Who doesn't love FREE??

If you have been in my house in the last few years at all you know that the condition of my hardwood floor has always driven me crazy! After we had lived here only a couple years the polyurethane started to wear off in spots and since then after walking on it those spots that were essentially bare wood have turned black. As well as that, it was just really scratched up and pretty much looked horrible. It got so bad that last winter I let Ashton ride his big wheel around the island as much as he wanted because I figured it was already ruined, so why not!? So then you could see his tracks all over the floor. So this spring I had finally decided that we would get it refinished and that could be our house project for the year. I had gotten a bid last year for $1600, then I got another one this year from a guy and he was going to do it for $1350. I was just about ready to hire him, when my great friend and neighbor Tallie told me to talk to her about something first. That happened to be the day that Ashton fell and got his stitches, so I called and asked her what she was talking about the next day. It turned out that while she was at her little girl's soccer game, a Dad of another little girl was asking around to see if there was anyone who needed hardwood floors refinished, so she said yeah I do...why? (She had the same builder as we did and her floors were in similar condition). So the next day the guy came to her house and looked at her floors and told her he could refinish them for FREE! So after she found out that he and his friend seemed legit, she sent them over to my house and they said they'd do mine for FREE too! I was a little skeptical at first until they explained to me what they do and why we were getting it for free. They train people from all over the country that are starting their own franchise of their hardwood floor/cabinet products. So they fly people in and need floors that are in need of refinishing to train people on and in turn they do them for FREE! I was so excited to tell Lars. Of course he was twice as skeptical as me, but really what did we have to lose? If they didn't turn out, then we could just turn around and hire the other guy that we'd planned on in the first place. He hesitantly agreed and we got them done 3 weeks ago. I packed up the kids and took them to my Mom's (my 2nd trip out of the 4 times I would end up going in the past 3 weeks!) We only needed to be out of the house for about 48 hours, so Lars stayed here and worked, but just ate his meals at our nice neighbor's house. It worked out great and guess what? They look awesome! About 100 times better than they looked before.

Thanks again Tallie! Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

Nothing like getting something for FREE! The guys were asking me if I knew anyone else that had any that needed to be done...so email me if you're interested and I'll get you their info :)