The Kitchen and Dining Room Floors

 One thing I liked about this house was the flooring in the kitchen and dining room. Now you need to know that what I call the back door, the one that comes off the deck into the house, opens into the BIG room that is our dining room and kitchen.   The front door is the off the front porch, the one that runs across the front of the house, and opens into the living room.We never use the front door because there is no sidewalk from the drive to it, one would need to tromp through grass to get to it, there is no step up to the porch from the grass, and there really is no reason to come into the house from that porch area.

Consequently the floor in the kitchen and dining room becomes very dirty.  There is a rug in front of the door.  There are smaller rugs by the door for shoes and boots.  Owen immediately sits when he enters the house and removes whatever is on his feet.  But often people just walk into those rooms with either bags of groceries or to grab a drink out of the fridge or to just chat for a bit and don't remove their shoes first.  So the floor is dirty.

I use the Swiffer mop/ wet jet on the floor frequently.  I admit I could mop it more often than I do, but time gets in the way---or kids---or activities.  There needs to be a window of time for moving the furniture, shaking the rugs, dry mopping the floor to get up the little gritty things, then mopping with the wet-jet and letting it dry.  I try for once a week, but it doesn't always happen.

The first fall we lived in the house, I decided to buy some floor cleaner for multi surfaces. What we have is a laminate of sorts that looks like hardwood but isn't.  It is cracked and will probably need to be replaced in a few years.  I mopped the floor with the floor cleaner and let it dry.  Then I polished it with the 'shine' substance made by the same company as the floor cleaner.  I was pleased with the results.  The floor looked good and it smelled and looked clean. 

The plan was to follow that routine at least every other month.  Well, that didn't happen.  In the fall 2019 I mopped the floor again with the floor cleaner, then applied the polish.  It looked great and the plans were to repeat the process in early November.

That didn't happen.  COVID did.  Instead of my sprucing up the house prior to the Siemens Family Thanksgiving, Gary and I were both recovering from the virus and NOTHING was happening from my to-do list.  Even Thanksgiving had to be cancelled!

The other day I noticed that the floor was really dirty.  When I dry mop it, the pad is covered with dirt and I always mention how dirty the floor is.  But recently, just the way the light was hitting the floor empahsized the dirty shoe/boot marks that were still evident on the flooring.  It was just dirty.

This morning Gary and I moved everything that we could from the dining room/kitchen to the living room or to the bathroom.  I dry mopped the floor and we swept up several piles of dust and dirt.  Then I filled the bucket with water, grabbed the wet squeegy mop, and I went to work. Squirting the cleaner and mopping it onto the floor, cleaning the surface, and rinsing the mop is not a huge chore.  It actually is rather easy.  The only thing is that  the flooring has been in place for a while, and the shininess of the surface is diminishing.  Some areas just look dull.  

After the floor dries, I am debating about mopping it for a second time.  The water that I dumped down the bathtub drain was SO dirty that I am thinking about another bath for the floor.  Since this process doesn't happen very often, I need to be sure it is as clean as it can be while I am doing it, right?  So that may be the next step.

At the end, however, the polish will be applied and it will be given time to dry.  Once again, the porous nature of the flooring plus the amount of wear that has happened over the years could be a deciding factor on my osme areas have spots where no polish will 'stick' to it.

When dinner time rolls around, the floor should be nice and shiny, the chairs polished and returned to their spots around the dining room table, the other furniture re-set in their places, and the kitchen counters polished to perfection.  All will be ready for the next big family gathering on Dec. 23, followed by the BIG Siemens Family Christmas on Dec. 24. 

But I will also be thinking about when we will start looking for new flooring for the kitchen/dining room.  One of these days it will happen....