Here are photos of the painted floor in my son's bedroom.
We added a garage sale coffee table for building Legos and a $20 rug to catch the sprawl. (Here's how we store the toys.)
July/August is a good time to look for inexpensive rugs. Walmart, Target, etc. roll out bound carpets for college kids.
Case study: to what degree will Lego bricks abrade a painted floor?
Ask me next year.
We needed a quick--and cheap--replacement for the dirty bedroom carpets.
After we removed the staples and tack strips, the plywood subfloor had too many bad spots to leave as-is.
I compared laminates and prefinished wood floors, but nothing matched our existing hardwoods.
(By the way, I found the best hard flooring prices at Southeastern Salvage.)
I simply painted the floors with porch paint. I love the shine.
I bought white high-gloss by Sherwin Williams, which coated better than the big box brands I've used in other houses. One gallon cost $40 and covered two bedrooms.
Rolling on another coat is no harder than mopping a floor.
In my heart, I know a green-and-white checkered pattern would have looked incredible.
In my head, I realized none of the beds would fit through the door frames.
I had to move furniture to one side, paint 2 coats, and then repeat for the other side.
The process, though cheap, is not without drawbacks.
We all lost sleep as the kids adjusted to sleeping bags. We had to wait a few days for the paint to cure. We've already had one gouge from a leg without felt pads.
But I'm a rescuer of old and pretty things. A little wear doesn't bother me.
For all the light we gained, an imperfect floor seems like a small price to pay.
The hardest part about painting is making yourself start.
I still had gallons of recycled paint from my living room project. The equipment was out for the bedroom floors.
Thanks to the pantry organization, all those cans and bottles on the counter had a place to be put away.
I picked up a brush and started painting. By morning, my kitchen glowed!
(Here's a shot of the kitchen room with its original beige wall color.)
Above, Elise makes the most of the dahlias that flopped. You can always click the Food For Thought tab above for my fresh-picked links.
How to stockpile @ Momadvice & Pantry stocking strategies @ Coffee Tea Books & Me.
July kicks off No Spend Month @ Small Notebook.
If you're tired of couponing, Money Saving Mom says it's okay to take a vacation.
Y'all will be proud of me. Ever since the pantry problem, I've been crossing off projects left and right. Check back Monday for photos! 
bamboo piled by the side of the road, just when my plants needed staking
According to Molly Dannenmaier's A Child's Garden
Our bare strip of back yard lacks any place to hide, splash, dig or explore. But what if I already used up my budget with the vegetable beds?
This week we're working on a simple fort structure--not much more than a platform raised a few feet off the ground.
Andrew spotted these logs in someone's yard, asked permission to take a few, and quickly sketched a plan.
