I Hate Carpet

Before I go off on carpet I have good news. CSN Stores has given me another opportunity to spread the love. So, respond to this post for a chance to win a $35 gift card. CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from cheap bedroom furniture to fantastic fitness equipment to cookware! And who couldn't use more of any of those things?

First of all, I have carpet. Thankfully, not everywhere - but we are too frugal (cheap) to take it out so when I rail on carpet it comes from personal, everyday use. Our carpet is confined to the bedrooms. We even chose to have it in our last house upstairs because we thought it would help keep the house quieter. And it probably did, but it also kept it dirtier and I'll take loud over dirt any day of the week. Who decided it would be a good idea to tack a semi-permanent rug to the floor and have everyone (pets included) walk on it every day? It can't be sanitary. Sure, you can vacuum, but that only gets up the loose stuff. When your two year old squirts cold medicine from the dropper onto her beige carpet and it is still visible 3 years later you know that is just nasty! And litter training two kittens resulted in a few permanent spots too. (GAG!) The absolute WORST feeling on earth is walking on wet carpet. (I seriously just shuddered thinking about it.) The kids walk out of my bathroom every morning, dripping wet, to their clothes on the floor in our bedroom. They leave wet foot prints. I leave the shower behind them and no matter how hard I try I end up stepping on a carpet wet spot. Gives me the heebie jeebies every single time! Then I go into my closet muttering about how when we build our next house it won't even contain a floor rug, much less wall to wall carpet.

My ideal floor was in our house in Englewood, FL. Terrazzo, baby! Totally the way to go! You could have spilled a bowl of salsa on that floor and nobody would have noticed. It hid spots, was cool on your feet, swept up like a dream and mopping it took 2 minutes with a damp Swiffer. Dream floor! Like tile with no grout lines. That house was built in 1969 when Terrazzo was all the rage. I've heard it is making a comeback but is rather expensive now. Lucky for us, the lady we bought the house from never liked it so we yanked out her old, gold shag carpet to uncover our shiny Terrazzo for the first time since 1969. Can you even imagine? I will admit to one drawback. SLICK AS GLASS! Don't jump out of the shower and run for the phone. You WON'T make it. But if Robbie had had the video camera going we could have won $10,000 that day.

Right now we have mostly hardwood floors. Eh. They are pretty, and warm (although I'd take a tropical climate and cool floors in a skinny minute) and pretty low maintenance. They do scratch though, and if you drop something on them they'll dent. Terrazzo doesn't dent, it just shatters what you drop, which I guess is drawback #2.

I like the look of tile, but sweeping out grout lines is a pain. We've got that in our bathrooms and laundry. Kitty litter in grout lines is frustrating. Grout stains too.

Something else that sounds nice, if you have to live in a place with winter, is radiant floor heating. Walking on a warm floor on a cold morning would be a nice perk, especially in the bathroom. I've heard it is pricy too. Why do I always crave the pricy? My mom used to say she could line up 20 items of clothing and I'd always ask for the most expensive without even looking at the tags. It's a gift, I suppose! LOL

So, what are your ideal floors? Mine would be the self cleaning type, if they existed. I do think those toe kick vacuum systems would be a great idea when building. I do NOT like my central vac though. If I weren't so cheap I'd spring for a regular vacuum. But I just KNOW the next time around I won't be needing one. Oh PLEASE let the day come when I only need a broom!!!!