Wood Floor Questions Answered

Some of the most often asked questions I receive are about our wood floors.

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I’ll be a good blogger and answer some of those questions today.

What is the type of wood floors do you have?  They are BR111's Brazillian Cherry (Solid Wood).

Do you like your floors?  We love them!  We love how the color has changed over time. They started light and have darkened over time.  We would definitely install them again.  Brazilian Cherry is a hard wood and it has held up great for the almost 4 years that we have lived in the house.

I like the look of wood floors but I’m afraid my dog would scratch them to pieces.  How have they held up against Ike?  Ike is a little dog (24 lbs) but he’s also crazy.  He tears across them when we get home at night or whenever we have company.  We are starting to notice a little wear at the bottom of the stairs and around some corners.  The wear is all the dog.  The scratches aren’t extremely visible though.  I only notice them when I am cleaning them.

Your wood floors always look so clean.  How do you clean them?  First, they aren’t always clean.  I’m just slowly learning to not put disgusting pictures on the blog.  The gross ones always end up on Pinterest.  We generally have a clean house but I can only clean these floors so many times in a week.  My time is better spent…blogging.  The summer is the worst.  Sweaty man feet and dog drool could keep me busy for days.  I try to relax a little more during the summer.  We are outside more.  We use the deck more.  My husband sweats more.  The dog drools more.  Life happens.  It just means I bust out the mop and Bruce’s floor cleaner a little more often. (We purchase the floor cleaner at Lowe’s.)

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Look directly right of this photo….running dog prints.  Pinning the following photo will result in bad karma.

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Any other wood floor related questions?  Are you a wood floor fan or do you prefer fluffy carpet or tile?  Anyone else struggle to keep the house clean with a sweaty life partner and drooling furry friend?

Meal Planning

Meal Planning.  What an evil set of words.  I keep talking about it but never quite get around to it.  Nate and I aren’t really “think ahead” type people so this one is a struggle.  Neither of us minds cooking but it’s the dreaded “What should we eat tonight?” that makes eating in less fun.

Meal planning will no longer be a struggle. I am going to make this work.  All of you in blogland are going to keep me accountable.  Okay? Okay.

Each week I am going to post my meal plan for the week.  (Except for next week because I’ll be sunning myself slathering myself in sunscreen in Arizona.)  We eat the majority of our meals in. (I’d say we don’t eat out a lot (once or twice a week) but that is all relative.) Hopefully some of you can get some extra meal time inspiration out of the deal too.

I will be pinning (such a fun verb) my favorites to a board on Pinterest (located here!).  This board will only contain recipes that we have tried and are Décor and the Dog approved.

Sunday Breakfast:
Pioneer Woman’s Baked French Toast


Sunday Supper:
Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce and OMG Bread via Iowa Girl Eats


Monday:
Mexican Chicken

Source: genaw.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Tuesday:
It’s kickball night so we’ll either have leftovers or pancakes.


Wednesday:
Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets and Baked Potatoes


Thursday: 
Girl’s night/Nate fends for himself.  Dude.  It’s week one.  Did you really expect a FULL week’s worth of meal planning?

Are you a meal planner?  Any tips?  Feel free to e-mail me your favorite weeknight recipes (decorandthedog (at) gmail)!

Diggin’ It

Today I am going to start a new series. Because I am awesome at keeping up with a series (i.e. Blogging Basics and DSLR for Dummies).  Third times a charm, right?

Every Friday Nate, Ike, and I are going to share with you some of our favorite things. I’ll be sharing some of my favorite things from blogland plus girl stuff.  Nate will be sharing his favorites in photography, technology and boy stuff.  Ike will be sharing dog stuff.  (Duh.)

What’s the clever name of this series?  Diggin’ It with Dudette, Dude and the Dog. 

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(They let anyone blog these days, don’t they?  And don’t you love our senior portraits?  My husband (aka: the dude) is a saint.)

Let’s get this series started…

Dudette:

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  • Kelly (View Along the Way) is a genius.  Check out her tutorial on how to make any lamp cordless.  Genius, I tell you.
  • I’m in love with Gabbi’s (Retro Ranch Reno) bench make-over.  I’m also in love with her cat. Yes, her cat.
  • Kate Spade sucked me in with her super mega secret sale.  The Belltown Quinn was too cute to pass up.  The dude asked if I ordered it and how much it cost. My response to both was “doesn’t matter.”

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  • HDR Efex Pro 2 is a great software program that allows greater dynamic range in photos.  I’ll be using this for interior photos when it’s bright outside.  Tutorial to come.
  • Fancy is a website/app that, to quote their site, “is part store, blog, magazine and wishlist. It's a place to discover great stuff, to curate a collection of things you love, to get updates on your favorite brands and stores and to share your discoveries.”  The dudette thinks it’s a lesser version of Pinterest but it has some unique items that are entertaining.

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  • Ike is glad he isn’t the only bad dog out there.  We cuddled and laughed at all of the bad dogs over at Dog Shaming.

Did you enjoy Dudette, Dude and the Dog?  What are you loving this week?