Well, I had said that I wouldn’t post another blog out of sheer boredom, however here I sit doing exactly that.
It’s Tuesday night. Gilmore Girls is over, and there’s no point in my trying to go to bed yet because, well, it’s just too early. I have a puppy sitting at my feet chewing on…well…something, and DIY Network is on the TV.
This brings me to just about the only thing I have to comment on right now…the house.
The house. Where to even begin. I’m definitely glad that I actually OWN a home. This, in and of itself, is an accomplishment - dare I say, part of the proverbial American dream. But it definitely also comes with its pitfalls.
A few weeks ago I had a semi-disaster involving a washing machine and what I can only describe as its manual attempt to relocate itself onto the first floor. I had come downstairs in the morning to let Chena (my puppy) out. It was dark and cold out and as I stood by the back door waiting for her to “do her thing”, I heard a sound which sounded a lot like water hitting carpet. Lo and behold, when I turned around I discovered a miniature version of Ruby Falls spilling down into my living room from the ceiling.
Weeks later, I am still dealing with the after-effects. Holes in the ceiling and padless carpeting among them.
The disaster recovery service I called was great and dried everything out, made sure there was no danger (or even hint) of mold or mildew and then came back last week to finish off the refinishing of the laundry closet by adding baseboards and installing my new washer/dryer. The ceiling holes remain, and I’ll need to have them come back to take care of that, but the floor is what has me…well…frustrated is too mild a word, but I guess it’ll do.
In essence, the carpet wasn’t ruined in the washing machine’s rebellion so the insurance company will only pay for it to be re-padded and installed. Not exactly what I had in mind since the carpeting is on the older side and, thanks to ever-present allergies, it has been my ultimate plan since moving in to replace it with hardwood.
Hardwood is expensive, and therein lies the rub.
I think it would be silly to put $1,200 into putting back bad carpet, but $1,200 is not exactly going to cover a 500 sq ft hardwood installation either. So now what? Well, this weekend I’m going to go to one of the Home Depot (or is it Lowes?) DIY clinics on installing hardwood and will see if that will answer some (if not all) of my questions about tackling this project. Then I think I may start upstairs in the hallway which isn’t a terribly big space and I feel that I might be able to use it as my “test space” since screw-ups are likely to not cost me as much as they would downstairs.
Of course the best thing would be if I could find someone who is familiar with hardwood and the laying thereof and could give me a hand - or at least get me started. However after a lot of searching, I have been able to find no such person. Ah, the perils of being single and a woman…not that being a woman really has all that much to do with it, but the fact is that most men seem to come with in-born aptitude towards such things…and at times like these I envy that!
Okay, well it’s going on 10:00 so I’ve managed to successfully kill a half hour so I think I’m done for now. Not sure if anyone is really interested in this particular entry, riveting though it was… I just hope no one was operating any heavy machinery while reading.
Promise the next one will be better…I hope.
