New laminate floor already delivers on its promise

We haven't even finished the renovation yet, but our new floor has already proven its worth.  This morning Max peed on our shiny new living room floor.  If we'd still had carpet then we'd have to painstakingly soak up as much pee as possible with rags, dig out the carpet cleaner, spray, scrub, and dry.  Instead, today we simply wiped it up with a rag.  Done!

As an added bonus, I was able to fix our crooked, rickety table.  Turns out all it needed was a new set of washers ($1.50) and a re-levelling of the feet.

Not to be outdone, the world continues to conspire against us.  Yesterday Heather set out to Waterloo Park with Max on the bike trailer.  She didn't get off our street before her bike chain snapped!  How can a bike chain snap?!  Anyway, we now need to fix a bike chain and/or move our trailer attachment to another bike.  One step forward, two steps back.  We're not out of the woods yet, but I think I can see daylight...

Photos of living room renovation

I managed to snap a handful of photos of our ongoing living room renovation mentioned in a previous post.  Before I get to the photos, some highlights:

• The painting and floor is now done.  It looks very hip.  We should hurry up and sell our house now before it goes out of style.
• There's still lots to do.  Next up: baseboard, handrail, stairs.  We also need to move all the furniture back into the living room.
• Our friend Rob has kindly agreed to design and construct our new handrail.  He's an architect and he's using our house as a chance to flex his artistic muscles.  I hope he comes back because it's not finished yet and only he knows the what it's supposed to look like.
• Rob also has plans for our staircase.  This guy is crazy.

Just to give you an idea how nice Rob is, he commuted here from his home in Guelph on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  He spent at least eight hours here per day on the weekend.  On Monday he drove in after a day at the office.  Without him, Greta and I would still be arguing about how to lay the first piece of laminate.  We are very thankful for his help in moving this project along.

Now, on to the photos:

Mommy and Max enjoying breakfast before a hard day's work.  The carpet is gone.  The couch is the only piece of furniture remaining in the room.  It's too big to move it elsewhere.  We just work around it.

Nowhere for the fleas to hide.  Also, Max was mowing the lawn in our living room.

Painting is finished.  We'd just started the floor.  It looks very stylish.

Our indispensable friend Rob busily constructing our new hand rail.  He has a vision of how it will look.  We feed him and stay out of his way.

Daddy's shoe

Max has been toying with multi-word sentences for months now.  But until now they haven't been true multi-word sentences, only parroting.  (e.g. "ready to go", "vacuum cleaner", etc.)

Today Max busted out a suspiciously original two-word sentence.  He was toying with my red crocs.  Greta told him, "those are red shoes," to which Max replied, "daddy's shoe!"  Is it original?  Or did he just mishear mommy and repeat what he thought he heard?

Something else interesting happened today with Max, but I can't remember what it was.

Update 28-Sep-2011: Greta remembered:  Max held Hailey's leash on our walk.  Hailey didn't pull.  She heeled nicely at Max's slow pace the whole while.  This is news because until now Hailey has always pulled on the leash as though she's willing choke to death if it will get here where we're going a half second sooner.

One way to get rid of fleas

We've been treading water for the past three weeks.  Our new au pair arrived on September 6.  Her name is Heather and she's working out fantastically for us.  We're batting a thousand so far with au pairs.

Our retaining wall is finally complete.  Just today I put the finishing touches on the staircase leading up the wall to the side of our house.  There was a tense few moments a few days ago when our neighbours appeared with a list of last-minute demands as to how we should finish the wall.  I mouthed off to them as much as I dared (which isn't very much) then I did what they told me.

Suffice it to say that our neighbours are very relieved and happy that those lazy losers next door finally got around to finishing the retaining wall after a whole summer of dithering.  The potting soil and grass seed lining the top of our wall was helpfully laid down by my neighbour the day we finished.

As I mentioned in a previous post, our dogs have fleas.  Unfortunately, the fleas had a chance to get good and comfortable in our home while we were in Saskatoon.  The dogs have been treated; theoretically, any flea that bites them will die.  Even so, we have been unable to get the fleas out of our house.  Indeed, we can often pick fleas of the carpet with our fingers and everyone's ankles are covered in itchy scabs.  Thankfully, Heather has been a really good sport about it.

Aside from constant vacuuming, thus far we have treated our carpet with Borax and diatomaceous earth. For health reasons we are reluctant to use toxic insecticides, though I broke down and bought a spray bottle of the nasty stuff.  It's currently sitting on our counter, daring us to risk cancer and early childhood developmental problems.

Most of you know that the vast majority of floor space in our house is covered in carpet, and carpet is the perfect hiding place and breeding grounds for fleas.  Yesterday we came up with a brilliant idea to halve the amount of flea-inhabitable carpet in our house: renovation.

Some members of my family who shall remain nameless have gently suggested that we splurge to replace the ugly, stained, out-dated carpet in our living/dining area with a nice non-carpet flooring.  Greta and I are above such superficial concerns; we were content to keep our ugly carpet if it saves us a thousand dollars and some hard labour.  We are well aware that such a renovation would add to the value of our house.  Our tentative plan was to wait until it's time to sell before renovating, that way the new floor and paint will be fresh and shiny for the gullible real estate market.

The fleas changed our minds.  Greta and I used a precious Heather-day to tear apart our living and dining area.  Today alone we moved out all the furniture, tore up the baseboards and carpet, cut and rolled the carpet for curbside disposal, hauled it into the garage, and painstakingly pulled out most of the millions of little staples, nails, and thin strips of spikey wood lining the walls of the room.  Yesterday and today we bought some nice laminate flooring (fake hard wood) and other supplies.  I confess that, despite my lofty ideals, I will appreciate the renovation.  I'm only human.

Today one of us made the brilliant observation that it would be much easier to paint the living/dining area now that all the furniture has been removed, there's no fear of spilling paint on the floor, and there are no baseboards to paint around.  We went to the store and bought over $200 worth of paint.  In addition to all the work I mentioned above, we also primered the walls.

We also walked the dogs twice.  Greta made meals.  Max just woke up screaming, most likely due to teething.  It's been a long day.

Sorry, no pictures.  I'd love to have taken some pictures of the demolition and retaining wall, but it's too much trouble.

Leavetakings

There was a teary goodbye on Wednesday evening before I drove Radka to the airport.  These past six weeks have flown past.  Radka has been a tremendous help to us and we feel lucky to have had her in our home.  Good luck on your exam, Radka.  I hope you find your lost luggage safe and sound.  Our new au pair, Heather, will arrive tomorrow.  Radka has set a very high bar for all future au pairs.  Yet we are very excited to have Heather here for the next eight months.

Gus' sister Laura was visiting from Alberta for the past week.  Her visit is now over and she's on her way back home.  Sue and Jeff also left for Ottawa today after a week-long stay of their own while Laura was in town.  It was good to have all three Gutoski "children" under the same roof again.

Tom and Jean also completed a grueling week at work.  But everyone's back in his or her own home now.  Everyone except Greta and I can relax and resume a normal life.  (Greta and I will resume our normal life once Heather arrives.)