Day One (midafternoon)

The floor guys showed up around 830.  I had just enough time to get Beanie off to school and run the dog to the kennel.  When I came back, they had prepped the house and had sanded a good portion of the kitchen.  I got to decide the color.

First he used a straight cherry stain.  And as I expected it was too dark.  I asked if he could bring it lighter by about half so he thinned the stain and tried again and it was PERFECT.  He's lucky I'm easy (go ahead...you can say it...just not cheap).

I had no desire to be there to listen to the sanders or the giant vacuum that was used to grab most of the dust, so I headed to the mall to attempt to get some Christmas shopping done.  But before I left:

with the vacuum running (boy does it suck):

When I got home they had water popped the maple and were waiting for it to dry to apply the stain.  Before long, the dining room looked like this:

I know it probably doesn't look much different but it is.  There is a slight red hint to it that will look gorgeous with my cherry table.  It will also look a little darker when they get the poly on it.

And, just so you know, I warned my girls earlier today:  I will be writing about our little adventure, so anything they say and do will be held against them in a court of blog.  I suspect that might lend a hand in keeping the bickering down to a minimum.  We'll see.