by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

Visit Karen’s paranormal blog.

I could have saved myself some typing and titled this blog “Duh”. But I figured what the heck. Not only that, but you can probably guess the entire contents of this post just from the title. No psychic vision required.

Six years ago last month, Jim and I bought our dream home. The bones of the house were good – about 4000 square feet with a wonderful kitchen with huge pantry, a great room that is 46′ x 30′ and has a wall of windows looking out on the valley below us, a roomy upstairs that has a family room, guest suite and art studio, and a nice shiny new addition with a huge laundry room, bathroom and two bedrooms. It had an unfinished basement with some serious wine cellar/rec room potential that is the same size as the great room. It also had a “secret” room. Okay – so it’s not so secret anymore, since you now know it exists. I’ll stay quiet about the passages. Oops.

As I said, the bones of the house were wonderful, and the price was right. We got it for a song from an old couple who was looking to unload it – so we wound up buying the house with six figures worth of equity already in it. As a matter of fact, it had as much equity in it as we paid for it. Seriously – highway robbery. But I digress.

We weren’t happy with the fixtures. At all. A little bit at a time, we changed things out to make the house as pretty as its bone structure indicated it should be. First off – new heat pump. Next – light fixtures all changed out. New appliances. Paint. Moldings. Doors. Sinks and faucets. We pretty much did cosmetic upgrades on most of the house.

Our last upgrade was the carpets. The carpets in the house before were an ugly cheap Berber. I hated them. They ripped up my feet and just weren’t very pretty. Okay – they were butt-ugly. But we were okay with that because we had young kids (under ten) and a new puppy. Once the kids were a bit older and the puppy was housebroken, we went in search of new carpets.

Carpet close-up - Spike after a trip to the vet on our carpets in happier days.

I’m a very picky person, and I have a very specific vision when I decorate. So I had an idea of what I wanted for a carpet. We dug through thousands of carpet samples in every carpet store in town before I found IT. It was a lovely loop and pile carpet in a honey cream color that had a soft, plush feel and was rated for heavy traffic so it would retain its loveliness. It was also Stainmaster, so it repelled stains, right? Maybe not.

$10,000 later, I had an installation appointment set. Or rather, two. One for the front of the house, one for the back. On front of the house day, all of the furniture was stuffed into the back of the house. The installers came in and ripped out our old carpet, and then installed the new one. It was lovely. It was also, apparently, confusing to the dog. 30 seconds after the installer left, he peed right in the middle of the carpet. Carpet incident #1.

But I was ready! I cleaned it up with my trusty steam cleaner – and the carpet was once again pristine.

That was about four years ago. Since then, our home has been the site of grown up and kid parties. We’ve raised three puppies and taken in an ill-advised pound dog (who now lives on a farm on Whidbey Island). We’ve cared for sick kids who aren’t very good at making it to the bathroom before sick happens. We’ve had floods and storms (whoda thunk in the rainy Pacific Northwest) that have come in on people’s shoes. And then there was the ink pen incident of ’08. We rearranged the furniture after that one. Don’t ask.

At first, I was insane about my beautiful cream colored carpets. Everyone removed their shoes. No one was allowed to eat anywhere but in the kitchen. And then my son’s father (my ex husband) managed to sneak a chocolate milk shake back to my son’s bedroom, which he promptly spilled all over the floor. The dad. Not the kid. Carpet incident #2. I was right there. Spraying, cleaning, spot botting until I removed every last stain from my lovely carpet. But after that, things went downhill.

Don’t get me wrong. I still clean my carpets. Regularly. I feel like I spend more time spraying, dabbing, vacuuming and blotting with some carpet cleaner or another than I do living my life. I have two little spot cleaners – a Spot Bot and a Little Green Machine. I have two full-sized steam cleaners – one that is smaller and easier to pull out for a smaller area of cleaning than the other. I have two vacuum cleaners.

I also have two boys – now almost teens, and three dogs. In retrospect, cream colored carpet was perhaps not the wisest choice ever. Proof that even smart people can make stupid choices.

Consider this my public service announcement. Cream colored carpet is LOVELY. That being said – if you have a life, and you want to actually be able to live it on your carpet, you might want to consider a darker color.

As I said. I should have just titled the post “duh”.

A whole lot of living has occurred on our cream-colored carpets.