Flooring, indecision and a dog story

The other day I started, but never posted, a "Temporary solution!" to my kitchen floor dilemma. The perfect solution that would allow me to move on; throw some cork down and carry on with more important things.  Cork is popular right now, cork seems to be easy to install and must be easy to remove. A small investment to enable me to move forward. Loving it is a possibility, but my options are open. A day away from the rest of the kitchen reno.

Online, I had found some dark plank cork. Went to Lumber Liquidators that night to finalize decision and move on. Sadly, the sample was not at my local store ... they only carried 3 variants of cork. Doom. The salesperson told me that cork wasn't a big seller in my city.  BUT the store was filled with many other beautiful wood samples, with great prices.

I went home and mulled over a wood floor. Next day I mulled over 6x6 black slate, my original want. 

Source: makeupalley.com via Sara on Pinterest

Daltile continental slate (porcelain) 6x6

Elements chocolate cork

Pacific Black Slate 6x6

Two different looks, but both rustic. I realized I preferred the sharp, clean and contrast lines of black and white (cabinets) over wood and white. BUT every time I walk into a store with a tile floor, I change my mind and lean towards wood. And if I get wood, I kinda of want it laid in herringbone style.

tumbled tiled and cupboard (white birch)

black slate and cupboard (white birch)

black slate and cupboard (white birch)

flooring selections and soapstone counter

Decisions that weigh me down. Slow down the flow. Get in the way of the things that I really want to do (counters, appliances, finish).

And then last night my dog went missing. I was cutting the grass, he was on the new Parisian Balcony barking. I finish up and decide we will walk to restaurant row and grab some dinner. After a round about way home I discover the basement door wide open. I didn't think much of it and it wasn't until a few hours later that I realized our dog was missing.

I discovered several things:
1) none of my flashlights work and it isn't a battery problem.
2) the collection of sharpie pens were EXACTLY where they should be.
3) Lucy had the loudest voice, calling out for Luc.
4) Luc is hard of hearing; we can all whistle.
5) All the flooring options look good.
6) Who cares about floors.

We came home, put the kids to sleep, I sat on the front porch listening for snorting Luc and waiting for the last, late night dog walker in hopes of letting ONE MORE PERSON know. Sun drove around. Sun walked around.  The moon high, the emotions low, nothing else to do, we went to sleep, dogless.

A dream woke me up a 5. A dream of a wet dirty dog returning. I shot out of bed, into my shoes. Found some markers and paper and stapler, walked the neighbourhood pinning up posters.

Lost Pug

Charming, Chubby, Selective Hearing.

PLEASE CALL

Repeat one hour later. Repeat one hour later. A friend had a printer and printed out a bunch of posters. Everyone off to school, and I'm stapling posters on poles. Feeling useless, yet optimistic, I headed home. Our hope was that someone picked up Luc last night and I needed to plaster our phone number ALLLLLLLLLL over so they could call us. I see one more dog walker approaching with a curly tailed dog; I squint and walk closer and realize it wasn't a pug. I asked her if she had seen the dog and she HAD. Last night, a person was driving around with an older, deaf pug.  We knocked on his door, woke him up and he sheepishly grinned that he passed the pug to someone else. We went to the next block and knocked on all the doubles. Some answers, no one knew of the pug or the "guy with plugs" in his ear. Got my posters, stuffed them in all the mailboxes. Called out for him and YES I did hear him bark. Pegged one house and knocked again. Swung by one last time on the way to work. Checked craigslist AT work and there was a listing of FOUND DOG. Luc the Pug! The caretaker explained he had no phone and an email was in order.

Luc, and floor samples

I was hoping while I wrote this post an email would appear. Writing here was a good distraction, better then clicking on reload every minute ... Guess I better try to do some work.

Follow up: We did retrieve Luc the Pug two days later. The "caretaker" had posted an ad on craigslist but after 24 hrs, had not responded to my emails. So I POSTED an ad on craigslist and the next morning, I woke to find a response. We called right away 7am! and luckily the caretaker was awake and not miffed at the early morning call. We located Luc and the care taker one block over!

Babies and pets

We have a dog named Luc. That is, Luc as in the french pronunciation, yet short for Lukas, the Russian spelling. Or so I thought at the time. We wanted a big and burly sounding name for the mighty pug.

Guarding first born

When the babies were of the laying around on the floor age, Luc the pug ALWAYs went over and sat beside them. Protecting them. Guarding them. Luc the soldier, he was named.

Guarding 2nd born

The first time he crawled INTO the mosses basket to protect infant, I panicked, yelped and got him out. Moses basket is small, he was offering too much protection.  I bought him a dog bed. He stayed out of basket.


Luc the pug has patience and tolerance and humour. He doesn't mind the pulling of hair, prodding of bulging eyes and in your face behaviour or little kids, in fact he LOVES kids and starts wiggling his butt (an attempt at wagging his tail) when kids coming walking down the street..

Luc and L.

Luc and C.

Looking back through photos, we found Lucs little face in every picture that was taken of our first born. Photobombing, I wouldn't put it past him. Making sure he wasn't left out or being replaced.

The kids are a bit older now and so is Luc. He seems more relaxed, after all that parenting.

Dog bed

 Are you serious, this is really for the dog?

No way, I want it.

If I can just get myself in it.

How much is that doggie in the window

I have been restless about getting some projects completed; not actually working on any, just bothered by the lack of progress. And posting about them is kind of non-inspiring right now. Although I did reorganize my recycle piles and took pictures. More about that later.

I also had some visitors this weekend which brought lots of energy and fun into my home.

I also forgot my dog at the at the food coop. Had to pick up some onions and garlic and took my dog for a walk. Tied him to the water spout beside the water bowl, as I normally do. Went inside, got my stuff, exited and went home. A few hours later my friend asked me where my dog was. I thought that was a weird question, and then BOOM. ACK> he is at the food coop. We jumped up from the dining room table, and ran waddled to the store. My friend is 8 months pregnant... It was 8:30pm and the store closes at 8. A white piece of paper had replaced my dog. Luckily there was a note, address and phone number on the paper. I don't have a cell phone, so we just walked to the address.  The lights were on in the house but noone answered. We walked back, going past the store again. There were a couple kids outside the store who said they heard about the abandoned dog, but the person who took Luc did not work at the store; she must have been on neighbourhood watch. Or a store patron.  Back home we called the number and the friendly dog rescuer said she was now home. WE ALL walked back to the house and picked up Luc. He was sleeping on a pillow on her living room chair. I think he may have wanted to spend the night. The dog lovers heard the store workers wondering what to do with the dog as none of them could take him home. The patron chimed in and said she could take him. She was actually out looking for her own dog. She did find her dog and she and her husband made Luc feel loved.

I am usually with my kids when I go to the store, but this time I was with a friend and we were talking as we left and headed home and forgot the dog.  Thankfully she eventually remembered; it might have taken me a while longer to notice Luc was missing as he is so quiet now a days, usually sleeping or scratching himself. And my memory is shot.  It made me realize that I lack energy in my home. Yes, I have a lot of kid energy and me energy. But when my family members are visiting there is so much more energy and love. I guess I kind of miss them.

And the price of the doggie in the window on the water tap, Steal him, yes, Afford him, no way. Thankful for the good samaritan  who took the initiative to make sure the dog didn't get stuck in a rain storm over night and do the best she could to contact me.

Luc the pug

Luc on the Ikea chair circa >2002

And his social network début.

Luc (say using the french pronunciation) the pug is featured over at Desire To Inspire today! Well, "featured" may be a stretch, I submitted his picture :).  (I wrote about Luc and his seizure here. He is in good health and has had no other seizures.)

Luc on the flokati

Luc on the ... turkish kilim pillow ... on the Philip Van leeuwen sofa

Luc on the Pier 1 Wicker

And Luc in the bed

Check him out along with a bunch of other furry friends on furniture...@ Desire To Inspire

An ode to my dog Luc

On the weekend I discovered Sears had a 50% plus more sale on mattresses.
Yesterday I ordered a Queen size frame, 2 sets of queen size sheets and a bedframe slipcover.
An hour ago, I called West Elm customer service to cancel my order and upgrade it to KING! And I feel 110% better about my decision.

I was encouraged by their sale, which was ending yesterday. I have spent a year and a half wondering if I should go for the QUEEN or KING ... I mean, not every living minute, I do have a few other things to do. But when I bought my home in 09/23/09 (closed on  my birthday), my extra treat to myself was to upgrade my 10+ year old full sized mattress to a KING. We spent a few weeks trying out mattresses throughout various locations in the city. And then returning to first store to re-try the mattresses on sale. A KING size all organic mattress does in fact feel MUCH better when it is on sale. Sleepful nights are sure to come. But I never bought a mattress.

I moved on to other things, such as a bathroom reno.

Occasionally I returned to the big dilemma, King or Queen. I wasn't sure what was causing the hesitation - I took measurements and  King would be tight in the room but could work. And I couldn't justify the upgrade and money spent for just an extra 6 inches that the would Queen offer. 

A few months ago I stumbled across a mattress survey on Apartment Therapy, I empathized with the couple.

The kitchen is gutted. The fridge and stove buying are being delayed, at the advise of the Sears Sales person. What else was I to do? I moved on to Mattresses again.

West Elm bedroom sale was ending yesterday and Sears was offering a HUGE savings on mattresses. I made a decision and made a purchase. I went with the practical Queen bed frame and linen and threw in a really nice bedframe slipcover to change the look once in a while. I gave myself a few more days to decide on a mattress. But when I woke up this morning I didn't feel happy about my Queen size purchase.  My kids sleep with me. Neither of us have much room on either side. And my lovable, loyal dog FINALLY figured out how to get on the bed the other night. I let him stay but quickly remembered the leg room issues this caused. He is little, but SOLID and hard to move.


Luc, the pug, had a seizure yesterday morning. My son and I watched as he convulsed across the floor. We were scared for his life. I was sure he was going to keel over after he stopped convulsing.  He didn't drop dead, but he sat still and paralyzed. He couldn't move his right back leg. My son was pleading that I take him to the hospital. I was still frozen in shock and waiting for him to die. He finally got up and headed downstairs, without even a limp. He used the basement floor to relieve himself and then asked to go outside. He almost seemed back to normal, so I packed up the kids and headed to school and then work. Sometime between arriving at work and phoning the vet, I made the West Elm Purchase. Live in the moment.

Luc guarding Lucy 7/10

Lucy and I left work, picked up Luc. (Phew he was still alive) and went to the vet. I almost canceled the appointment as he was a bundle of energy. Glad I went and discovered his heart beat is fine and that it was surely a seizure and not a stroke or heart attack. And that pugs are prone to seizures but rarely do dogs die while having one. The vet told me lots of information but I could only retain a bit as Lucy is quite efficient at crawling now and all over the floor discovering nooks and crannies. Luc, the pug, was alive and good.



Now, continue into the present but backwards with me.

Luc guarding Chaz 11/02

Funny thing how I ended up at the vet again this morning, for a scheduled cat appointment. Lucy in a stroller this time, falling a sleep.  And a cat instead of a dog. A schedule appointment instead of an emergency. And then back at home I started to question the Queen vs the King situation.  I got out my tape measure and started taking different measurements to see what I actually bought. 6 inches is very little; 3 on each side. What is the point.  Now lets talk 22 inches, 11 inches on each side. Now there is something worthwhile. Surely there would be some room to walk around in here. And with the new layout of my room, I could easily accept a King.  The only stipulation, it would only fit on one wall, the window wall. Unless / until I build the 4th absent wall. A window would make a nice "headboard" and even nicer once I replace them. I have until next fall/winter until the weather returns.



Back at work and no sooner did I open my work stuff, I was on the phone to West Elm (wonderful, wonderful customer service). I felt like a tool calling in the next day to cancel the order and upgrade to King.

The first woman I spoke was very helpful and friendly. I still wasn't convinced about changing my order and while she did some research on her end (sales prices had ended) and I quickly tried to upload a new shopping cart with king size bedframe, sheets et al, to see the price difference, but the site was not functioning properly. Things seemed to be working against me and other then learning that the slip-cover I ordered would not fit the frame I ordered, I decided to stick with my original purchase and switched the conversation to a sofa. And then we hung up.

And my gut gave me a huge kick in the throat.
No sooner was I back on the phone completely SURE of my decision. King was meant for us. Have a little fun.  I envisioned pillows in the air and sheets floating down and happy people frolicking on the sea of a bed. Enjoy the room while the babies are babies. Invite my aging dog back onto the bed for his last few years.   (He had been delegated to the floor when I was pregnant, back in the summer of '09, he was too solid to move and I was to pregnant to budge him). Even my aging sick cat was on the bed last night, and he has been out of the picture of many months.

Another wonderful customer service person. I felt mortified hassling them with my order change, but she assured me her goal was to make me happy. And although I couldn't get the sale prices (which were little on my mind, but they wanted to make sure I understood that they can only cancel the order, not change it), and the sheets were already on the truck for delivery she was able to cancel the bedframe order. Every step of the conversation felt right and made me happier with my new decision. I even gushed this to her several times, and that is way out of character for me.  In the end she took off 10% for not being able to completely help me out. 

Thanks to the order of events, we will soon be happy sleepers in a king size bed. That will fit all of us, three cats, a dog and three humans.

An ode to my dog Luc while listening to Neil Young - Old King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIiAimqwCIE

Luc the watch dog. Nova Scotia 8/09

Better form Nova Scotia 8/09