Necessity is the mother of invention

When we first moved into our house last year, we really enjoyed the tiled floor in the kitchen. Over time, however, we have found it hard to keep clean, and the homemade job has shown its weaknesses at last, with a few tiles cracking, and others breaking loose from the blue grout altogether. So, it's time for a new floor! We got a great deal on a material that's a descendent of linoleum. It looks very classy, something like slate, and has a slight texture. We're still trying to decide whether it is more worth it to save money (tear out the floor ourselves) or save our backs from injury (and let the workers handle it all). This one change is inspiring a host of other customizations in the kitchen and laundry room, too--we'll spice things up with a new color of paint on the walls, get a better valance for the window, and spruce up the shelving system over the washer and dryer. Now if we can just manage to keep the pets from walking through the work area too much, we should be in good shape.