It's been a tough week....

First tornadoes, then the joy of spending a day in meditation, friendship and food, followed by the death of  little Sassy.  My emotions are all over the place.  So I thought it was time to look at what's happening here in the house, once more.

Yesterday while I was at work the man came and sanded down the floor in the back room then put on the first coat of what was supposed to be low-odor polyurethane.  When I got home, even with the doors to the room closed, the house reeked of the stuff.  You need to remember that this is an organic, chemical-free environment and I'm not used to this kind of thing.  I set about opening doors and windows and putting exhaust fans in windows and the worst of it seemed to dissipate.  Even now, though, I can still smell it and he's coming back today for the second coat of three or four.  Egads!  Wish I could just live someplace else for a week or so until it's over with. Or better yet, wish I'd opted to just let him sand it then use a low-odor water-based poly -- although, there's no way to know if that would smell any better.

However, I think I'm going to like the final results.  Here are some hints of things to come.

Before -- some serious spots of wear and lots of general wear.

After the first coat -- smooth and lovely. 

It'll be nice.  It really will.  I keep telling myself that through the fume headache and burning eyes.