Realizing it's been several week since I posted. As I sit here the smell of urethane drifts down the hall, not sure if it is giving me a buzz or I am just over tired. Years ago I gave up before and after shot of home renovations because we were usually so fried afterwards that we didn't want to be reminded.

This past weekend we pulled the carpet and padding that has covered the stairs to the second floor to prep the oak treads for refinishing. With the kids grown and less need for padded stairs, it was time and at the same time we would have an old foyer parquet floor refinished to see if it has any life.

The challenge to a project like this is that this is our only access to the second floor and the wood floor to be refinished also includes the only bathroom on the first floor. So it was either going to be dry enough at the end of the day to traverse or a ladder was going to be the egress through the back window. And of course with all the planning, the forecast for every day this week is rain. We are at the end of day 2 and it dried enough last night to scoot across and the same tonight. Tomorrow is the last coat so that by weekend we will be ready to put doors back on, replant the toilet and pain the back part of the stairs and trim. The contrast is so amazing that now I wish I had a before shot.

The current rush is to get this done for prom and graduation festivities next week Then the week after that one of the upstairs bathrooms gets attacked and brought up from the 1970s to current. Definitely more disruption but it will be good when it is done.

Having both kids around for the summer changes dynamics and I am going to miss it in the fall. We are already grieving the transition of last kid leaving high school and so many "last" events. I expect  summer to sprint by and before we know it we'll have an empty house in the fall, but I can't dwell on that or I start to tear up.

I am doing shuttle in the early morning to get the eldest to work by 6:30 then I find I can hit the gym and get 40 minutes on the treadmill and shower and change and get into work much the normal time. So while I am a little more tired, I am getting more fit. Last weekend I did my first 11.5 mile run. An experiences of starting to run down one direction feeling a little lethargic for a few miles and then come to the beginning of a 10k race route that I've run several times and headed through those hills and back roads til the end and then being several miles from home. It was more than I though I could do before but now am determined to tackle a half marathon (13.2 miles) in the near future. I've been mulling one over for next weekend but as I slipped on some high arch sandals last night and felt a stabbing pain, I'm thinking I really need to take a few days off and train at that mileage for some more weeks.  I now know I can easily finish a half marathon but I need to make sure I do it am injury free.