clean as a whistle and shiny as a new penny!

Remember, way back when (as in April 2010), I got new carpeting? My house looked like THIS! All of the furniture and stuff that was on the carpeted portions of the house got moved onto the marble tile portions of the house. And the new carpet was installed.

Then do you remember when about a month ago, in a super-long post, I told you all about “a day in the life” of the cooking school and I said,

“The only solution is to have my marble floors stripped and polished, once classes are over at the end of the month. Now those are before-and-after photos I promise to show you!”

… remember? Well, the time has come.

Upon our return from a relaxing and rejuvenating two-week vacation at our BFF’s log cabin (which is really more like a log mansion) in Wisconsin, I moved all of the furniture and stuff that was on the marble tile portions of the house onto the carpeted portions of the house, and the next day the floor guys came and did their magic.

Anyway, It’s been days since that occurred and the house is still not put back together. As they say … it takes a village! But since I don’t have a village … it’s gonna take a week – at least! Below are, as promised, the before pictures of my nasty abused tiles … along with the after photos and of my beautiful renewed marble floors! Nearly as joyous as new carpet!

First, there is the day before prep which consisted of the moving of all the furniture and belongings from tile to carpet. Most of it went into the front living room.

The rest… into the master bedroom sitting room.

Next, the 55 linear feet of black kick-boards under all the kitchen cabinets had to be removed.

Which doesn’t look so bad from this angle and distance… but up close… it’s another story!

I know, it’s disgusting. But you know how it is when, for example, you move your washer or dryer when the repair guy comes and you are seriously embarrassed by the dirt and crud under there… it’s just gross but who moves their washer and dryer when they mop their floors? The same goes for these kick-boards. Ignorance is bliss indeed!

To relieve the pain and burning in your eyes from the previous photo, here is the after picture… look at that shiny tile and clean grout!

Under the island and double ovens – before… and after.

Before…

After.

High traffic area between sink and island… before and after… look at that shine! Believe it or not, the same overhead lights were on in not only these two photos but all of the photos here. What a difference!

This is the main traffic flow area in the breakfast room that leads into the kitchen. Before. After!

More tile in the same area.

While we are looking at the breakfast room. Some of the tiles there may have just looked dirty. But they were actually scratched and pitted from the chairs scraping into them day after day. Although I scrubbed, on my hands and knees, they would not come clean. Here is the before of those pitted nasty tiles. And the after. This is what I’m talking about! Happy Day!

Four men arrived at 8:00 AM and began prepping the rooms. Here is the before, with the prep in part of the breakfast room…

What a difference in the shine of those floors in this after photo.

This is at about noon when the guys took a lunch break and I was able to sneak a peek at the progress. The family room is done. The entryway is on the far left of this photo …

… and this is what it looked like. Still a work in progress.

In this photo, you can see the cleaning solution on the tile…. so this is during…

And this is the final “after” picture. The guys finished and left at about 5:00 PM and I am one happy girl! Happy that I have clean and pretty floors, although not so happy with all the work ahead of me as my village of “me, myself, and I, put it all back together.