Before and After Birks



Photo credit: Adventures Along the Way

It's winter and I've been thinking about ways to avoid the Season of Splinters in our little apartment. As you can see from the photo, the wood floor is rather worn. We kinda like the rustic look, but we do not like the huge splinters (over an inch long sometimes!) that we get during the dry winter season, which, to be honest, is closer to about half the year here in Québec.

This past weekend, I was reorganizing my shoes and looking for ones that need repairs. I ran across these shoes I got for cheap at the Birkenstock factory in Germany over 10 years ago. Clearly they have seen better days, and they could use some leather conditioning and re-gluing of the inside liner thing. The strap on the shoe on the right of the photo had broken a year or two ago, and I had tied it in a knot to hold it together.

But sitting there on my bedroom floor surrounded by shoes (and soon-to-be splinter territory), an idea struck. Voilà! New and improved indoor shoes! (Though they are not quiet enough to wear at night since we have downstairs neighbors, so it's probably not the final splinter solution. But for now, I am happy to have a no-splinters-in-the-daytime solution.)

Photo credit: Adventures Along the Way