I'm replacing a floor... soon... really...

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:42 pm

The scent of jasmine tea wafts up to me as I take a moment to sit in my disheveled dining room. After years of battling with my carpet, I am finally getting ready to replace it with wood-laminate flooring and the prep work is almost overwhelming!
10 years ago, right after a stroke nearly ended me and while still in the grip of not being able to think well, I somehow convinced my haggard husband that we needed to replace our worn-out brown carpet with an airy cream-color berber. Have I mentioned that I live in the country and am a tad obsessed about gardening? And need I mention that within a very short time said carpet was no longer creamy white but grey! My wonderfully rich soil, what there is of it between the rocks, is very black. Add to that one Very Bad Dog (now gone) who disrespected the carpet with impunity ( no amount of sanitizing carpet steaming could undo the damage) and well, I'm jolly tired of scrubbing this thankless floor!
So I've cleared the book cases; the complete James Whitcomb Riley, several Kiplings, and my grandmother's collection of school books from the turn of the last century are resting in a closet with scores of gardening, painting, and other just-plain-good-reading books. It's amazing the number of fiddly little things I own, considering I'm not into buying fiddly little things. But, my wonderfully practical grandmother never threw anything away, inherited things from her mother, and often had tea parties, so away I pack the little figurines of kittens, flowery Victorian china cups (with the odd chip here and there because Grandma actually *gasp* Used them) and the cameras from my great-uncle's foray into photography.
I suppose my "dining room" more closely resembles a "library" of sorts, with two book cases, a woodstove, and a corner just for reading- that suits me fine. Wood-laminate floors go rather well in a library. It is rather tedious to pack up, though, and taking quite a long time. But since it's raining out, guess I can't complain too much. Back to work then...

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toni wrote on Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:58 pm:

I love room re-do projects but really hate the prep work too.

Just keep the image of the beautiful new floor in your mind and don't forget to take pictures of before and after for us.

eileen wrote on Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:32 pm:

When I changed to laminate flooring in the living room, dining room and kitchen it was a Godsend!! I'm amazed at just how quickly I can clean right through nowadays and I certainly would never have a carpet back again. Do keep us posted with piccies of the work won't you?

Droopy wrote on Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:42 pm:

Sounds like the right decision to me! I've never lived long in a house with a carpet floor before the carpet went out of the window and wood or laminate came in through the front door. I prefer loose carpets that can be washed, snow brushed or dry cleaned. Good luck, I nearly said I hope the rain will last for a bit but I didn't mean that, really.