Life's little moments

• Mar. 12, 2007 - A PAPER BAG FLOOR

On SaturdayI was left at home feeling a little blue because I wasn't able to attend my dear nephews wedding.  The boys went into town for the whole day to get remote control supplies and watch some contests.  I think that they had a great time.  The older girls went to a friends house for a sleepover.  I think that they had a great time.  I was left at home with my 4 littlest and nothing really great to do, until my creative juices started flowing.  The flow went from a slow trickle to a great roaring river in an unbeleivably short time and before I knew what I was getting into I was knee deep in paper bags, floor finish, and an awesome floor was coming to life.  First I must explain that I live in a perpetual remodel.  Deep remodel, with all of the unfinished eyesores that go along.  My kitchen floor has been a bane to my life for the whole 13 years we have been living in the house, however, there was always something else that was much more important to spend the money on.  My floor had several layers of old linoleum and at one time I decided to strip it down to the last layer and paint it.  That would have been wonderful if they hadn't layed the linoleum with TAR.  I could never get the floor level, or completely strip off the tar etc.  I sanded, I used chemicals, and I sweated with my supreme effort to get a nice kitchen floor, to no avail.  However, on Saturday my spirits needed a little pick up and I decided to try something very unusual.  I went and bought several pounds of grocery bags from our local grocery store.  Deep within the cavern of our shop I dug up an OLD bottle of wax stripper and new finish.  I tore the bags into rock shaped circles, then crumpled them up to give interesting wrinkles, then soaked them in the finish.  It took me hours to decoupage my floor with paper bags, but when it was done I could not beleive what it looked like.  The red emblem on the bags bled into the peices and gave them a rich rock color, and the placement left my floor looking like I had a new rock floor layed.  As the finish dried some of the edges turned up and i have been trying to fix that as I put on the heavy polyurathene finish over the top of my new floor.  I blockaded the kitchen and thought that it was safe, but somehow children made their way into the room leaving smudges on the floor, but even with the problems that I have been facing, I think the floor is great.  It was CHEAP, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Here is a quick photo to get  the idea across. In real life, the flaws are not as obvious, and it will be a nice temporary floor until we get the time and money to do what we REALLY want.  Well, everyone had a great time on Saturday, and came home to the house torn apart and no kitchen for a while, oh well, everyone seems pretty willing to watch the new floor evolve.

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