fiwit's blog: When I'm not planning outside stuff...

...I'm planning inside stuff.  With my house as well as my yard, I have 5 and 10 yr plans. Even so, it's hard for me to believe I've been in this house 4yrs already.  When I bought it, it still had the original carpet that was installed when the house was built in 1986. I was ok with that, because I have a geriatric italian greyhound, and figured with old carpet, I wouldn't be upset if she messed on it (which was true).

I also figured that with her advanced age, I'd be able to replace the carpet in a couple years, after she passed on to the rainbow bridge.  I underestimated my grammaw dog, there.  While she is definitely old, halfway senile, partly deaf, blind in one eye, and gimpy she seems to have no interest whatsoever in the rainbow bridge. That's a good thing for my heart, but devastating to my carpet.

Poor little Zoe wakes up from sleeping, takes 2-5 steps away from her bed, and is convinced she has moved outside. This was especially annoying when she still had bed privileges with me. I revoked her bed privileges last winter, and revoked her bedroom privileges last summer. She now spends her nights in the kitchen, where the linoleum floor is much safer from her senility.  But the bedroom and hall carpet are beyond repair.

I'm not much of a carpet fan - I grew up with hardwood floors.  Since becoming a dog-owner, I figured I would have laminate flooring if I got to choose. But while shopping for flooring over the last month, I've fallen in love with tile.

First, I fell in love with an 18" slate tile I found in Texas. Then I got home to GA and found out that tile was pretty much only available in TX or in the outskirts of my state, requiring a 5 hour one-way trip to get it.  Next, I found a 12" ceramic tile that I liked, but I'm still not sure that it won't be too dark for the entire house.  The picture below was taken outside - it's darker when it's in the house, and you can't see the other colors as much.

Even so, it's incredibly affordable, and available at the big box store 3 miles from my house.  I went there yesterday to confirm it was still the incredibly affordable price, and as I moved towards it, I glanced at the other tiles on display and stopped dead in my tracks.

What stopped me was an 18" glazed porcelain tile that looks like slate and has so much texture that it meets/exceeds ADA requirements. With dogs, non-slippery floors are a huge bonus. I know greyhound owners who have to put area rugs everywhere for their greys to be able to walk around the house becuase slippery floors scare them so much. And my Casey-girl has been known to slip on the one hardwood floor in my house, so non-slippery floors have a huge appeal to me.

I bought one tile and brought it home with me to see how it fits in the house. I LOVE IT.  I WANT IT.  It's a warmer gray than the ceramic, and the additional colors are much more noticeable in it (all of which work with the colors in my house).  The picture below was taken outside and shows the 2 tiles together.

Seeing them both like that pretty much makes up my mind for me.  *sigh*  My wallet will cry, but I'm going with the porcelain.  They also had a 12" porcelain that was similar, and a dollar less per sq ft, so I'll check that out before I finalize my decision.

I'm buying enough to do the entire house (all but the livingroom - it's hardwood), but will not install it all at once, due to budgetary constraints. I'll do my bedroom and hallway this spring, and the rest as I can afford it. So it might take a total of 2 years to get all the carpet and linoleum replaced, but that's ok.

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