Refinish then Paint or Paint then Refinish? That is the question.

Soon we will celebrate our two year anniversary in our house. Our floors are still not refinished, our walls still not painted. However, we are really, really hoping to be able to do all that sometime this year. I would like some opinions on the order in which others have painted the walls and refinished the floors.
Does it make more sense to paint the walls and then refinish the floors, thereby eliminating the need to wipe down the freshly painted walls and anything we may have hung on the walls?
or....
Should we have the floors refinished and then paint and hang?

Thanks for the opinions!

A Tourist In My Own Town

Today I was a tourist in Indianapolis - the city where I was born and have spent most of my life. At work we've been working on some proposed guidelines for new development. Today I had to take pictures downtown of examples of certain design aspects we would like to see when new development is brought into the city. We're attempting to make the city mesh architecturally speaking, I suppose. My job wasn't so bad, as far as assigned work tasks go. It was a beautiful day and I had the opportunity to view the city in a different light. So I thought I would share a few pics for all of those that have never been to the fine city of Indianapolis. Not exactly about home improvement but city improvement is just as important (but I'm an urban planning student so I'm a bit biased). Enjoy!

A view of the city from White River State Park.

St. John Catholic Church. This is across the street from the RCA Dome where the Colts play. Also, and obviously more importantly (haha), the church where Chad and I were married.

Another view of downtown, this time from the canal.

Union Station. A beautiful building that is only being used (to my knowledge) as a banquet facility right now.

Monument Circle. Not the best picture of the Circle, sorry.

The Canal and the Indiana State Museum. Notice the artwork on the wall. This actually is all around the outside of the building. There are examples of artwork that represent something from each county in Indiana.

Spring!

Agggghhhh, finally! The cold and dreary weather was really starting to get me down. I've lived in Indiana long enough to not even think about retiring my winter coats (that's right...coats, plural. Before signing my life over to this house and graduate school I might have had a slight fetish with all things accessories. But I digress...). However, come April I expect some warmth. And this past week it's finally here! I'm very grateful.
So is Chad because that means it's time to start playing in the yard again. A post from last year explained that we went a little tree crazy in our yard. We had the city remove a very large and potentially dangerous tree from our yard. Then we proceeded to plant about nine more trees in our yard. What can we say? We love trees. Anyway, the blue spruce we planted last year died and we just replaced it with another blue spruce. It is planted in a different spot in the yard. We're still trying to decide if we like it there or not.

A project that was started last year and then put on hold for the winter is the back yard fence. The fence you see in the picture above is actually our neighbor's. Ours will be somewhat similar. Chad put the footings in in the fall. That's some kind of vine thing sticking up out of the ground in front of the footing.

Hopefully by the end of the summer the back yard will be fenced. It will be nice to have a little privacy and not to worry about the dog when she's running around the yard expending her lab energy.

Happy Spring!