Take Off Your Shoes, Mahalo!

Chez Claire is undergoing a bit of renovation. On Wednesday I had a new kitchen floor installed. Now it is time for the living room to get its due. Behind all the flooring work is, if I sell Chez Claire next year, I don't want to be the sort that does all the cool renovations just days before vacating the premises. I want to enjoy the renovations for a bit. 

Chez Claire is 100% hardwood floors, but the wood is covered by carpet in the living room and hallway. When I bought the house, I wasn't thrilled about its room-darkening, brown carpet. I vowed to tear up the rug and restore the hard wood beneath. Those plans never materialized, because of the logistics, but mostly because I waffled between 'buy a new rug' or 'renovate the underlying hardwood'. So, after more than a decade of waffling, I opted for a new rug. The old rug is dark brown, raggedy and stained so badly, that cleaning it only gave the dirt spots a better opinion of themselves.

Trust me - the old brown carpet looks better in this photo, than in person

When I was picking out the kitchen floor, I also chose my carpeting. I decided to be daring, and I got a pale, barely beige tone, to brighten up the room. It was a crew of two that showed up for the work. They pulled the furniture into the hard wood floored side of my 'great room'. Then they went to work, first pulling up the old creepy carpet.

The carpet half removed, showing aged foam underneath

Under the yellowed foam is more foam, in black

I already knew what was under the carpet, as it was loose in numerous spots. I knew there is hardwood under the carpeting, but the biggest reason I didn't just rip up the carpet & have floors varnished & finished is a nasty black foam that is glued to the unfinished wood. I had no idea how that was going to be removed, but I found out. The instillation me just scraped it up with weird scrappy tools (seen in photo above).

Most, but not all of the black foam scraped up from the hardwood floor

And down went the new carpet cushioning

I was as pleased with the carpeting men, as I was with the kitchen floor installer. They gave me all sorts of carpet tips as they worked, & when necessary asked for my input. I totally love it when installers just do stuff and I find out later it might have been done better had they only asked me. You know, that's how companies earn repeat customers.

TADA! New living room and hall carpeting

Totally in love with new carpeting. Plush cush under the toes, makes the entire house feel brand new. In honor of its new flooring, Chez Claire now takes a page from many Hawaiian homes. From now on all will be asked to  remove their shoes before venturing into my queendom.

Speaking of setting foot in Chez Claire,  the new flooring are completed just in the a nick of time; I am having a lot of company in the next two weeks. First Gene & Joann will be up from San Diego for a visit. Next it will be Barbara and her Aunt Judy for a few days. I am totally looking forward to seeing everyone and can't wait to kindly say to them, "Welcome dear friends, now, take off those shoes, Mahalo!"

What's New and Improved at Chez Claire

Walk here, but don't look down!

Time for some home improvement. My kitchen is pretty much where I want it now. I love the cabinets, adore the fridge (in oh so many ways) and the granite counter tops are deh bomb. Then, there is the creepy, dirt dimpled, yellowing linoleum floor. It was fine when it was spanking new, but over the years it grew dingy, yellow and frankly, it was never properly installed in the first place. The edges curl up like under the counter bottoms like the toes of Persian slippers.

A nasty bit, where the old fridge used to sit

The kitchen floor was in such a state of 'high ugly', I always feel guilty when serving food to company. I mean, would you want to eat food prepared in a place with a filthy kitchen floor? Yes, I am hard on myself. However, there was a pretty easy solution - a new floor.

So I scurried over to my local hardware store and made my decisions - I wanted flooring  to either look like tile or stone. I ended up choosing a dark Pergo laminate, that looks like rough slate.

I was surprised when only one guy showed up to install the laminate. I do have a small kitchen, but I wondered how the guy would get the fridge out of the way. No problem, the guy, who was very nice, had no trouble at all. I think if I'd had a dead blue whale in the kitchen he could have easily removed it too.

The old linoleum stays put and a leveling compound was smeared on

In goes the laminate over the floor cushioning pink mat

I was pleased that I was asked for input at many steps along the way, For example instead of just squaring off the tiles, the guy asked if I wanted the tiles laid so 4 corners met on the tiles, or instead have them offset. I went with offset, which is just more pleasing to the Sheldon side of my brain.

Before I knew it, I had a lovely new kitchen floor, with laminate that met under the counters nice and flat, dark enough to not drive me mad with every dropped onion skin, and pleasing enough for my eyes at least.  Behold the very-nearly-almost-new kitchen!

TADA!

Home Again, Home Again

Am home again. Following my South Dakota post, we spent a night in Butte Montana. In the morning it was with great care we trod onto the motel walkway, as it was covered in snow and ice. We spent the day in a winter wonderland, or winter hell, depends on one's perspective. For Ila it was probably hell, as she was driving. The windshield wipers were coated with ice so didn't work well, and the car was totally snow covered. You would imagine that meant the car was fluffy & looked white, but as the snow wicked every scrap of dirt to the car's surface, we rolled along the highway in a crusty, mud brown Honda. Oh well! Am only glad it wasn't me behind the wheel. For lucky me, most of the day 'twas just a white blur of beautiful scenery.

Snowy welcome in Montana along the highway

This spectacle of wild swans was in North Dakota

We survived the snow and ended the day in Coeur D Alene, Idaho. We did a bit of sight seeing at some main street shops. I drove through the town maybe two decades ago, and did not recognize the town at all, it's grown so much.

What I did notice as the town's many art projects. First I noticed moose, everywhere. Moose on street corners.

There were arty moose on street corners

And even arty moose on balconys

The art that most captured my attention were located near the waterfront -feathers, of Osprey and Eagle. The giant metal feathers are near the waterfront and are called, The Guardians of the Lake.

Lovely giant Eagle Feather

Equally massive Osprey plumb, in repose

The next day - after taking the time to get car converted from filthy to shiny clean, we headed west through Washington state. I was at the wheel this time, so there were no Claire photos of the spectacular Mount Hood, an ancient volcano, kept us company on the drive.

We whizzed through Washington state, stopping in Portland, Oregon for a late lunch. There we serendipitously found a city block, lined by dozens of food concessions, most serving foreign fare.

You can probably find everyone in town here in the noon hour

You name a foreign food, and someone on this huge city block is probably selling it

There were trailers and booths serving Asian, North Indian, Slavic, German, Spanish and you-name-it, you can probably find someone serving it. Ila went for Thai, and I dove into a Japanese tray of treats. Afterwards I also bought one of my greatest guilty pleasures - a big 'ole tumbler of Bubble Tea.I love bubble tea! It's a sweet - that's the guilt bit for me - fruity mix with giant tapioca pearls, aka bubbles, floating around in it. You suck up the bubbles through a massively broad straw. Yum...

It was our last night on the road and we spent it in Roseburg, Oregon.

Roseburg, was much larger than it seemed at first. Stalwartly we drove around until we found a motel we decided to stay at. The clerk assigned us to a room, and as we parked in front of the door to our rented unit, we were filled with feelings of discomfort. Next to the room door, high up was a tiny little window. Ila & I shared a look of claustrophobic doom.

We sat in the car for several minutes, grousing about not wanting to feel 'imprisoned' in a teeny room. Just on the verge of just returning the key and getting our money back, I decided I might as well check out the room. Grumpily, I opened the door and went in.

Voila! The room was as claustrophobic as the Grand Canyon! The tiny window visible from the parking lot was the bathroom. Once inside, on the opposite wall was an immense picture window with a private balcony overlooking a beautiful garden, blooming next to - wait for it... wait for it... a river!  Couldn't imagine a prettier room or a sweeter setting. We realized our grumbling had more to do with Day Number Thirty-One on the road, than any room being too small. And it was a wonderful room to enjoy, for our final night on the road.

Our cross-counry trek is at an end.