When SWMBO suggests that having a natural sanded floor would be an excellent present for her birthday, JUST SAY NO! Particularly when she adds "well, if we've got the furniture out, you might as well paint the room too".

I had tried to pre-empt this by saying there were no floor boards in our living room. However if the carpet is just gripped in and not nailed down SWMBO may take the opprtunity to check on this!

Firstly, the floor boards she'd looked at were fine, however when, on Friday night the room was cleared and the carpet lifted, it became obvious that a few boards needed to be replaced. AT THIS POINT SAY NO! You may still have the chance to put it all back.

So starting at 08:00 (on a Saturday, it's my day off!) machinery is collected, new boards bought, by 10:00 it's obvious I should have got boards 2" longer, what the hell they'll only be little gaps by the skirting board. by 13:00 I drive the sanding machine into the radiator joint I'd had to repair on Christmas Eve, by 14:00 the water is shut off and the floor mopped. By 16:00 the edge sander is burning round marks into the boards at the edge and generally going everywhere apart from where I want it.

48 hours later I am only 24 hours behind schedule with two more coats of floor oil to apply, Mother in law is due to arrive in 32 hours and the living room is still in the dining room, swimming in 0.5" of central heating water. This is where she'll be sleeping on the sofa bed, if we can find it.

So far it would have been £70 cheaper to lay a laminate floor and only £60 more to have bought real oak boards. So if SWMBO suggests a natural wood floor, JUST SAY NO!

Don't worry, Ross, you'll be glad you did it. You want to cultivate a relationship where she doesn't think you're avoiding work. As Paul Boyer puts it, engage her, don't escape her.

We've been doing home renovation projects recently as well. It is very gratifying to see a room so changed by only a week of work.

So don't worry. Think of it as a huge model project.

I'm lucky my wife thinks I'm like Tim Allen in Home Improvement, so she don't ask me those things (anymore)
Binford Tools rules!

Actually, Ross, it's a great way to tell the mom in law she can't come over (for a while...).

Must admit, the room does look good now and as SWMBO believes that my modelling skills should be transferable to 1:1 scale, that's how I got into this in the first place. Yes it had as many cock-ups and swear-fests as a real model. I am just a bit dubious over the drying time of the floor oil, I have a feeling it may never dry, ever!

Ah,
The joys of home ownership...

Shaun

Been there, done that, have the T-shirt and scars to prove it.
8
In my case it was our "master bedroom" and my youngest daughters room. It did come looking decent, but it's not something I want to do again any time soon.

We bought a "fixer upper" 8 years ago, and it's just now getting to be more upper, than fixer. The worst part of it is is that now that we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel SWMBO is figuring out where to change the things we've already done!

Its a never ending circle people......