beautiful.

So, we neutralized the concrete and prepared it for the acid stain.

It dried pretty quickly, so we put down the first stain, waited for it to dry and then the second coat. Sunday morning I took a friend to see it because I freaked out when I saw the floor Saturday night.

She was trying to make me feel better by repeating what I said - the imperfections are part of its charm. Well, it's pretty darn charming because it's definitely imperfect. Once the stain was down, all the places where we didn't remove the glue and paint and the divot fillers, which blended in with the concrete before, practically glowed. She reminded me that that was what area rugs are for. But the main problems are along the baseboards, where the rugs wouldn't be. Hmmm.

Friday night I decided I could always paint a dark stripe along the perimeter of the floor to hide those imperfections. But, by Saturday, I was done with it. No stripes, no more delay!

Sunday we did the second color and it actually looks better. We neutralized the stain and called it a day.

This evening, we'll seal it, and tomorrow we'll wax and buff it to a beautiful lustre. Then Wednesday night, I'll sleep in my bed for the first time since June 1. Of course, it won't compare the comfort of the bed I've been sleeping in at my friend's.

Thursday I'll take delivery of my new appliances and have the cable guy come by to reconnect and hook me up with cable, internet, and a phone. Thursday evening the crew will start throwing everything back into the house. A friend volunteered to connect my computer and TVs. We'll see how much actually gets done. Friday we'll finish unpacking the POD and Saturday, I'll start the fine arranging. My daughter volunteered to help with that.

I'm so stressed out. I've been eating tortilla chips and dark chocolate for my main courses. I'll have to detox once this is all over.

Thanks for the encouraging words and sharing this experience with me.