The House that Loosey Built

In August 2007, we moved into our current house. We spent 4 1/2 months planning and building the house -- something we've never done before. And there are some things we learned afterwards to keep in mind if we ever do any kind of building project again. None of them were huge complaints, but one of the decisions I decided to make was to put laminate flooring in X-man's room. It was a brilliant idea. You might think it's great for building track and running cars over, but really my excitement is that when he gets the stomach flu and vomits -- it's really easy to clean up.

I also made the entire first floor primarily wood and tile with only the family room being carpeted, because let's face it, I like soft carpet on my feet. But I also knew that with a house with plenty of animals and a toddler, the carpet wasn't going to last long. I thought long and hard about it and decided that the warmth under my feet was worth it being gross and needing it to be changed out every five years -- because knowing the carpet would take a beating -- I bought mediocre carpeting with a mediocre padding.

Well, this is where I learned a lesson. It's not gonna make it to five years. At a little over 2 years, I'm already disgusted by it. Even with cleanings every six months, the family room takes a beating. My kid spills things. My cats vomit. My husband cannot remember to take is frakking shoes off to save his life. The same thing goes for the stairs and foyer in the upstairs hallway.

Tonight X-man found a bottle of nail polish and painted his toes in the hallway while MacTroll was getting ready for his man date and I was putting away laundry. Bright red paint on the hallway carpet. And just so you know, if you talk sternly to my child in a disappointed tone -- he instantly processes the guilty feeling in his gut as hunger and asks for food. Funny (but mostly sad) how that's already engrained in his head, huh? Tell me that's not biological, because I've never used food as a reward with him.

So, next time... double hung windows in all the rooms, area rugs that can be cleaned and swapped or just trashed while we're the animal house, a driveway that extends straight out and doesn't bend and buy blinds up front, because we're apparently too lazy to put them in now. :-)

MacTroll spent 20 minutes working with the Kleenrite solution and got most of it off the carpet. I spent 20 minutes with toenail polish remover getting it off of most of X-man's foot, arms and hands.