As you all know, Hubby and I are in the midst of renovations at our house. We have a long list, and we are slowly chipping away at it. Things are taking a turn this month: Hubby finished one of his rentals last week, and it is now occupied. He has a deadline on another double, but that isn’t until October, so he is being er, compelled to finish some projects around the house this month.
This includes painting Sonny-boy’s old room and getting new carpet down in there and in the upstairs hallway. The painting “we” (yes, that is the royal “we”) are doing, the carpeting we are buying at a dealer and having professionally installed.
You see that picture at the top of this blog post? That is what I have been looking at the last two weeks as I come up the stairs. There are two different patterns, each pattern is in three different colors (the same colors in each pattern). We put it at the top of the stairs hoping one of them would grow on us.
They haven’t.
We went over to our local dealer that is a Stainmaster Flooring Center. That means they can offer a lifetime warranty as opposed to a limited warranty. Those were the patterns and colors that we zoned in on. You see we like light colored floors. Only problem is we are very definitely a “shoes on” household. White, or very light, carpeting and shoes do not mix well. You get definite traffic patterns and see every single last spec of dirt! This isn’t like a white car that looks cleaner when dirty than a dark car does, this is white that shows the dirt! So we also picked out the the darker brown… and I don’t like it at all. Hubby is convinced that if we install it, we will like it over a large area. Who knows, maybe. I have a feeling I am going to see how that plays out though.
Are you a shoes on or shoes off in the house, household?
Skirnir Hamilton says
Big time shoes on household. A house is meant to be lived in however one wants to live. IE dirty feet, dirty shoes, whatever one has. Hence why in our WI home, we had removed the almost white carpeting and put in hardwood floor. (Had someone else do that of course!) That almost white carpeting underneath a dining room table drove us crazy and the amount of dirt that we got from the kitchen into that dining room was amazing. No matter how often we had it steam cleaned, it still looked dirty soon after. Our new home in TN has mostly hardwood floors, and no extremely light carpeting. Of course, I am told this is better for our asthma too.
Ann says
Skirnir, I had the dining room carpeting replaced with hardwood before we moved in, but allowed Hubby to talk me into letting the nearly-white carpet in the office and living room stay, and I have regretted it ever since. I have some excellent pictures of the carpet stains in his office that will not come out. The hardwood goes in at the end of the month. Now to decide what kind of rug goes under his desk… I am thinking black/navy/dark brown mix… if I can find it!
And yes, Hubby has asthma too! You’d think he’d love hardwood flooring!
Ann
TB says
Ann, if you are a shoes on household, you might be better off with hardwood or similar material rather than carpet. Hard surfaces are easier to clean. That would be my personal choice anyway. As for us we always take shoes off as we like to keep it super clean.
Ann says
I agree, Tatiana! The carpeting is not my choice. The hardwood goes in at the end of the month in the living room, office and family room, and there will just be carpeting upstairs. I am not thrilled with that, but Hubby loves carpeting, so I will be a sport and leave it in the bedrooms.
Ann
Candie says
I am installing hardwood in my bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. My bedroom will be done the first week of July and September for all the rest. I can’t wait. I hate the carpeting especially with a dog.
Ann says
When our hardwood arrives, I will do a post, but I gotta tell you, I can’t wait either, Candie!
Ann
Barbee says
Since you asked…
We have employed several techniques to reduce ‘traffic’ soil/staining.
1) All entryways are tile. Easier to clean.
2) We have a matched set of throw rugs at the points of entry and in front of the kitchen sink-machine washable.
3) We have two sets of shoes. We have outdoor shoes and indoor shoes (machine washable slippers). We get home and change our footwear. Both simple and comfortable!
The verdict? greatly reduced traffic soil-but not 100% Not even close to 100% 🙂 The thing is-the carpet still ‘wears’. It may not look dirty but it still looks worn. Mostly those spots in front of the recliners and the sofa.
Good luck! Hope you find something you really LOVE. It matters.
Ann says
Thanks Barbee! We have two sets of shoes too, but I am HORRIBLE about changing them. Hubby is much better. We also have throw rugs leading into the living room and Hubby’s office, but it didn’t seem to help much. There is one living room entrance where this isn’t one, and that is actually much cleaner… although to be fair that living room entrance gets used maybe 1/10 as often.
We have five entries into out house. LOL One is never used, and that one leads to parquet. Three lead to porcelain tile, one leads to marble … and the one that leads to the marble has a small entrance way with a sisal rug on it, so feet get quasi-scraped off.
And yeah, I agree with you.. not even close to 100%. I wonder if plastic for the top landing would work!? 😛
Ann
Marie says
Mom wouldn’t allow shoes unless they were guests. Thus, my family wears what they want. Yes, even work shoes/boots. And I only ask the greasy or muddy ones not go through the living room. Our basement is uninsulated so I insist carpet stays to somewhat insulate the floors. As my husband is a fall risk, he only wears shoes or slippers with treads. I usually go barefooted in the evenings but keep shoes on all day.
Ann says
LOL Marie… my mother would not allow shoes on in the house either! I wonder if that is why I do it?
oh no! Your poor husband.
Ann
Marie says
If I didn’t allow shoes then how would I allow this wheels on his wheelchair? I have made the poor man sit out on the porch till I’ve cleaned the mud off his wheels. He doesn’t mind, it was his suggestion!
Ann says
Way to put things in perspective, Marie. 🙂
Ann
KimH says
It depends on whos shoes… Mine & M’honey’s are usually ok unless they’re wet or muddy and then they come off outside or just inside the door.. The Wormy Boy’s are heavy work boots or baseball shoes and he always takes them off at the door.. he gets gravel, mud & lord knows what else in them.. Hes pretty good about it though.. I guess he got tired of hearing me yell at him for leaving a trail of crap all over the floor.
Our carpet is horrid.. no amount of cleaning can keep it clean. M’honey talks about having it replaced every once in a while but I think we should rip it up and resurface the hardwood underneath it.. Our house is tiny but downstairs the only room that is carpeted is the livingroom. The upstairs arent professionally carpeted, but there is carpet on all the floors up there. I hate carpet. 😉
Ann says
Yeah I am not a carpet fan either, Kim. I’d redo the floors. That was what I did in my last house… ripped up the ugly carpets the prior owners had, and refinished the floors. Did that before we moved in. Ever few years I would rescreen, and all would be golden (literally – they were 70 year old natural white oak floors).
When I sold that house, I painted the downstairs a nice light yellow (left the upstairs all sorts of funky colors), and rescreened the downstairs floors. The house wasn’t very big (1500 sq feet), but the living room was massive, and it flowed into the dining room. The house was sold empty, so the downstairs “looked like a dance hall” (my grandfather’s term) and the house sold in under a week.
Ann
Shell says
I used to have the shoes off rule but it became too much trouble. We are replacing the carpet in our whole house soon. We will have wood floors then. I can’t wait! Our house before this one (nearly 18 years ago) was all wood and I will be so happy to return to that! I do love the look of all white carpet, but dread the cleaning of it. Good luck choosing Ann.
Ann says
I don’t like carpet (I do like rugs), but will admit when these white and off-white carpets we have were new, they looked beautiful, and really played well with the room-space and furnishings.
What hardwood did you choose to install, Shell?
Ann
Stephanie says
We are definitely a shoes off household. We have hardwood and white Carpet. So to save the carpet as much as possible from stains we don’t wear shoes. I can’t wait until we get hardwood upstairs. Someday a girl can dream…
Ann says
I think I’d need a new Hubby to get hardwood upstairs. Hmmm if I start working on him now, maybe the next house!?
Ann
cissy says
This is like loving long hair and not wanting to wash it. Or love going to the gym but not liking the bother of the shower after.
I like things to be clean, so I have a shoes off house. We all wear slippers, it keeps the place clean and the carpet free from dirt. Stick to the hard floors, it is already worrying that the concern is the appearance of dirt and not the presence of it.
Ann says
Cissy we have been a LOT happier since we installed the hardwood and things are a lot cleaner around here!
Ann