I loved that hammock like I love my unborn children.  It was such a friend to us all in the summer months.  Last summer, we attempted to fix the poor hammock after a couple of ropes snapped but alas, it wasn’t enough.  The hammock was just too far gone to resuscitate and it was time to say goodbye.

Because I can’t seem to go a day without hammocking in the hot sun, I tried to find a replacement (I know…the body wasn’t even cold yet).  The original hammock came from LL Bean and I loved it so much I had every intention of purchasing the same exact one again.  But sadly, there was an 8 week backorder.  Wop, wop, wop.  But my dear brother came to the rescue and sent down his hammock with my mom when she came to visit.  He wasn’t using it and let me “borrow” it for the rest of the summer.  I may need to “borrow” it for a more long term situation.

It’s not a permanent fix by any means but at least I now have a hammock home to appease me through the remainder of the summer.  Although, maybe I shouldn’t have replaced it since without it I got more wedding projects done.

Pssst…So what was everyone up to this weekend?  Did anyone else soak up the rays or veg in their hammock?

Is doing this:

Those are dog scratches large sections of poly peeling up.  See:

Floor poly film in hand.  Oh and did anyone else pick up that I called Mayday on May Day?!  What a coincidence?!  She said sarcastically as she knew that she had this post planned for well over a week.  Doh!  But back to the floor.  Honestly, we kind of feared this.  But not until Colby uttered “hopefully it doesn’t peel up” as I was laying down the LAST coat of poly on the LAST section of the hall floor which had given me so much trouble (read about it here and here).  Apparently there was a reason the water based floor poly wasn’t truly adhering to my make-it-work, slightly tacky, let’s stain maple even though you shouldn’t experiment.  Epic fail!  I have a theory that if we had used an oil based poly on top of the freshly stained floor that it would have worked better.

The water based stain did work on other floors in our home but the stain on those floors was applied much more traditionally (ie…thin coat applied, stain soaked in, rubbed excess off…when we stained the hall floor it didn’t soak in…at all…so we just left it there).  However, those floors are getting exceptionally scratched thanks to our over-exuberant pup.  The parlor floor is exceptionally scratched after just a few months:

And so is the dining room floor:

I expected some scratches but not to this extent.  Considering these floors are temporary floors to us (we’re planning on installing wide pine flooring throughout the whole house within the next couple of years), I’ve been using these floors kind of like a warmup for the big show!  Or as practice floors so we know exactly what to do when we lay down the flooring for real.  It gives me an opportunity to try products out and see what I like and what I don’t like.  The poly we’ve been using is the Varathane Water Based Floor Poly in a semi-gloss:

It had gotten pretty good reviews except for one really bad one.  It’s been a good poly for us, I just question it’s durability and I’m thinking of trying a different one, especially since I’ve used up pretty much all of the gallon size Varathane floor poly I had bought.  Here is what I’m considering trying out on the hall floor:

It’s the Minwax oil-based semi-gloss polyurethane.  It only has one review so far (via the Lowes website) but at least it’s a good one.  Have any of you tried it?  Or have another floor poly that you just love?  I’m curious what you all think.

So of course I have grand plans to refinish the hallway floor…again…this weekend.  I’m thinking sand it back down (fingers crossed that goes okay…I’m a little worried the stain hasn’t completely soaked in) until I can smooth out the scratches and peeling poly areas.  Then I’ll start applying coats of the Minwax.

It’s a pain to re-do the floor again but I can chalk it up to live and learn.  At least I now have a weekend project.  I ALMOST went to Lowes this evening to look at paint chips so I could paint the craft room.  Mostly because Katie Bower of Bower Power repainted her office/craft space and redid the whole room and it looks so amazing.  Go check it out here.  It’s about as amazeballs as you can get!  That wall color is perfect!

Pssst…Why is it that when you set out to do one little project that you think will only take you a short time it almost always turns into something way more complicated?  And when you think something will take forever it’s usually quick and painless?  It’s like the how many licks until you get to the center of the tootsie-pop commercial…some things the world may never know!