Indoor Project
We are having a mini heat wave this week and not wanting to see anyone drop from heat prostration, I proposed an indoor project. Let's rip up the stinkin' ugly carpet in my studio. Doesn't that sound like fun?I got up early, in my excitement, and began stowing away my fabric from these shelves and my work table. It all got put into Rubbermaids (from which it came, only months ago)
Here is the offending carpet. Looks pretty innocent here, but I know better. When one works with fabric, yarn and paint, one wants an easily cleaned surface and this is not it.
It was already stained when we moved in, which meant I should feel OK about dropping paint brushes or potting soil or dye on it...but I didn't.
Mostly I don't like the fact that it has to be regularly vacuumed and that's the rub. CAT HAIR and THREADS and lately FLEAS.
This floor needs to be tile like my old studio. Washable and not stinky.
And then I can dye INDOORS, all year round, and paint and wipe up the drips and quilt and sweep up the scraps and threads and knit and pick up the yarn without picking up anything else along the way.
So now I have to find that perfect tile to put over the concrete. While this was happening in the studio, Dave was vacuuming up the remaining bits of carpet debris and our vacuum died. Hurray!!! I was not a fan. It was loud and miserable to empty. So we had to get a new one...
And here it is. Vroom, vroom. Next, the carpet in my bedroom has to go. There will be no carpet in this house and we will all breathe easier, except the fleas.
My fabulous asthma doctor told me that if I did everything she told me, but kept the carpet, 90% of the problem would remain!! Our carpet is slowly disappearing room by room, bedrooms first!
ReplyDeleteApril
Melody - are you sure the vaccuum died without any help from a friend? Hmmm - sounds relatively suspicious. I would eliminate carpet in my entire house if I had my way.
ReplyDeleteHugs - Marie
One of the selling points of the condo we moved into was that the floors were all just finished wood or tile. We have five cats who wander in and out of the house. We don't need to house fleas as well as cats!
ReplyDeleteDon't you love the bagless vacs that you can see what you're getting up? It's almost fun to vaccuum!
ReplyDeleteWe have heat and rain up here. Last night it was wave after wave of thunder storms... even hail. Unfortunately, I have many more indoor projects than you. I'd love to rip up some carpeting!
ReplyDeleteMy mom was an habitual inhaler user, plus lots of drugs and tissues daily. When she moved from her condo (which had carpeting and forced air heat/cooling, and voc's from the new cabinets) into the nursing home (with tile floors and no carpets, and radiant heat), she lived totally without inhalers and drugs and breathed just fine. It was amazing. Good luck on the project. There's nothing like a great vac!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to be a debbie downer, so first I will say that new flooring is SO exciting and it will be so great to move everything back in and get organized and have a fresh start! (here's the bad:) We were told by our vet when we found fleas on our pup that we had to spray the. whole. house. that fleas can live in the floor boards and little nooks and crannies and will hop right back onto the dog/cat when it walks by. Just saying that carpet will not solve the flea problem 100%. Fleas are NO FUN. Our little Bella dog was SO miserable and embarrassed by her flea situation. Good luck to you, what a pain the you-know-what!
ReplyDeleteNo carpet is a wonderful thing! Did you see the blog post from Kathy York where she had her concrete floors painted TURQUOISE!! (I checked it was Feb 2010) Tile is good too, but a bright solid would be BEAUTIFUL! Can't wait to see what you do!
ReplyDeleteFleas die and stay dead if you dust everything with borax. It's nontoxic and CHEAP. I use a turkey baster to puff it along baseboards and bedframes and under stuff. Dust carpets liberally, until you can get rid of them. Wash everything that doesn't run away at the same time you apply borax. I add a tablespoon of borax (dry) to the DRYER. After 48 hours I saw a 90% reduction in fleas. Vacuum to get all the bodies up, then repuff. It continues to work for months, but I reapply every month. My cats get Advantage, but I think fleas are becoming immune.
ReplyDeleteDiatomaceous Earth (Fuller's Earth) is another non-toxic method of flea and other critter control -dust along baseboards and cracks. It's all I used to use.
ReplyDeleteYea!!! No carpet in your studio!! My sewing room is in our 3rd bedroom and the carpet was taken up to reveal the original hardwood floors. I love it because I can sweep the threads easily off the floor. We have 2 cats and they have never had fleas because we don't let them outside :) I'm anxious to see what you do with the floor. When we lived in south TX (extremely hot and humid ALL the time!!) our whole house had tile floors and it was so much cooler than carpet would have been.
ReplyDeleteHere in France carpet is rarely seen in homes. I was so used to having it when I first moved here but it didnt take any time at all for me to appreciate NOT having it. My house feels so much cleaner and easier to keep that way!
ReplyDeleteI hate carpet - dirt and allergies - yuk! I have marmoleum tiles in my studio and they clean up very well. We just did the semiannual super clean. The previous owners over bought on tiles so a damaged one can be easily replaced.
ReplyDeleteHey, I think everyone has already said it all. We went carpetless over 13 years ago, and have never regretted it. Welcome to my world.
ReplyDeletethere are some really cool faux painting techniques that would look good on your studio floor and easier to clean.
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