It will be hot, but beautiful today. July 2 in San Diego - you can't beat it. And the place we live in - it isn't sustainable, but for now it is the most beautiful place I've ever lived. Except maybe on campus at claremont - felt pretty lucky there too. - but as living spaces go - this one (this house) is hard to beat. It's also too damn hard to keep up with--it is gi-normous--and it is all cussing carpet. Add dogs, cats, two teen boys, me and my husband - and the stains accumulate on a daily basis.
I've had it cleaned twice and we haven't even been here a full year yet. The last time was b/c Rosie had let loose on the living room after too many treats in her dog food (my fault). The most recent time was again b/c Rosie had an incident - in her defense - she did try to tell us both times by clearly using her very high pitched "I need to shit and it isn't going to be pretty" bark - while running frantically around - unfortunately both cases also happened around 3am - not a great time for high levels of awareness and reactivity in our family. And the kicker is that since the carpet cleaner guy was here, maybe a month ago, there are enough stains in the family room, from pets, teens, we folks, etc. that you could jump from one to the next and never need touch an unsoiled part of rug!
It doesn't help that this place (the one I just got done raving about) isn't my style. First b/c of the carpet itself - I'm not a carpet gal. give me wood or tile any day - I'll happily sweep constantly. Well maybe not with a damn grin on my face, but I will take it with the ability to wipe up 99% of the feces, vomit, regurgitated rat and lizard guts, spilt coffee and dcokes, gatoraides, popcicles, and god-knows-what those kids got on the white couch we don't own. And this place - it's like an old Frank Sinatra Rat Pack hang out, which really only looks cool if you have the money to outfit it with sleek new furniture - and no kids or pets!!! - It looks great when every magazine is in place, all electronics are secured - no plates or glasses, or socks - fucking socks - are in sight. Basically the anti-us.
Messy just looks better in craftsman, Mediterranean, or Spanish Mesas styles--houses built for families, not for adults-not-doing-the-kid-thing. Maybe you could get away with a cat (hairless would be a bonus). Not that our abode couldn't be updated to swing that way.
Asian/Zen definitely. Lots of wood, bamboo, water, stone - just mostly away with the carpet. You could make it softer - and less stainable! More sustainable too - but I'm talking about ease of clean here.
So here's something funny - I just took a break from writing here for a few minutes because all this talk of stained carpet got my panties in such a bunch that I just had to dash off this email to my landlord...yes we rent (we do own a house also, but that is another - very interesting story)
So, here's the email:
Subject: Our carpet
From: Marianne McGinnis
Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 10:30 AM
To: Adams'
Hi John, I hope you are feeling better on this absolutely beautiful Saturday.
So this is an off the cuff question that I'm putting out there just to see what you might think (how mysterious)...
- and possibly one that wouldn't happen for sometime, but I wanted to put it out there because it's the one craw in my bonnet about this house that I love so much (well this and the cottage cheese ceiling ;-)). I'm talking about The Carpet. Da dum dum. Not all of the carpet btw (although if I had my druthers I'd get rid of all but the bedrooms).
It's mostly the dining room (the family one with the bar) area - and the traffic area into the main living room. Try as I might (I've had it professionally cleaned twice) and I'm going to go rent a darn cleaner from Ralph's today-- because I cannot keep these areas from getting stained almost as soon as the last cleaning ends, and getting on my hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water is one of my least favorite pastimes ;-).
It's an extremely high traffic, high food (as I'm sure you know), high teen, high pet - we do all our eating and living up here for the most part.
Soooo - any chance that bamboo would be an option for the area right off the kitchen - or some other slate, cement (whatever goes with this style of house, I'm not picky)/non carpeted flooring? ;-) I noticed leftover bamboo here and thought that on the off chance - that maybe there might be enough laying around to just bring it out and into this family area????
I completely understand that this may be too expensive of a request--but just in case there were any options out there - I thought I'd put it out there since you are a man who knows his flooring and such--and I know you have plans to eventually get this place up to date. I also wanted you to be aware of how hard the carpet was to keep clean - has it always been carpeted?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks John.
--
Marianne McCamman McGinnis
marianne.mcmc@gmail.com
http://www.mediabistro.com/mariannemcginnis
Writer, Editor, Researcher
