I'm so sorry I didn't keep you updated on the floor. I know you were ALL waiting in suspense!  For those of you who were on pins and needles, here we go:

In the dining room, after the carpet was pulled up, James had to really work to get the carpet adhesive off the tile that was under the carpet. (That took several attempts/products and part of the delay.) Then he had to patch up some spots and then put a leveling agent down–the grey looking stuff. (You can click on any picture to see it bigger, of course). 

Then he had to sand it down because the agent started drying faster then the guy at the store told him it would.  And so it started going down a bit, um, unlevel (for lack of a better word).  Finally, it was time to put down the new floor…we went with peel & stick tiles. We're trying to balance fixing up the house, but not putting in more than the house is worth. Ceramic tiles are out of our price range, and a bit silly for a house that most likely will get torn down if/when we sell the land.  

So, the tile is the one I liked best in our price range. I put in a picture of the process on the right, and then the finished product with the white table and chairs on the left, because I think it looks better next to the white than the brown cabinets. Since we're planning on painting the brown cabinets white, I know it'll look better.

Last night, while the boys and I were up north, James did the hardest part (I think ). He moved the fridge and the cabinets he put in last year and put the flooring down. He had just moved them all back when we got home! Those cabinets had just been placed on the floor, so they had to be moved (and cleaned behind, I haven't done that in a year!) 

I took some pictures tonight–they don't quite do it justice because of the lighting. But, on the left is a picture of the floor with the white cabinets. The right is a picture of the new floor with the old floor, just so you can see the difference. I'm not too sad to see the flowers go–I prefer real flowers to pink ones on my floor. But it could have been MUCH worse, I didn't mind that floor as much as I first thought I would. It worked well (and hid dirt well) for us for the last two years!