As a parent, I have learned a great deal. Time will do that to you. In addition to knowing the diapers least likely to leak, recognizing the intriguing nature of the toilet, and attaining a skill for tuning out bickering matches, I have also learned a lot about what I like and dislike in home construction. When children (and pets) are sharing your space, design is no longer based solely on aesthetic appeal.
For instance, when we bought our current house it was a duplex. At the time, our oldest child was three – mobile and active, but he had not yet reached top kid speed. Our daughter was the youngest at the time. She was just over a year old. We did not fully understand the mess-making capabilities of children at the time.
In our effort to convert the property to a single-family home, we redid every floor. The majority is now covered in a dark, wood-grained laminate. When we laid it down, it was shiny and gorgeous. It brought out the woodwork in the home beautifully. It’s still stunning when it is clean, which it never is, because it shows every speck of dirt. I mean EVERY speck. Not just the foot prints left by mud-coated paws after my Springer Spaniel decides to go for a swim in the creek. Not just the freshly cut grass that clings to wet feet after a dip in the pool or a few runs through the sprinkler. No. I mean every teeny, tiny speck of dust that happens to find its way in. So, I am like the modern version of the 1920’s vacuum ads. That damned canister is hanging from my shoulder far more often than any purse.
Worse yet, laminate flooring (which I am not condemning, because I still love it when used in the right application) is susceptible to water damage. Now, now… don’t be jumping ahead in this story. Stay with me here.
If you read the previous post, then you know that we left our small city apartment for a new home before our first child was born. We sold the Laundromat (which has now been renovated into a Vietnamese restaurant) and bought a duplex (we have a thing for duplexes). We rented one side and lived in the other. The tenants, who had lived there before us, were hard on the place and were so-called animal lovers. To me, an animal lover is someone who recognizes the needs of pets, including the need for a proper place to relieve themselves. For these animal lovers, the carpet worked just as well as any litter box or puppy pad. Needless to say, we changed out a lot of flooring in that home as well.
I tell this story because it was our first experience with laminate flooring. It was also the first time that we ruined laminate flooring.
We had a three gallon jug of water in the fridge with a pull-out spout for easy pouring. Apparently, one of us failed to close that spout fully, or it got caught on something when we opened or closed the fridge. Whatever the reason, water dripped for eight hours, while we slept, onto the brand new floor. By morning, it was more of a spring board in front of the refrigerator than anything else.
We didn’t fully learn our lesson. We haven’t done damage comparable to that, but, for several years now, we have been playing towel tag. If you ever visit my home, ignore the area by the dog’s water dish. No matter how large the room may be, kids seem to be attracted like magnets to water sources, bound to kick over that bowl of water at least once weekly. They are not so bound to clean up spills.
So, with floors that are receiving constant torment, the goal should be to visually draw the eye upward, right? If you agreed with that statement, then you either don’t have kids, have kids that aren’t yet mobile, or you are the superwoman that I strive to be. There is no safe place for the eye to land in a home with children. I have patches of wall where the paint has worn thin because I have scrubbed so many ‘artistic masterpieces’ from the surfaces. I have curtain rods that are bent. There are holes, scratches, dings, and dents in every door. There is even a packing label attached to the front of my fridge, at the moment, awaiting the purchase of a bottle of Goo Gone (I am unintentionally becoming a spokesperson for this company). I have decided that truly kid-friendly design would involve spray-on truck bed lining, so cleaning day would require only a hose and a push broom.
For instance, when we bought our current house it was a duplex. At the time, our oldest child was three – mobile and active, but he had not yet reached top kid speed. Our daughter was the youngest at the time. She was just over a year old. We did not fully understand the mess-making capabilities of children at the time.
In our effort to convert the property to a single-family home, we redid every floor. The majority is now covered in a dark, wood-grained laminate. When we laid it down, it was shiny and gorgeous. It brought out the woodwork in the home beautifully. It’s still stunning when it is clean, which it never is, because it shows every speck of dirt. I mean EVERY speck. Not just the foot prints left by mud-coated paws after my Springer Spaniel decides to go for a swim in the creek. Not just the freshly cut grass that clings to wet feet after a dip in the pool or a few runs through the sprinkler. No. I mean every teeny, tiny speck of dust that happens to find its way in. So, I am like the modern version of the 1920’s vacuum ads. That damned canister is hanging from my shoulder far more often than any purse.
Worse yet, laminate flooring (which I am not condemning, because I still love it when used in the right application) is susceptible to water damage. Now, now… don’t be jumping ahead in this story. Stay with me here.
If you read the previous post, then you know that we left our small city apartment for a new home before our first child was born. We sold the Laundromat (which has now been renovated into a Vietnamese restaurant) and bought a duplex (we have a thing for duplexes). We rented one side and lived in the other. The tenants, who had lived there before us, were hard on the place and were so-called animal lovers. To me, an animal lover is someone who recognizes the needs of pets, including the need for a proper place to relieve themselves. For these animal lovers, the carpet worked just as well as any litter box or puppy pad. Needless to say, we changed out a lot of flooring in that home as well.
I tell this story because it was our first experience with laminate flooring. It was also the first time that we ruined laminate flooring.
We had a three gallon jug of water in the fridge with a pull-out spout for easy pouring. Apparently, one of us failed to close that spout fully, or it got caught on something when we opened or closed the fridge. Whatever the reason, water dripped for eight hours, while we slept, onto the brand new floor. By morning, it was more of a spring board in front of the refrigerator than anything else.
We didn’t fully learn our lesson. We haven’t done damage comparable to that, but, for several years now, we have been playing towel tag. If you ever visit my home, ignore the area by the dog’s water dish. No matter how large the room may be, kids seem to be attracted like magnets to water sources, bound to kick over that bowl of water at least once weekly. They are not so bound to clean up spills.
So, with floors that are receiving constant torment, the goal should be to visually draw the eye upward, right? If you agreed with that statement, then you either don’t have kids, have kids that aren’t yet mobile, or you are the superwoman that I strive to be. There is no safe place for the eye to land in a home with children. I have patches of wall where the paint has worn thin because I have scrubbed so many ‘artistic masterpieces’ from the surfaces. I have curtain rods that are bent. There are holes, scratches, dings, and dents in every door. There is even a packing label attached to the front of my fridge, at the moment, awaiting the purchase of a bottle of Goo Gone (I am unintentionally becoming a spokesperson for this company). I have decided that truly kid-friendly design would involve spray-on truck bed lining, so cleaning day would require only a hose and a push broom.