2010: a not-very-carpeted odyssey
Feb. 6th, 2010 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrissaSo about that carpeting.
We're putting it on the stairs down into the basement and only on the stairs.
Yes, I know what I said before.
Here's the thing: we are a bit worried about me falling, and that hasn't changed this week. But when we're not talking about falling down the stairs, when we're talking about an ordinary fall where the highest bit is 5'6" to start, tile and linoleum and bamboo and wood and laminate...don't hurt all that much more than ordinary carpet. And I haven't had significant injury rates on those surfaces, even though I've fallen on tile and linoleum fairly often since we have both in our house. Bruises, well. We don't like them, but we can cope.
Also they sell area rugs. And as I said, we will pad and carpet the stairs, and we will throw a rug down at the bottom of the stairs.
And there's this: every time I thought about carpeting the basement, I felt disappointed. The rest of the house (except kitchen, bathrooms, and front hall) is ordinary sand/tan carpeting, and I don't hate it. It's fine. But to me, beige carpet feels like sort of shapeless semi-dress weight black trousers. There's very little it clashes with, true, but you never look into a room and say, "Oh, what lovely beige carpet! That beige carpet is exactly what the room needed! It just completes the look perfectly!" (Note: this is for values of "you" not including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
timprov's mother, who, as I understand it, is actively fond of beige as a color rather than considering it a tolerable neutral.) Beige carpet is what you put in if you never, ever want somebody to say anything about the floor at all. And this is a quite reasonable option; many times you don't want somebody to say anything about the floor at all, and that's all right.
But we've put a lot of time, energy, and money into this basement project, and the kind of carpet that would provide any more padding than any other surface to fall on is not cheap. So we were looking at shelling out significant money for something that made me feel sort of let down and sad with every single sample we looked at.
I looked at non-beige carpeting, which is harder than you might think. Every kind of carpeting has many, many beiges, sands, tans, khakis, ecrus, etc. Then perhaps a white or a cream just for variety. Then occasionally something else, often not. I looked at deeper browns, greys, blues, evergreen, fuschia, burgundy with gold fleurs de lis on in case I felt that not getting to as many conventions as I'd like could be made up for by carpeting my basement as a hotel. I looked at berbers. I looked at oatmeal shags that looked like somebody had spilled oatmeal on the shag already. (Dear British friends: stop giggling, it's a kind of carpet here.) Andtimprov kept saying things like, "We can get the $x/sq ft stuff we saw at Home Despot and it will be fine."
I did not want it to be fine. I want it to be good.
Wood, now...wood is beautiful. Wood comes in so many lovely types that even the ones I don't really like are kind of nice anyway. Wood is its own thing. Its brown is not homogenized. It is good for people with allergies, which is us and several family members. It is easy to sweep. It comes with texture. It comes with the very satisfying urge to put my hands on it a lot. These days it comes with tongue-and-groove bits built in and substrate layers that allow you to put wood on concrete with the said properly selected substrates between.
And wood comes with the ability to have area rugs bestowed upon it. Thick, soft area rugs, upon which a person might fall and feel just as though they'd fallen on wall-to-wall carpet. Possibly better.
Right now I needed to bet on myself instead of against myself. And I needed to make a decision that was not about what I could manage to bear with the vertigo but about what I actually want and will enjoy, what will make me happy. I needed to make this decision asmrissa and not as the person you all think of when you get a cold and the room spins a bit. As me, not as the vertigo.
(Of course iftimprov and markgritter were kicking and screaming about the wood, this would be different, but in fact they like it too.)
And once we'd made the decision that we'd be looking at wood samples, that this was the plan unless something goes really drastically wrong, the skittery disappointed bit shut up. And I felt happy and calm. There is work ahead of us. It will take a bit longer this way than if we had gone to some carpet merchant and said, "This one, please," and they had said, "Right then, we'll do that Thursday starting at 8 so please have an adult ready to let us in." But I realio trulio think it is the right thing. And I am so pleased.
We're putting it on the stairs down into the basement and only on the stairs.
Yes, I know what I said before.
Here's the thing: we are a bit worried about me falling, and that hasn't changed this week. But when we're not talking about falling down the stairs, when we're talking about an ordinary fall where the highest bit is 5'6" to start, tile and linoleum and bamboo and wood and laminate...don't hurt all that much more than ordinary carpet. And I haven't had significant injury rates on those surfaces, even though I've fallen on tile and linoleum fairly often since we have both in our house. Bruises, well. We don't like them, but we can cope.
Also they sell area rugs. And as I said, we will pad and carpet the stairs, and we will throw a rug down at the bottom of the stairs.
And there's this: every time I thought about carpeting the basement, I felt disappointed. The rest of the house (except kitchen, bathrooms, and front hall) is ordinary sand/tan carpeting, and I don't hate it. It's fine. But to me, beige carpet feels like sort of shapeless semi-dress weight black trousers. There's very little it clashes with, true, but you never look into a room and say, "Oh, what lovely beige carpet! That beige carpet is exactly what the room needed! It just completes the look perfectly!" (Note: this is for values of "you" not including
timprov's mother, who, as I understand it, is actively fond of beige as a color rather than considering it a tolerable neutral.) Beige carpet is what you put in if you never, ever want somebody to say anything about the floor at all. And this is a quite reasonable option; many times you don't want somebody to say anything about the floor at all, and that's all right.But we've put a lot of time, energy, and money into this basement project, and the kind of carpet that would provide any more padding than any other surface to fall on is not cheap. So we were looking at shelling out significant money for something that made me feel sort of let down and sad with every single sample we looked at.
I looked at non-beige carpeting, which is harder than you might think. Every kind of carpeting has many, many beiges, sands, tans, khakis, ecrus, etc. Then perhaps a white or a cream just for variety. Then occasionally something else, often not. I looked at deeper browns, greys, blues, evergreen, fuschia, burgundy with gold fleurs de lis on in case I felt that not getting to as many conventions as I'd like could be made up for by carpeting my basement as a hotel. I looked at berbers. I looked at oatmeal shags that looked like somebody had spilled oatmeal on the shag already. (Dear British friends: stop giggling, it's a kind of carpet here.) And
timprov kept saying things like, "We can get the $x/sq ft stuff we saw at Home Despot and it will be fine."I did not want it to be fine. I want it to be good.
Wood, now...wood is beautiful. Wood comes in so many lovely types that even the ones I don't really like are kind of nice anyway. Wood is its own thing. Its brown is not homogenized. It is good for people with allergies, which is us and several family members. It is easy to sweep. It comes with texture. It comes with the very satisfying urge to put my hands on it a lot. These days it comes with tongue-and-groove bits built in and substrate layers that allow you to put wood on concrete with the said properly selected substrates between.
And wood comes with the ability to have area rugs bestowed upon it. Thick, soft area rugs, upon which a person might fall and feel just as though they'd fallen on wall-to-wall carpet. Possibly better.
Right now I needed to bet on myself instead of against myself. And I needed to make a decision that was not about what I could manage to bear with the vertigo but about what I actually want and will enjoy, what will make me happy. I needed to make this decision as
mrissa and not as the person you all think of when you get a cold and the room spins a bit. As me, not as the vertigo.(Of course if
timprov and markgritter were kicking and screaming about the wood, this would be different, but in fact they like it too.)And once we'd made the decision that we'd be looking at wood samples, that this was the plan unless something goes really drastically wrong, the skittery disappointed bit shut up. And I felt happy and calm. There is work ahead of us. It will take a bit longer this way than if we had gone to some carpet merchant and said, "This one, please," and they had said, "Right then, we'll do that Thursday starting at 8 so please have an adult ready to let us in." But I realio trulio think it is the right thing. And I am so pleased.
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 04:33 am (UTC)My riding teacher was telling me (apropos of one of my PTSD meltdowns-on-the-hoof) about a client of hers who has vertigo, and who rides horses. Sometimes she has to lie down in the middle of the round pen (swearing a blue streak), but she carries on. That made me think of you.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 04:46 am (UTC)Lois Bujold is also very fond of beige for decorating purposes. Her living room is a medley of neutral colors, and it makes her very happy. (Oatmeal is a neutral color, so she's contributing to the oatmeal shortage, perhaps.)
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Date: 2010-02-07 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-02-07 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 04:55 am (UTC)But I realize those things aren't the point anyway. I think you used the right criteria in making your decision, to the point that someday you may take a minor fall, think "that'll leave a bruise" and then the next thing you'll think is "this is worth it".
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 12:18 pm (UTC)It's not actually what it sounds like. It's just some lakes and there was a person called Lino who lived near them. They don't have to hire somebody to mop their lakes of lino.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 12:14 pm (UTC)What they are great for, what we used them for when I was a kid, is bedside rugs -- the thing your feet find when you step out of bed. Those particular ones, all our bedside rugs, then got to be bed padding for my grandmother when she came home to die, because when you are bedbound they are soft and textured and lovely.
Z was very good at stopping me buying one. "It's very expensive. And Rysmiel wouldn't like it. And you'd have to ship it home..." but all the time he was petting it.
They were seventy pounds for whole-sheep sized ones.
Excuse me, I'm going to lie on my sheepskin jacket for a moment.
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Date: 2010-02-07 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-02-07 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 05:57 am (UTC)And ... yes ... "not that person you think of when you get a cold and the room spins a little."
I SO HEAR YOU ON THAT. Although I do like to be the go-to person when people have questions about whacked-out guts ... that's about the only thing I like about it.
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Date: 2010-02-07 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-02-07 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 02:16 pm (UTC)We put foam interlock tiles under the big rug in our basement playroom/library, and they make a good walking surface for tired limbs as well as a good falling-down surface (for Charlie anyway)--cushier than standard non-skid liner. Lowe's has them in packs of 4 (16 sq feet) for $20, in case you're interested.
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Date: 2010-02-07 06:01 pm (UTC)Not that you need my approval or permission or anything. But still, given a choice--wood.
Also, when wet things end up on wood, you can wipe it up and it won't get weird and funky. It is so easy for carpet to get really nasty, and it less trouble to clean wood.
Also, carpeted stairs are quieter.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 03:30 pm (UTC)We had Dave's Floor Sanding refinish our floors a couple years ago, and we couldn't have been happier with the process and the results. Their bid was also the lowest and the shortest in terms of the number of nights we'd need to sleep in the basement. While ours was a straightforward refinishing job, I have no reason to believe that Dave's wouldn't do as well on an installation.
http://www.davesfloorsanding.com/
no subject
Date: 2010-02-09 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-09 02:31 pm (UTC)Good call on the wood
Date: 2010-02-15 08:47 am (UTC)