I am so excited that I can hardly stand it! We are getting new carpet for our home.
When we moved into this house, we had 1970's shag carpet in each room: white in the living room, green in the den, blue in one bedroom, and red/orange in another. We replaced it all with a sculptured carpet in a dark tan throughout the house. My thought at the time was, "this will wear like iron and is the color of dirt.....perfect." ( You can see it fairly well in the photo below)
That was the Spring of 1983. After almost 32 years, I think I am ready for new carpet!!!!! Karli has known for many years how badly I wanted new carpeting, so she mentioned to a friend that she should call me (that friend just happens to work at a Flooring Store). Well, that was all it took...
I went to the Flooring Store prepared. I am no expert, but I do want to share some tips to help anyone who is considering a major purchase like carpeting. Here is what I did:
1. Take your own samples to the store with you. I carry a ziplock baggy filled with paint samples from different rooms in my house. I also include any fabrics I have for pillows, bedding, etc. If you don't have a piece of the fabric from your sofa, match it as closely as you can to a paint color. I know this sounds crazy, but I even wore a vest that was similar to the taupe/gray color I was looking for.
2. Do some research before you go. Check out info online or in magazines. Have some ideas as to what you are looking for. There are thousands of carpets out there. You can easily be overwhelmed if you look at everything. Don't waste your time looking at gray shag if that is not what you want. I already knew that I wanted a textured look, not plush, so I did not confuse myself by looking at every carpet sample in the store.
3. Ask questions. You are probably not going to be an expert on carpet. That is what your salesperson is for. Don't be afraid to ask about the fabric content, the warranty, the pricing, the pad, the tear-out and removal, the furniture moving, etc. The more you know, the better decision you can make. I might also mention that having faith in your salesperson is beneficial. You may not want to buy a carpet just because it is on sale that week and they have 30,000 square feet! (Or you might!)
4. Take home some samples. Narrow it down to several and ask to take them home for a day or two. You need to see that carpet in each of your rooms (if using it throughout your home) and look at it in different light (daylight and evening with lamps on). Lay it on the floor next to your furniture or under the edge of the bed. Stand back and study your choices. Then start scrapping those you absolutely don't like!
5. Take your samples back and don't be afraid to get more and try again. Maybe, like me, you didn't exactly like anything you brought home the first time. I only get to make these choices every 30 years or so. I wanted to be sure that I would love my selection.
In my second round of bringing home samples, I found a carpet I love. Now comes the challenging part...getting ready to put carpet throughout my home, that same house that I have lived in for the last almost 32 years.
I will continue to post our progress as we clean out stuff, move stuff, toss stuff, burn stuff, and give stuff to Karli as we get ready to tear out the old and bring in the new.
Sorry it has been so very long since I've had anything interesting to share. Sometimes life just gets in the way. I have been working on projects for people, but not really anything that I felt was worthy of a post......enough about that.
Today while in the midst of other work, I decided to tackle one fun thing. Last year Karli mentioned that she would love to have her Christmas Village painted white........Then she would perhaps want to display it at her home for the Holidays. That meant she was interested in taking all those boxes that Mom had stored all these years. Say what..........She'd had these since she was just a little girl. People started getting them for her as gifts. She does have a few pieces that are Dept. 56, but many of them were purchased for her at the Grocery Store or Drug Store. Some are not of the highest quality. That is why I am willing to paint them.....and also the fact that they are hers, even though I've been storing them for the last 25 years. She can do with them what she wishes. So......white they will be. I found this picture of how she set them all up one year. She spent hours working with the snow to hide the cords and also to get the trees just right. And then, there were all those little village people who had to "stand up" in that snow. Oh, the memories.
This was the last year she set them all up. She put them on the shelves above the buffet in the dining room here at home. I had made the "sky" on the top shelf out of painted plywood. If you look closely you'll see Santa riding across the moon.
But.....that was a long time ago. She is over that now. The Christmas Village needed a fresh new look so here is the one house that I started with.
The colors were a little bright and "perhaps gawdy" so I decided if it turned out terrible it would only be a small loss. This particular ceramic house was also extremely shiny, maybe even more than a little bit cheap looking. It did not even have a brand name on the bottom.
I used the Krylon Dual Spray Paint in Flat White. It has the built in primer so I didn't sand the house or anything. Just sprayed on three light coats. (Easy Peasy!)
Here are the befores:
Here are the afters:
I think Karli is going to love these. They have a fresh new look and will be beautiful at her home this Christmas season. I think she had a great idea for making these into something that she will love again. I'm betting they will give her almost as much enjoyment now as they did when she was only 8. And, if I hadn't painted them, they would still be stored in boxes at my house.
Look for a post later when she displays this "White Christmas Village" at her house.
I haven't washed our windows in more than a month. There are doggie nose prints on the sliding glass door and our front picture window...
Nose prints left by our sweet Porter, waiting to be let outside or excited to see someone coming home. And now the house is too quiet. We said goodbye to Porter on September 6th.
It all started with a cough, from a dog who had never coughed. We took him to the ER vet on the Sunday before Labor Day. He had a fever and was coughing so we went home with antibiotics. The cough went away...the fever never did. Then the shivering, whining and pacing started...his sweet eyes filled with confusion and pain. Back to the vet mid week where they determined he was in pain caused somewhere in his back. He spent a few hours with the ER vet on Wednesday night but they called us at 3:00 am to tell us that he was crying and howling and very confused. We went to pick him up and I immediately noticed something different. My beloved dog no longer really knew who we were. It felt like he was looking right through us.
Thursday we got Porter into the car and drove to our regular vet. When we got there, he wouldn't stand up. The wonderful doctors there ran through all the symptoms again, so patient with us as we described a rapid progression of weird things. We went home with new pain meds.
And Porter continued to howl and pace and look right through us. This continued on for days and days through numerous different drugs, trying to get his pain under control to no avail. Finally, I called our vet on his cell on Saturday afternoon and he said the words I feared, "At this point we need to see a neurologist and we're looking for something really big and bad and scary. No one will fault you for ending his pain at this point."
An amazingly kind lady came to our home on Saturday night and let Porter finally get some sleep and peace. He left this world in the comfort of his own bed in our family room. He was only 7 and we'd only been blessed to be his people for 3 1/2 years. It wasn't long enough and he was too young.
We'll never really know what happened, but the most likely thing is that he had a brain tumor.
I miss his kisses. I miss hearing his four happy feet on the floor coming to greet me when I get home. I miss having a soft, warm loving, living being to hug and pet and cuddle with.
This afternoon we spread his ashes in the backyard...his domain! He is no longer in pain and we'll see him again someday.
