Flooring frustrations

Last week we had the carpets steam cleaned to get rid of the kitty pee and poop stains, and it worked fairly well but the cat must have snuck back in the dining room and peed again 'cos it smells awful in there. So we decided we would have to take up the carpet and put down hardwood floors.
That was the start of the process. Our first choice would be BR111 Brazilian redwood which is what we put on the landing two years ago (see photo). When we tried to order more of it then our supplier said there was a problem with quality and we'd have to wait a few months to get it. Well, it turns out the problem is more than a temporary hiatus in production and there is no more Massaranduba to be had.
This leaves us in a quandary. Do we continue to wait in the hope that more will be released at some future date? Do we pick another hardwood? If so, what?
We liked the redwood because it goes with the house (that's a close up of our Californian redwood siding that forms the background on the banner on this site). It is exceptionally hardwaring hard wood, and that's important with two big dogs and cats that are prone to throwing up and peeing in the most inappropriate places. The other issue is it has to fit with the parquet in the foyer and great room that is oak and mahogany. Light wood won't work, there is a lot of wood in the house: beams, stairs, railings, doors and moldings and it's all dark or red toned. And it has to be of the right depth so there won't be a huge step from the foyer to the dining room and the dining room to the kitchen.
I really didn't want to do anything about this carpet until we did the kitchen remodel so that at least we could tackle the floor level in one go. But despite copious amounts of my usual secret weapon Nature's Miracle the smell just won't go. I suppose we could just not use the dining room for the next couple of years until we're ready to redo the kitchen but that seems kind of limiting, and getting rid of the kitty and replacing the soiled carpet with new carpet is a no go.
So to sum up: we can't get what we want; we really don't want to settle for an interim solution; we can't live with the yucky carpet any longer.
Any suggestions?

Big landscaping project

front yard
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Extreme gardening this week. We had to move a huge maple that was sitting on top of the fir tree. This was a seedling from another maple in the back of the property that had grown 4' in the two years we have been in the house.
It was the lesser of two evils: we could move the japanese maple or chop it down but it was compromising the 100' conifer that the house was designed around, and we don't want to lose the big specimen tree, it's the focal point of the yard.



(that's a view of the fir towering over the chimney from the other side of the house).

It took all Saturday to dig out a pit 6' diameter and 3' deep to accomodate the rootball and all Sunday morning to dig out the maple. The soil is great though, all loamy from the leaves that have decomposed over the years. We've had the soaker hose on it since we moved it to its new home and we can only cross our fingers now.

Parkour

It's sunny and warmish outside so we're planting and transplanting, hoeing and weeding. Of course this is what we'd rather be doing



Parkour
Pub Rush-Hour BBC - David Belle. Don't you want to have a go too?

Mailman's here

Normally our mail consists of junk: offers for credit cards we don't want and catalogues we'd never buy anything from, but a few times a year we get something that is so exciting I have to stop whatever I'm doing and read it. Today was one of those days. The Frontgate Catalogue had arrived.
I don't know how we got on the mailing list for this but it has changed my life. Never before have I had the opportunity for so much mockery, and it doesn't cost me a dime. I read it from cover to cover and pick out the most unnecessary item that I could, in fantasy Frontgate world, purchase for my house. In winter it had to be the mobile Popcorn maker, then there was the 7' Papyrus in Urn, a faux plant that would set me back $599, but the winner this issue was the Remote Controlled Pool Shark that apparently speeds through the water just like the real thing. Gotta have one of those.
The best thing about the Frontgate Catalog though, is the "lifestyle articles", where they feature a newly built luxury house, usually around 10,000 sq feet, and interview the proud owners. My favourite? The couple who bought a 1995 house and decided it was too aged, so they tore it down and built a newer, shinier one.
The laughter keeps me going so I can go back and tackle this:

Wildlife

This is what I found while raking up weeds in the yard this afternoon. I rubbed my eyes a couple of times but it was what I thought it was and it was alive. No more than 3" long with an orange swipe on the side of its head it was looking right at me. I shot into the house to get my camera because I knew no one would believe me, and of course, when I got back he had disappeared. There was a fair amount of scuffling from inside the dell but I didn't want to go poking around in there in case I trod on him and squashed it. I've spent the afternoon looking up turtles on the internet and I think I've identified it as a bog turtle. It's strange because the yard isn't boggy at all, although the dell acts as a flood barrier (see below) and it is well shaded with tons of pachysandra and other low growing plants (and a few weeds). Also according to NYS Department of Conservation they aren't found on Long Island, but then again coyotes aren't usually found in Central Park.

Spring blossom

pink azalea
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The pink azalea on the front drive is in full bloom and it's so arresting. It's at least six feet tall and has many more blossoms than last year. Can't wait for the huge white one that should flower in the next week or so.

"Dora Amateis" Rhododendron

"Dora Amateis" Rhododendron
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The azaleas and rhodendendrons are coming into bloom. We are spending our time mulching and weeding and generally enjoying the Spring sunshine rather than tackling the icky caulk in the bathroom. You've gotta smell the flowers sometimes, no?

Cherry Blossom

cherry
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The cherry tree, magnolia and forsythias are in full bloom.

Forsythia

forsythia
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Not much going on inside the house but Spring has definitely sprung in the yard.

WWTT

or, what were they thinking?



Can you guess what the door on the right leads to? Remember that this my kitchen. So it would have to be a pantry? No. Stairs to the basement? No. Panic room?
Nope, it's....
wait for it....... yes, it's a powder room, also known as a half bath here. Just what you want in a kitchen.













Actually, it makes great use of the space under the stairs and it's directly under the master bathroom so the plumbing must have been a breeze. What really makes me wonder is they used carpet as flooring. Carpet? In a bathroom? In a loo that's in the kitchen? It's got to go, especially as the little overflow pipe thingy inside the cistern keeps jumping out of it's mooring when the WC is flushed and spraying the wall and the carpet. Soaking wet carpet. In the bathroom. In the kitchen. Lovely.

Oh no, we made it worse

The master bath used to be quite cute. Not the same standard of workmanship as the rest of the house because it was remodeled in the 80s or early 90s but bright, white and clean. That was before we got our clumsy mitts on it.
First off, we needed to redo the caulk around the bath and shower. A visually challenged, fingerless eight year old could not have done a worse job. Then Steve "tidied up" his vanity, and opened the medicine cabinet door so hard he cracked the glass door. Then I tried to replace a bulb on the light fitting over the basin and cracked the fitting, which fell down, narrowly missing my head. It weighs 2 lbs and corresponds to the crack in this basin , so I'm sure this had happened before.
But the latest, and most disgusting? All that caulk around the shower pan has gone grey and moldy. Yuk. I asked Steve if he had a solution to the problem. His answer?
Demolition.

sunflowers

sunflowers
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

It's spring, although it's so cold outside you wouldn't know it. What is more cheery than sunflowers, though?

New windows are worth it

We just got the last oil delivery of the winter so I was able to do a definitive comparison between winter 2004-5 and winter 2005-6. Although this winter was much milder than last and we would have expected to use a lot less oil, March has been colder than normal. Our lovely oil guys, Dole Fuel, also do a projection of gallons you need based on the temperature and use last year. We used 312 gallons less than they predicted we would. We spent $153 less on oil this winter than last, and this despite an average price increase of 50 cents per gallon. I feel this is worth repeating: fuel prices increased and we still saved money.
Of course the windows were horrendously expensive and we would have to have savings of this level for the next twenty five years to pay for them, but we are much warmer than we were last year, and now I've got used to them I can see they are rather nice.

Cleaning up

after

before

One of the big advantages in replacing the psychedelic seventies shag carpets with hardwood and bamboo floors is that when you stagger out of bed with a streaming cold to find that the cat has thrown up on the landing and in two of the bedrooms, you can take a piece of kitchen towel, squirt a little detergent on it, throw it on the floor, and slide it over the cat sick, and it will all come up, guaranteed. Even the dried-on stuff. And you can do this all while holding a tissue to your streaming nose. Bliss.

New old table

New old table
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The den has been needing something to prevent those over 6' tall from a nasty chandelier related injury. I finally found it, on eBay of course.

It's an original 70s glass table with chrome legs in fantastic condition and the glass alone would cost 3x what I paid for the table. I love a bargain.

At last, the end of the Window Saga

At last, at last, the roman shade for my office arrived though not without one last drama. I got a call from a neighbor to say she had my shade: the Fedex guy (not the usual Fedex lady who can read an address label, knows what's what and more importantly, who's who), had left a package outside her house, and luckily she's a nice lady and also luckily it had my phone number on it as well as my name. She phoned my rather than phoning Fedex to come pick it up and deliver it correctly 'cos goodness knows how long that would have taken. Anyway, I jumped in my car and drove to pick it up, and eureka: it fits, it works, it is the correct shade. Hurrah.
And I got to meet and chat with a new neighbor so thanks Yvette, Fedex and smithandnoble.

Feline frustration

I thought the dining room was done but Wilba the Cat had a few other ideas. Wilba is ten years old and cross. I have no real idea why she is miffed, although it might have something to do with the two male kittens who joined the family a year or so ago, then again she isn't very keen on Sadie the big dog, but it could just be that she prefers salmon to cat food and she hasn't been getting any recently (salmon? we have a house to finish, you know).
Anyway, she likes to punish us by pooping in inappropriate places. For the longest time it was the bath, yucky but a cinch to clean up; we had a sparkling bath from scrubbing it down twice a day.
Now, though she has taken to using the dining room carpet as her personal litter box. The white dining room carpet. Except that it's not white anymore, no matter how much we scrub with carpet shampoo and Nature's Miracle the stains persist.
And because the drapes almost touch the floor and I'm paranoid about them being stained, today I made Steve move the curtain poles up four inches to avoid any kitty contamination. He is unamused: twelve new holes to drill, twelve old holes to spackle and paint over, and we still have to find a solution to the kitty poop problem.

Bye bye blind

The nice UPS man has just been to pick up the roman shade that smithandnoble sent out without a locking mechanism, the one they sent to replace the first one without a locking mechanism. The customer service rep assures me that they have identified the problem and I will be getting a new working shade without further delay. We shall see. So far nine blinds sent out, six returned for one defect or another. It all adds up to a lot of wasted materials, labour, shipping and MY TIME and PATIENCE.

no rest yet

no rest yet
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

I'm sitting updating my flickr photos as it's too cold to do anything else and I came across this one I took just after we moved in. A year later we would trim these bushes back and discover a pond, a waterfall and a pebble stream flowing under the bridge.
I can't wait to get out there again in the sunshine. Roll on summer.

The revenge of the leaking toilet

This is why I don't undertake plumbing repairs.
I got so fed up of the phantom flush on the toilet next to my office and the outrageous price the plumber wants to charge ($350 for a basic fix that involves $20 of Home Depot parts or what he would really like to do is to take out my nice one piece toilet that matches the tiles and replace it with a cheaper two-piece in white that will look hideously out of place for the amazingly low price of $750) that I downloaded the instructions from ehow.com and prepared to tackle it myself. Reading through my eye was caught by the following tip:
Check the bowl-fill tube if you're still getting "phantom" flushing. If the bowl-fill tube is below the water level in the tank it can result in a siphoning action that sounds a lot like a leaky flapper. Adjust or trim the tube so that it's above water level - this will provide an air gap to break the siphon.
Aha I thought, that's the cause. So I pulled the hose out a little and replaced the cistern lid and went off to get changed to go to dinner. All dressed and ready to go, I visited the bathroom before venturing out in the February cold, flushed the loo and watched as water poured out of the cistern. Stupidly, I wrenched off the cistern lid, allowing the hose its freedom to spray cold water all over me, and the bathroom floor. Darn, darn, darn.
I think I need another fix.