OFF TOPIC - looking for opinions

Personally my taste runs to contemporary, modern, oriental and/or colonial style, but I could see the carved piece in someone else's very ornate living room. A plain silk upholstery would enhance the wood and calm it down.

The upholstery IMHO should have stayed in it's original state on the cow.

I could see the cow hide on some Western or "cabin" style...

Cheryl

Gotta be from Texas !

My thought exactly!

I definitely agree, Cheryl - the cowhide ruins it`s AWFUL! An old friend of mine had a very similar sofa in her bedroom (a GENUINE antique) covered in a lovely muted red velvet, which looked lovely. After she died it went for a small fortune at auction.

Pat

Get a bigger basin ;^p I've never been fond of cowhide upholstery, and definitely not on ornate Victoriana. For that matter, I'm really not fond of typical Victorian style furniture. But, with different covering it could be nice. Or something.

Ellice

Provided you have a downtrodden Victorian maid to keep it dusted, that is.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

Oh! No! Even we have better taste than that! Michelle (in Texas)

Snort!

I'd have to wear blindfolds whenever I went in the room - bleech! However, I have a friend who'd looooves that type of stuff. Luckily for her (IMO), she's in the midst of paying for daughter's college and wedding expenses.....I'm going to have to send her the link :)

LOL - that's so true. I was telling DH last night that I remember Sat or Sunday mornings my mom would put on the apron, grab dust cloths, and make me trot around doing more cleaning - leaves on the house plants, etc. Fanatical - despite our not downtrodden housekeeper being at the house either 2 or 3 days a week when we were kids. DM was never convinced that the house was clean enough. So, before I'd head out - I had to clean. Hard to believe - as our house now is dust bunny ranch.

Ellice

I think a lot us with clean freak parents are the exact opposite.

LOL

Cheryl

Ah - but the clean freak, everything lined up just so one was Dad and Mom wasn't a SAHM.

So we've heard. And some homes (mine being one of them) breed dust more than others. I have hot air heat and it (supposedly) is the worst for breeding more dust.

C

Ah...I knew there was a reason. I have forced hot air, too...and not to mention, I live in urban Maryland (bad air pollution).

(That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!)

sue

Since moving here in NE Wisconsin - sandy loam - my house is filthy with dust most of the time. Partly because we need our ducts cleaned. Not gray dust, but black and gritty (especially when the windows are open).

Now with two dogs, I'm really frustrated. The dust accumulates faster than ever.

We have a laundry room off the bathroom, and both rooms are terribly dusty - to the point of frustration.

We have hardwood floors, and I use both a broom and a "swiffer" duster (which I love). But I'm thinking a vacuum might be better. Any ideas? Our cavaliers shed a lot even though I groom them almost daily. I saw a commercial on the Dysan ball vacuum, and a lot of it was on bare floors. I thought that unusual. I normally think: vacuum = carpet/rugs.

Dianne

Too sadly true - but now that I'm older - so to speak. When I was younger, in grad school even, and the first couple of houses - I was indeed my mother's daughter. Except for the office - which was always slightly messy. I blame this state now on DH, who was a bachelor til 35, and had way too much room to pack rat, etc. I keep hoping to re-find the happy medium, but, well - as they say - hope springs eternal.

Ellice

On 6/17/09 1:19 AM, "Karen C in California" wrote:

True - though I will say the my DM worked once we were in Florida, and about

3rd/4th grade. Hence the housekeeper. I think when they were older, and on their own my folks had the housekeeper just once a week to do the "heavy cleaning" . When both my DB & I moved home for one semester - oh, my - she actually got the housekeeper to agree to come in 5 afternoons a week - so that the place was clean to her standards, and dinner got started (either by me or the housekeeper). My DM made fun of one of my Dad's aunts - who actually would famously use a toothpick to go around all the sink edges. Her daughter thought she was nuts.

LOL - yup, it's a bunny ranch here. Puckster just seems to generate them. But, this has become a regular conversation with DH WRT plans for finally getting the house all put together - and then it MUST stay clean - i.e. things going back in their rightful place. Who knows.

Our best friends have had a family run cleaning service for at least 10 years now, and for at least 7 she's been saying that they must be let go. Terrible. Sometimes our friend purposely leaves a dust heap behind a door to see what will happen. In the prior generation my parents and their friends were lucky WRT where we lived, and when, and always seemed to have good luck with our housekeepers. The one that we had for about 20 years in FLA - my parents paid for her to go to nursing school - but she still worked part time later on, and was a great help with big dinners. Funnily enough - though my mom wasn't laughing - she was "stolen" by a patient of my DA (the surgeon). Our housekeeper, and the full-time housekeeper my aunt had forever, were working together at some holiday do at my aunts. Both of them, especially ours, could cook a lot of traditional Jewish holiday food. Anyhow, the patient (a very famous Broadway producer in hi late 80s) and his wife (in her 50s? & not born Jewish) had met our housekeeper several times. Next thing we know - they've made her an offer to come to NY and help in their Manhattan digs, driving their car from Miami to NY in late spring, and back again at end of summer. Mom - yelling at her sister about what are we supposed to do now - which was hilarious. My mom, a fanatical cleaner, could still get someone to do the heavy cleaning, and she herself was still working full-time. I think she was more upset about the help in the kitchen

- & with the ironing. And likely jealous. OTOH, the housekeeper - who really was part of the family in many ways - not being trite - got to go live with the rich folk - and had a blast. Her family in FL didn't mind her being gone for a few months, and the producer, his family, loved her. It lasted IIRC think about 3-4 years. During which time she saw a whole lot of Broadway!

Personally, here in DC area - it depends. I had a great cleaner thru a service, for a few years. Then we got a reference to a Brazilian woman via friend of my aunt here - and she was awesome. But that was 15 years ago. A couple of my friends have had luck finding women doing cleaning on their own. Helps to speak another language. There are a lot of immigrants in the area, men working trades, and the women with cleaning services. A lot of word of mouth for referrals. But, on the whole - I think it's convenience to maintain some level for the too busy working women.

Ellice

We have a fair amount of dust - it's better now that the construction around us has finished.

I totally understand. We have a lot of hardwood - main floor, and loft. It's a lot (Donna can vouch). I have a Swiffer, and a Shark (the battery operated next step up), and a Dyson. And the microfiber big mop with the Bruce cleaning stuff. For the hardwood - I tried all of these, the swiffer is good for a quick pick-up. But, by the time I do even the entire family room - I'd need multiple cloths. Finally I tried the Dyson. AWESOME! It's clear where the vacuum has been - you can easily see the floor being quite clean. I use it on the bare floor setting. Works great. If there is a lot of Puckster fur around, I may sweep that up first (the big clumps). But vacuuming with the Dyson does a great job on getting up all the dust. I don't have to mop as often. So, for me it works great - I did this based on another friend's suggestion. Plus - it's fab on the carpets.

Ellice

Coming from a family of clean freaks, I understand exactly what you mean. Until I was married and moved out of my mother's house I thought everyone's house smelled of Lysol. To me it was perfume. My grandmother was even more nutty then my mother and had a major stroke while standing on the kitchen table cleaning the ceiling.

You should know that I was a nut until I realized that life goes on, both the good and the bad things, even if you have an occasional dust bunny and you really can live through the shock of seeing your first one. After some problem years when no matter how hard I tried I could change nothing, I came to the conclusion that I really didn't want my possessions to out last me and they shouldn't run my life.

I'm still somewhat of a neat freak and I can tell you that if you keep things out of sight and not looking messy, you can get away with murder. People will admire how clean your house is, when the truth is it's okay, but definitely not immaculate anymore.

Lucille

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