Well, I am going to have to update a lot of the "old-timers" here as to why I have not been on in SO long, and probably introduce myself to the newer members sometime soon...but in the meantime, I could use some suggestions!

My husband Mark and I moved from our TINY condo into a large house earlier this year and are happy to have the space to give the fids their own room! Currently, they are living in the downstairs bedroom. It is an ample size room, but it only has two windows and the plan is to give the birds the "best room in the house!" The house currently has a beautiful sunroom, which has a brand new gas heater (Rinnai) and its own air conditioner. It is a BIG room - 10'x20'. At the moment, we are using it as our family room, but we really do not need all the room for a sofa and a TV! The long range plan is to build an identical room OFF the sunroom on the current deck, because the deck is HUGE and with the humid New England summers, we will never use it all! So at some point, the current sunroom will be our family room and right off it will be another sunroom that we will make the bird room. But that is going to cost some BIG money, and until we sell the condo we moved from, we don't have that to spare! So, while the birds are currently in the downstairs bedroom and we are in the sunroom, I want to "flip" that so they can have more room with HUGE windows overlooking the oak tree-filled back yard.

In the current set-up, we put down heavy tarp in the bedroom/bird room to cover the beautifully redone hardwood floors to protect them from bird poop and food "flingage!" It totally doesn't work, as it is constantly coming up and impossible to sweep up or mop. As soon as we find someone to put in the new energy-efficient Pella windows in the sunroom, we will move the birds there. However, we pulled up the carpet in that room, and discovered it too has beautiful hardwood floors. Because it will eventually be the family room again, we don't want to do something PERMANENT to the floors, but need to do something to protect them while it is the birdroom. I need something that is easy to sweep and mop, but won't harm the floors and can be easily be removed to reveal the hardwood again when we do build the NEW birdroom. Mark and I will head to Home Depot to talk to them about ideas, but I am sure all of you might have some good suggestions, too, and I would LOVE to hear them!

I am attaching a few photos of the sunroom (which we want to be the temporary birdie room) that were taken before we moved in (these were realtor photos), and the deck (showing where the NEW birdie room will eventually be).

Looking forward to suggestions!

Michelle

Are you looking for something like this?

http://www.eventdeck.com/eventdeck.html

Bird poop comes up pretty easily off our hardwood floor without doing any damage, but instead of covering the entire floor, couldn't you get cheapo plastic shower curtains for under the cages and playstand? That's where the serious mess occurs. The occasional flying poop won't hurt the floor and you can just mop it up. The trick with birds and hardwood is to mop it just about every day. I don't, of course, I'm a crummy housekeeper , but the oftener I mop, the easier it is to get off.

Or maybe a couple of large painting tarps that you could just lay down to cover the floor and catch the poo temporarily?

Quincy's cage is on hardwood and I just clean it up, I don't put anything down at all and so far no problems. I did at one time try having plastic floor runner under the cage but I found those more of a pain to clean than just cleaning the floors.

Beautiful house Michelle! Congratulations!!

Welcome back Michelle! Missed you! The last house we lived in had hardwood floors.....I had put down plastic, but like everyone said, it was harder to clean under and around......I took up the plastic and just put paper down while they were eating on the outside of their cages. When they were in their cage, I took up the paper and threw it away (have a dog so the birds were only allowed out at certain times)
The house we live in now has linoleum, I bought indoor outdoor carpet and it works wonderful. I do still use the paper, but when I put the birds to bed in their night cages, I gather up the paper and use my little hand vac and clean the carpet.

Thanks all! We had hardwood in our condo, and because we knew we would be having it refinished when we moved, I just let them poop on it and didn't worry too much about what it did to the floor. Trust me when I say I am a B-A-D housekeeper, so no way would I be cleaning under all these cages every day! Mark is right in wanting to keep the floor nice, so I think I should put something down. It's so hard to keep the tarp straight to sweep it - the set-up we have in the current bedroom/bird room is really no good.

The event floor is interesting! I wonder how much it costs...I will be calling them on Monday. Thanks everyone for the ideas!

i use plastic table cloths under my cages, it protecs the wood GREAT and i can sweep it and run a mop (carfully) over it

i am a horrible houskeeper as well!

Walmart sells "puzzle mats" for stupidly cheap that are meant to be used in exercise rooms. They have a little bit of give and they're easy to manipulate... you can just wipe them off or take them outside and hose'em down. =) They're kind of foamy so, like anything else you'd be putting down, you might have to keep an eye on chewers.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3357068

Michelle I have no ideas to offer with what you are looking for; sorry--but I'd like to say I'm so glad to see you back on and wow, what a beautiful house you have, and that deck---I could sit out there all day listening to the birds, etc....You have something in your kitchen that I've always wanted and never got; that is white cabinets....
I'm sure you are enjoying your new place and will enjoy it more once you get it like you invision....

By the way, give Mark a big hug from us....you two have been a great inspiration to us all so many many months ago; and I think you know where I'm heading with this....

Now---on the ideas for flooring, being this is the weekend, there aren't many members on, as you know happens, so give it a few days and see if more ideas will come in for you....

Another thing---it is time for some pictures of the fids, especially that Diego....I've always remembered him being a little fiesty one.. I was going to pm you and ask you for pics, but decided I'll do it now....and if you will Michelle, pm me your e-mail address...I can't seem to come up with the one I had...thanks and hugs to you and Mark....

Beautiful home...Congratulations ....Maybe a section of linoleum not sure if you call it the same we get t from our hardware (Bunnings)..
My boys poop on the office floor (polished boards) it mops up leaving no marks...
But a sheet of lino would be good to sit the cages on needn`t be over the whole floor...
Welcome Back..

i just use plastic not sure what it is called but i got it at a hardware i just clean the plastic here is a picture

what about those plastic matts for under rolling office chairs? They have some w/ out the lil nobbies on them. THey are easy to mop and wont wrinkle on you. Love the house Congrats!

We just put newspaper around Casey's cage and then throw it out every day or two.. sometimes it's a pain as it moves around etc. but it keeps the hardwood clean and it's so easy to clean up that way, no scrubbing required!

Congrats on the house, it's beautiful!