We are going to put in new floors. Please send me best wishes and sympathy. Besides that, there are pounds of things in here that I must move out of the sewing room and really don't need anymore. I have: Martha Pullens' 'Grandmother's Hope Chest', 'Heirloom Sewing for Women' and 'Antique Clothing French Sewing by Machine'. I'll be glad to give these to any rctq friend who's willing to foot the bill for postage. Otherwise, I'll just donate them to the Friends of the local library. Just thought I'd check with you first. Polly
I don't need the books, but I do send good wishes on the new floors. When we lived in Phoenix, we replaced the carpet in the family room and hallway and the vinyl in the kitchen with Saltillo tile. We had been told it should be installed only by "professionals," but DH and I did it together and - in spite of our knees killing us before we were done - we survived the experience! DH said it was a marriage tester, and once we made it through that, we were destined to make it through anything! And since we're celebrating 30 years together on Tuesday (and our family said it would never last!), it appears he was right.
Don't know, Louise. Our knees were killed years ago. I want soft, warm, quiet and easy care. The rest of our home has wool carpet and it fits those requirements but doesn't seem good for rolling chairs and thread snips. Any suggestions would be SO welcome. Polly
Polly, I really love my wood floors. And those definitely should be professionally installed. Just pack up, go to a nice hotel for a couple nights and when you come home all the fuss will be over and you can vacuum all the dust and it's good to go. Believe me, our floors are not babied. I have little rugs in places where we want our feet to rest and that provides extra comfort.
S-u-n-n-y! my dear friend! We lived with magnificent pecan parquet floors for 25 years. They were gorgeous but not soft, warm, quiet and easy care. This is hurricane country and a wood floor will ripple and wave in bad circumstances. Believe me, we've done it. As lovely as it is, we are too old to fight the wood floor challenges again. Polly
I'm thinking of going with some kind of industrial low pile or loop. Something that you'd find in an office maybe. I don't really care if it's gorgeous, just warm and easy to vacuum and speckled so that when I dribble my coffee, it doesn't show too bad.
We put in oversized tile in the kitchen, family room & entryway. The family room is my sewing room & my chairs roll very nicely over the tile. I do have an area rug in the center of the room, but the rolling chairs are not near the area rug. I wouldn't want to fight the carpet to roll around, although, I guess you can get a chair mat to eliminate that problem.
Good luck with your new floors. We will be putting in new carpet in the rest of the house - soon, I hope. We were hoping there was a miracle carpet that wouldn't absorb dog throw up stains, but I printed all the tips you guys posted a couple of months ago & will give them a try the first time Liam eats something that isn't supposed to be consumed. He will never learn, I'm afraid. My girlfriend has a cocker spaniel & she eats everything, including 2 lbs of Starbucks used coffee grounds her husband brought home for the garden. Liam is a Brittany spaniel - so far, he's not fond of parsley or oranges - everything else is fair game!!
There's a look-a-like for hardwood floors that is made of some type of heavy duty vinyl over something rather squishy. It's made in either widths of 3 to 6 in. X 36 in. long wide strips and randomly laid just like hardwood and looks amazingly like it. I had it in one entire house- the brand name was NAFCO- stands for National something Floor something or other. I saw where Lowe's has a similar product with another brand name. It's easy care, quiet and soft-ish to walk on. I had it installed in the kitchen in one house back in 1988- I was told by the current owner of the house that it's just starting to show some wear in the highest traffic areas. I wish I could afford it again- budget constraints dictate the very dense low pile commercial carpet for me. Most everything will lay on top of it rather than get down into the fibers... it's just awful what my carpet shampooer dredges up from dog hair down in the pile of my shaggy carpet. Ugh.
Good luck with your selection- there's just too many choices out there and each with it's own benefits and drawbacks.
Grandmother's hope Chest sounds interesting, if you have no other takers, I'll send you $2.00 bills for the postage. Yes, they're used.
The Butterfly Studio has a heavy dense carpet with a floral motif all over it. You can hardly tell where I dropped threads, let alone straight pins on it. (I have a magnet wand for those) I have a very dense padding as I want COMFORT as I have neuropathy and I can't wear shoes when sewing as I can't tell how hard I use the pedal with shoes on.
Wheeled chair rolls easily. Vacuums very nicely, and it 'looks cleans' unless I have pieces of fabrics on it. I do like it. Yes, it's QUIET. Hasn't sassed me no matter what I've done to it so far: stuck it with needles & pins, rolling chairs, boxes of Christmas paper, dropped scissors, (keeps the points from being nicked), treadled on the treadle, & even had cookie crumbs on it. Heavily used for 2 years now and it doesn't look it :) I'm leased with it. Yes, it 'cost more' but it is well worth the extra. We have the 'wood floor vinyl' for the door area (Has a door into the Studio and one going tot eh backyard that gets a bit of use and it wears well. WE also have it in the dining room, kitchen and laundryroom. So far, it has a coupla knicks in it where it was knifed. It wears well. Doesn't have as dense of a pad under it. Roomba and Scooba keep it clean except for the corners and a Swiffer handles that. (NO, we don't have any pets (small 2 or
Cork! That's what I've been trying to think of. Although after the problems Polly described having with wood floors, I wasn't sure cork would work for her either.
We had "waterproof, hypoallergenic" carpet pad put under this carpet, thank goodness! W/ Stanley dog living in the den (the short sofa has become his seat, w/ his quilt spread out on it; he shares well), and EVERYone eating & drinking in here, I just don't worry about the carpet; I call The Man (he's from Africa, very interesting guy) to come do a professional cleaning on the floor, he does a great job, and the floor/room smells good again (and the carpet feels new). I like the carpet for pinning quilts; take 2 Aleve tablets, put a Metallica cd in the player or a good movie on the vcr, let the basting begin! ;-D
R/Sandy - Stan celebrat> We put in oversized tile in the kitchen, family room & entryway. The family
Polly: A couple years ago, we had installed a plain weave 'Berber' carpet through the upstairs, and one with a bit of a diamond pattern in the Family Room. Manufacturer: Shaw. (NAYY, just real pleased) All the carpeting is in shades of taupe and oatmeal and have a wee bit of dark brown and maybe some greenish in the mix. This flat stuff has worked nicely in the sewing room; provides comfort underfoot but is easy care. Also, the chair rolls smoothly and the pins don't seem to get buried in it. HTH. PAT in VA/USA
The carpet here is Shaw and has performed really poorly. Different type though. Maybe they are hit and miss on the quality? This stuff was TOL too. We really do 'live' here but it is only 2 years old. Last stuff in this house was 15 years old and was worn but sure held up better for us.
I think we're going to have to use some snazzy form of vinyl. There's a heap of traffic through here - some of it rather rude - wet Yorkies, hurricanes, an occasional gator. It was so good to read your experiences with flooring and I thank you. When I first discovered rctq, we were doing a dream kitchen and the vast suggestions from here were just wonderful. When I see pretty kitchens on the tv re-do's, they usually are making mistakes that you kept me from making. Surely is nice to have you with me. Polly
Polly, are the books claimed? If not, I will be happy to send postage.
On the flooring topic, I live in an old farmhouse with wood floors throughout. While they add a LOT of charm, if you have to stand on them for prolonged periods of time, you wish for one of those gel mats (which I WILL get for my kitchen this year). Standing there putting up tomatoes for most of the day was a killer in the fall. However with the 3 dogs, 3 cats and 3 parrots in the house, and mucky shoes from coming in from the barn, well I can't think of ANY other flooring I would want.
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