Decisions Must Be Made
So, today I purchased the last piece of the puzzle for the foyer project. I bought the runner carpet for the stairs. It was not an easy decision for a number of reasons. First, it is a design element choice, and those are always agonizing for me. Paint colors, drapes, rugs, furniture and the like are always difficult for me. More often than not I change my mind after I've made the purchase. Not good.
In this case, it is really not good because the runner carpet is expensive and non-refundable. Like it or not, I bought it and it is going in. The other difficult aspect of this decision was the width of the runner. Unless I have something custom made my choices are 27-inch or 40-inch. The plan all along was to do 27-inch. That is what was there originally and it is a nice fit for the width of the stairs. That was until I refinished the stairs. The treads are really beat up and the more I cover them the better, so I went with a 40-inch wide wool runner. The stairs are 46-inches wide, which means it is basically carpeting on the stairs, with 3 inches of wood showing on either side.. I'm hoping it will not look odd.
I looked locally first and found no wool runners available. I could buy some unpatterned wool carpet and have it cut to be a runner, but that is not really what I wanted. I wanted pattern with boarders. I purchased this on-line and the company is adamant about no returns on runners once it has been cut from the roll. Even though I found it on-line I purchased it over the phone.
The salesman made it very clear that I could not return this runner. After the transaction was complete on the phone I had to confirm by email and type “Yes” in to a little box, indicating that I knew there were no returns. After I sent that back they sent another email with the final bill and shipping information. I didn't get that email until I got home from work and my first panicked instinct was to call someone and beg them to change my order to the 27-inch runner. I ran to the stairs and measured one last time and convinced myself I must call to change it....then I convinced myself it would be ok....then change it...then ok...change...ok....change....ok
Then I poured myself a glass of wine and convinced myself that I didn't care. It will get here in 2 weeks. I will install it. It will bug the crap out of me for a few weeks and then I won't notice it anymore.
10 comments:
Greg, I think a kitten is just what you need to break in that new carpet. Then you'll have a buddy to veg with all winter while you lay on the couch and watch videos. You know you want one.
I think it will look Great. I cannot wait to see the finish of the stairs. And I have a cat... who likes to be fed at 5am every day of the week. beware they look cute and they cuddle but then it is time to be fed every day at 5am.
It is funny you guys should be talking about cats. Nubs, the cat from 2 houses down seems to have been abandoned. I have fed him almost daily for the past week.
If he does come to live here he will not, I repeat "Not", be fed at 5:00 AM, I don't care how hungry he is :-)
Last night at 10:00 I shot off and email to rugsale.com asking if I could change the width to 27-inch. This morning I had a live chat on their site with a salesman and officially canceled the the 40-inch runner and ordered the 27-inch runner. It will show more of the treads, but so be it.
That's a nice runner, and the colors tie into the dining room colors if memory serves.
The husband and I were just talking about carpet on our stairs. (We rebuilt the stairs a couple of years ago so they're not quite so steep.) The original stairs were nothing special and the new ones aren't either, so they'll have to be covered by full carpet. The husband keeps thinking we can get runner by the yard from a local big box. I keep telling him no.
I like your runner choice. I'm glad you changed to the 27" width.
I was thinking it was a shame to cover up more of the stairs, I'm glad about the change to 27 inches.
Poor kitty, I hope he has a home with you.
The people who lived across the street from me in California were an elderly grandmother and her retarded grandson. After the grandmother died, their family put the boy in a home and abandoned his cat.
I took the cat in when I realized what had happened, but he turned out to be in the final stages of a terminal disease, so he didn't have a very long time as my kitty.
It just about broke my heart to see how grateful he was to be fed and cared for.
I feel good about the switch and I saved a few hundred dollars in the process. Win-win.
So glad you made the switch from 40 to 27, truly I think it is the right choice. Love the blog, just found it a couple weeks ago. Born in Eureka and an old house diehard, so it's a treasure for me. So far I have read 2005, 2006 and 2010. Thank you for sharing your journey!
Welcome Oldhousefanatic. Hey! Maybe that should be my name.
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