Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Labs sure shed a lot!

This is a (duh) close up of my dog Jake:


No worries, he's not mad but he is wondering why I am sticking my camera in his face.

Anyhow, you'd think a short hair breed would not shed much but holy heck this guy sheds like mad. I am pretty sure he is not full lab, I adopted him (very long story) when he was 1 year and 3 months and I am his third parent - owner. My dog prior to that was a chow/shepard/lab mix so I expected that with Kodi but never thought a lab that is pretty much lab (he's a bit smaller, his nose is a bit pointier and he doesn't have the typical barrel chest) would shed so darn much.

Now it's my hair (thin and long) that usually stops a vacuum cleaner because it wraps around the roller brush but his fur fills the cup in no time. Thankfully my friend gave me his old bagless Bissell and only after two uses, it was fuller than it should be. Uh, whoops. I didn't realize it was above the fill line until after I had already finished vacuuming today.

You combine his fur with Sonny's and my *shedding* too and good gracious it makes me fear the carpeting.

My preferred flooring in most of a home is limited carpeting. Since I worked in a tile company briefly I learned quite a bit about proper flooring. If you've ever pulled up 20 year old carpeting or even newer (yeah, it should be replaced much, much sooner) where the home is located in a dry and dusty place, carpeting is simply disgusting.

Carpet has its advantages such as: sound proofing between stories, stays warm in the cold months, non-slip and easily carries color from one room to another and especially good when using a neutral color in that manner.

The problem with carpeting is: stains easily, dirt magnet (especially in the dry climate I live in), requires regular deep cleaning, attracts bad smells, expensive to replace, often people buy in colors that only work for three years with their home decor...

Tile is great but I would never put tile in a kitchen, ever. I love, love the look and having sold it in the past, it has a lot of benefits but if you enjoy cooking tile is very hard on the back (and feet too). Tile also is not as forgiving as hardwood, laminate or vinyl when you drop something breakable.

If it were my decision: hardwood or laminate through the majority of a home using throw rugs for warmth and the look of hardwood never goes out of style. Tile in a bath since it cleans up nicely and perhaps wall-to-wall carpeting in a guest bedroom that doesn't get much use. If you must use tile in a kitchen, get some nice rubber chef mats to cushion your back and feet. Vinyl and other such flooring is great for laundry rooms, mudrooms.

While sweeping is kind of a pain in the butt, I would prefer to not have carpeting. Hardwood or laminate can be very easy to care for and if you know the rules of flooring, you'll have the tools to fix areas that may become damaged.

Tip: When buying flooring, buy at least 10% extra. If a tile breaks, you have matching tile. If you've left on vacation to come back and hardwood or laminate flooring has been soaking in water for whatever reason, you have matching planks. Vinyl is hard to destroy but I have seen it done so that can be patched as well. And your carpeting is the same deal.

Oh and as a side note. I remember we had this cool parquet flooring when I was a just a baby through the beginning of my toddler years (I remember weird stuff) that my parents replaced with orange shag carpeting. I would love to have a room or two in parquet flooring similar to what we had:



Perhaps a different design or bigger squares but I like it.

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