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.