When we were preparing to move, we budgeted, planned and worked at making things the way we want them to be - specifically, we wanted to be done with credit cards. We have mostly succeeded (hey, it takes time). Part of our plan was to, once we were credit card-free, upgrade our furnishings. We're mostly surrounded by remants from college, hand-me-downs from friends, and a handful of nice family pieces. The nice family pieces stay. The cupboard my grandma so lovingly painted, but that really is junk, held together with cigarette butts (I kid you not), well that's not going anywhere, either. We just use it very carefully. ;-)
So, our plan was to, bit by bit, bring in pieces that we love, that will last, that will suit us. So we currently sleep in dreamland, the girls' rooms are done (I need to take pictures!) and we were hoping to get our room done next. We got the mattress immediately, but we'd love to have dressers, a bedframe, you know, and feel all grown up.
Anyway, that plan to get a bedroom set in a month or two has taken a detour. Our cats (well, it was probably just one of them, but we don't know who, and they are safer with us not knowing!) decided that our living room furniture must go. Immediately. So, they peed on Andy's recliner. Now, this recliner is over 20 years old, and ugly as sin, but really, there was nothing wrong with it. We were all set to live with it for awhile longer. And then pass it on to someone else. Change that plan, because cat piss went deep into the ancient layers of this old recliner, making a thorough cleaning impossible. And, if you know cats, you know that once they pee somewhere, if they can still smell it - and their noses work better then ours - they will pee there again. So, the recliner went out to the curb.
That leaves us with a loveseat and a glider. Fortunately, the loveseat is leather, and the glider is some cheap micro fiber. Their attempts to have the glider extricated have failed (oh yes, they've tried - I've been able to clean that one well enough). And, they know not to mess with the loveseat.
All that to say that we are now in the market for some new furniture. Pretty much right now. Leather. (the cats cannot claw it and shred it the way they can with fabric, and, it is so kid friendly - wipe it off and it's clean) I imagine that a room full of leather is not very green of me, but weigh it against furniture covered in other materials that needs to be replaced much more often - because pets are, and will continue to be, a part of my life - and I'm thinking leather is the greenest choice for us.
And, those couches that recline, they are heavenly! Do you know how hard it is to find real leather couches that recline, that are otherwise super-duper comfy, especially when you live kinda in BFE, and are hoping to not spend more than you spent on your last car? This search is tough. We're trying to be patient. Really we are. In the meantime, if you come over for "movie night," we'll either pull out the dining room chairs or all cuddle up in our king size bed. :-)
In other news, there were 5 calls I needed to make this morning. I can only remember 3 of them. But all 5 were a priority. Crap. Oh, I just remembered 1 more. Woohoo.
Showing posts with label settling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label settling. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Making house
For the past 6 months or so, my back has been so sensitive due to this pregnancy, that I have not been able to sleep in my own bed. Our mattress had been really worn out for quite awhlie, but a new king size mattress is a bit of an investment, so we'd been putting off replacing it for way too long. Well, we couldn't put it off any more, and I am happy to report that I feel like royalty sleeping in our new bed. It's firm, but oh-so-cushiony. Just a dream, I tell you. Plus, it's kind of nice to be sleeping next to my husband again!
~~~
This new home of ours doesn't have one square foot of carpeting - something I am happily adjusting to (the cats, on the other hand, seek out my one braided rug when they need to puke - I guess they can't stomach puking on tile). So, since we have a house full of tile and hardwood, we thought we should have a steam mop. Get the floors super clean (sanitized) with only water. I read about the Eureka Enviro-Steamer (EES) and was in love, but the EES is hard to find, so after seeing commercials (or infomercials or QVC - I forget), we thought we'd give the Shark a try. They brag about how lightweight it is, and when you watch the commercial, it pushes along the floor so easily, just working miracles. Umm, no. The Shark sucked. It's almost too lightweight to push along the floor, there's no actual on/off button, you need to manually push the handle down to release hot water onto the pad, the cap needed to be turned a certain way in order to allow the water to steam properly - neither Andy nor I could get it to turn appropriately and, well, it just plain sucked. Sure, it cleaned the girls' bathroom floor, but I could've done a better job on my hands and knees in less than a quarter of the time - all the back and forth over the same spot, pushing the dang thing into the floor.
So, I immediately returned the Shark and sought to order the EES. It arrived yesterday, and I might be in love. It's much heavier than the Shark, but not heavy (make sense?). It actually has an on/off switch. A tray to set it on while it warms and cools, to protect your floors (no tray in sight with the Shark). Sturdy clips that hold the pad in place (the Shark uses velcro, and while I didn't have a problem with it, these clips seem a bit sturdier than velcro AND should something happen to my EES pads, I could easily grab an old hand towel or rag and make due with the clips). A light that comes on to alert you to add more water. Awesome swivel action on a squared unit - great for corners. Still takes longer to cleam the floors then if I just got on my hands and knees, but let's face facts - I will not be cleaning floors on my hands and knees, and if some strange Martha Stewart-like being chose to dwell inside my body for long enough to intice me to in fact get on my hands and knees, I wouldn't be sanitizing the floor while cleaning it. Andy would like me to add that if I were to get on my knees, it wouldn't be to clean the floor. ;-)
It still doesn't push like a regular mop, which makes complete sense - it's not a regular mop, I just figured it would based on the Shark commercials I'd seen. Silly me, I know. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Shark and the EES are comparable in price - the Shark $10 more, but then we paid shipping to get the EES here.
~~~
Tomorrow we're off to IKEA to get some stuff for the girls' rooms. To make them, you know, girly. And put-together. They have never had 'put-together' rooms, it's always been a mish-mash of hand-me-down shelves, ancient dressers, plastic toy buckets and mattresses on the floor. I cannot wait. Though IKEA on a Saturday will be crazy, but we'll remember that going in, and eat a big breakfast, carry water bottles with us, and overdose on our Patient Pills. This nesting phase is coinciding nicely with this move, and I'm nesting in the whole house.
~~~
Oh, and we just had our first tile floor-meets-glass casualty. Wow, shattered glass can fly across a tile floor lilke nothing else! Mental note: start using the Pyrex bowls instead of the Williams-Sonoma ones - Pyrex practically bounces on tile (ask me how I know).
~~~
This new home of ours doesn't have one square foot of carpeting - something I am happily adjusting to (the cats, on the other hand, seek out my one braided rug when they need to puke - I guess they can't stomach puking on tile). So, since we have a house full of tile and hardwood, we thought we should have a steam mop. Get the floors super clean (sanitized) with only water. I read about the Eureka Enviro-Steamer (EES) and was in love, but the EES is hard to find, so after seeing commercials (or infomercials or QVC - I forget), we thought we'd give the Shark a try. They brag about how lightweight it is, and when you watch the commercial, it pushes along the floor so easily, just working miracles. Umm, no. The Shark sucked. It's almost too lightweight to push along the floor, there's no actual on/off button, you need to manually push the handle down to release hot water onto the pad, the cap needed to be turned a certain way in order to allow the water to steam properly - neither Andy nor I could get it to turn appropriately and, well, it just plain sucked. Sure, it cleaned the girls' bathroom floor, but I could've done a better job on my hands and knees in less than a quarter of the time - all the back and forth over the same spot, pushing the dang thing into the floor.
So, I immediately returned the Shark and sought to order the EES. It arrived yesterday, and I might be in love. It's much heavier than the Shark, but not heavy (make sense?). It actually has an on/off switch. A tray to set it on while it warms and cools, to protect your floors (no tray in sight with the Shark). Sturdy clips that hold the pad in place (the Shark uses velcro, and while I didn't have a problem with it, these clips seem a bit sturdier than velcro AND should something happen to my EES pads, I could easily grab an old hand towel or rag and make due with the clips). A light that comes on to alert you to add more water. Awesome swivel action on a squared unit - great for corners. Still takes longer to cleam the floors then if I just got on my hands and knees, but let's face facts - I will not be cleaning floors on my hands and knees, and if some strange Martha Stewart-like being chose to dwell inside my body for long enough to intice me to in fact get on my hands and knees, I wouldn't be sanitizing the floor while cleaning it. Andy would like me to add that if I were to get on my knees, it wouldn't be to clean the floor. ;-)
It still doesn't push like a regular mop, which makes complete sense - it's not a regular mop, I just figured it would based on the Shark commercials I'd seen. Silly me, I know. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Shark and the EES are comparable in price - the Shark $10 more, but then we paid shipping to get the EES here.
~~~
Tomorrow we're off to IKEA to get some stuff for the girls' rooms. To make them, you know, girly. And put-together. They have never had 'put-together' rooms, it's always been a mish-mash of hand-me-down shelves, ancient dressers, plastic toy buckets and mattresses on the floor. I cannot wait. Though IKEA on a Saturday will be crazy, but we'll remember that going in, and eat a big breakfast, carry water bottles with us, and overdose on our Patient Pills. This nesting phase is coinciding nicely with this move, and I'm nesting in the whole house.
~~~
Oh, and we just had our first tile floor-meets-glass casualty. Wow, shattered glass can fly across a tile floor lilke nothing else! Mental note: start using the Pyrex bowls instead of the Williams-Sonoma ones - Pyrex practically bounces on tile (ask me how I know).
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