New carpet!

Well the weekend was an exhausting one for Tetsu and me. Mostly for Tetsu. I just hung around the outskirts and helped move furniture. I'm sure Tetsu would have liked to let his frustrations show on this project but since it was to be my birthday present he made great effort to stay cheerful and upbeat. Even so, Saturday and Sunday we both had headaches, skipped the pool, ate instant food and slept downstairs.

I have complained for a good many years about the carpet in my sewing room. It is filthy. But more than filthy it smells! Velvet lives up in that room and he may have decided he doesn't like the cat box. Or it could be the other cats that occasionally come visiting wanted to leave their mark. At any rate, a twenty plus year old rug that has had numerous cat residents does not smell good. And with the heat and humidity? Talk about suffocating!

Vel doesn't seem to mind and even I am open minded about the smells but recently I have had friends coming up to the sewing room to use the sewing machine. This is not a room that can accommodate visitors no matter how much I straighten up!

A few years ago Tetsu carpeted our Japanese room (for the same reasons as above) and he used removable carpet tiles that I can remove, wash and replace. This has worked pretty well for us (a bit of an effort to keep ahead of the washing... 6 cats you know) and Tetsu decided that instead of buying me something for my birthday, he would give me a gift of time and labor.

This is the room before he started. Doesn't look too bad right? Well, you can be happy blogging doesn't communicate smells. And look at that spot near the door. The cats have dug up and EATEN the carpet there. For the past couple of years I've been hiding that spot with various bath mats.

Tetsu and I moved everything out. There is a lot of heavy furniture in that room mostly of Tetsu's making. I was told to go do my errands and Tetsu spent the day cutting plywood, laying it out and putting down carpet liner. When I got back in the afternoon he was laying out carpet tiles and trying to cut them to the interesting shape that the doorway involves. This is where I came in handy again by getting out my cutting mat and 24 inch acrylic ruler and cutting for him. By the end of the day we were pooped but Tetsu got an emergency call from work and had to go in til late at night. Poor man!!!

And yesterday after church all the furniture was moved BACK into the room, the CD player hooked up (it had been out of order for the past year) and everything rearranged to my fancy. For all that work Tetsu commented that it doesn't really look much different from before, but IT SMELLS DIFFERENT!!

The former carpet had tried to be pink. The new carpet tiles are blue gray. I chose that color because I thought it would be better for laying out patchwork blocks when the design board gets too small. Always thinking patchwork! It looks great!!!

Oh, and Velvet christened the new carpet with a hair ball this morning so I guess he approves. (But this is Mi sitting in the sewing room. She seems to think this might be a nice place to live too.)