Nala and Gaz

[Imbrium]

question for those of you who are better at this whole "being an adult" thing than I am...

I'm sick as hell of looking at filthy white tile floors that always look dirty no matter how often I clean them (I literally vacuum and turn around and find new crap on the floors), plus there are some cracks in the tile. what I'd love to have is hardwood floors like the house in New Orleans had, but I can't even *begin* to afford that, lol. I was looking at this flooring - http://www.rubberflooringinc.com/interlocking-tile/foam/38-soft-wood-tile.html ... not as nice, but the same general look for a fraction of the price. it's also something I could install all by myself and it wouldn't require having the stupid tile floor ripped up (which, as I recall, creates a crapton of dust and noise and I have no idea what I'd do with all the animals while all that was going on).

I measured everything (pain in the butt 'cause the width and/or length of the areas change frequently) and calculated how many of the 2'x2' tiles I'd need... total cost would be about $610 (free shipping!) and I'd be covering approx. 440-450 square feet worth of floor. is that a good price for sanity or should I shop around some more?

also, should I go with the dark oak or light oak? I prefer the looks of the dark just looking at it on the computer, but I've got dark furniture that's a lot darker than the dark oak... not sure which would go better with that... plus it's hard to be sure I'd like the dark better looking at THAT much of it in the house, especially when I've had white flooring for 17 years.

 

[ldoerr]

I just asked my mom about your flooring situation (she just bought and installed about 1000 sqft of wood flooring in her house). She said that under $2 a sqft is a good price for flooring. If I were getting it installed I would go with the dark oak. The light oak is just too light and not good looking. That is just me though. The dark does not seem too dark.

 

[whitelop]

I would go with the dark oat finish too. Did I read that correctly, is that foam? Like what you put in a kids room? Thats freaking awesome! I want to get it for my son's room, to cover up our incredibly hard hardwood floors. hahaha. I'm not sure about the pricing, but I know what its like to have light colored tile floors. We used to gray tile and it was terrible. Ours were really porous or something, so EVERYTHING was attracted to it. I had to scrub the grout every week, on hands and knees with a toothbrush because it was always so stained. That was the biggest pain in my ***. EVER.

 

[Imbrium]

I actually placed the order this morning, 'cause it said the holiday sale ended Tuesday (though now it's wed. and it says "after-holiday sale" for 25% off/ends Tuesday, so I guess there's another week of it ). I went with the dark oak, it just seemed much prettier and I thought it would do a better job of not looking filthy all the damn time.

I can't believe you scrubbed the grout with a toothbrush weekly! mom never did that, and neither do I - I just let it look discolored and roll my eyes at it.

yes, the flooring is foam with the faux-wood stuff on the top. they also have a 5/8'' version for 30-40c more a square foot (the light oak version is on sale) that would be softer:
http://www.rubberflooringinc.com/interlocking-tile/foam/soft-wood-tile.html
http://www.rubberflooringinc.com/interlocking-tile/foam/58-soft-wood-tiles-2012.html

it doesn't say so on the sale page for the light oak, but shipping is free on both colors.

I'm so excited... even though it'll be a real pain in the butt to move furniture around to install the stuff, lol. I'll probably do a little at a time.

 

[whitelop]

I think the floor is really cool! I bet it will look good, post pictures when you're done! I want to see your tile too! I actually really hate tile, its so hard and cold. And yes I scrubbed it like that. It makes me nuts! AHHH. My house may have fur tumble weeds blowing through it, but there are a few things that really get me! Like fingerprints or lip prints on my wine glasses. Those things have to be pristine before I drink out of them! hahaha. And stained tile grout. I'm so glad I don't have anything tile anymore because I wouldn't have the time to clean it like I like and I would be miserable, lmao. Thats how it works in my head. And I can't stand hand prints on walls. Like, why are your hands on the walls? It KILLS me. I hate going to other peoples houses with white walls and stairs because for some reason no one knows how to hold onto the rail, they touch the wall. UGHHH, stop touching the walls.
Wow, sorry. I just had a total moment about my weird house pet peeves. God, maybe I do need a xanax. (btw xanax is a palindrome, if no one else saw that)

OH and I wanted to ask you, can you litter train a hammy? Or do they need the bedding in the whole cage, they like to burrow into the bedding right? I'm so hammy illiterate. hahaha.

 

[Imbrium]

hammies need bedding in the whole cage to burrow in, but yes, it's often possible to litter train them to go pee in a little potty box... a lot of people use sand as substrate. failing that, they tend to naturally pick a corner to do their peeing... though unfortunately sometimes their pee corner and their sleep corner is the same (gross!).

I dunno why people would touch walls either. I mean, maybe if you tripped or lost your balance and were trying to catch/steady yourself... but that should be like one hand-print a month or something. it doesn't even make sense on stairs when there's a railing RIGHT THERE!

I totally don't want to share pictures of the tile, it's really dirty right now and it gets dirty again so promptly from ALL the darn animals. everything is SO cluttered, too, 'cause of all the cages.

oh yeah... so the bunnies gave me an early christmas present >.> I went to go to sleep on christmas eve and my air mattress was totally flat. I was surprised, as the slow leaks shouldn't have deflated it that far... tried to fill it up and heard air RUSHING out. quickly discovered that SOMEBUNNY NOMMED A SEAM OPEN! I found the repair kit that came with it, but the patches for larger repairs (which are the perfect size to fix this) require some sort of special glue that doesn't come with it if the hole/tear is on the fabric-y part (which it half is)... and ofc I couldn't buy the glue because it was christmas and everything was closed. I'm gonna have to go to home depot soon and get something to fix it. worthless little punks!

also, walmart sucks. the new TV I wanted (to replace one of the 17-year-old crap TVs, finally) isn't sold in stores so I had to order it online. site-to-store takes a stupidly long time, but they offered free shipping on it, which is faster. it said it would be delivered the 26th-31st and I was really hoping it would be here today for my birthday (last time I had something delivered from walmart, it only took two days, so I thought the odds were in my favor), but so far, no TV... and if it arrives now, I'll be too tired to fuss with hooking it up anyway ><

 

[whitelop]

Happy Birthday! :balloons:

I can't believe they chewed into your air mattress! They've been pretty good about it right?! I would be pissed. lol
Thats pretty gross that hammies sleep in their pee area. But I guess its not much worse than rabbits, they sleep in their litter boxes too, so oh well. I think all animals are pretty gross! My dog smells like a dead animal right now, but who wants to give that beast a bath. lmao.
(As I was typing this, my son ate something off the floor and I have no idea what it was. Probably ham. Eww. Floor ham)

Ughh, with the walls! Why would you touch them? I don't get it! My friends parents house is the WORST. They have teenage aged children, but they're 19 and 18. So thats definitely old enough to know how to KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE FREAKING WHITE WALLS! The whole stairway is like blackish along both sides, like a foot above and below the railing. Really? Get a freaking mr clean magic eraser, they're the best for anything! I hate going over there. Well, and they have 3 dogs, 2 being large breeds and none of them are totally house broken, at the ages of like 6, 5 and a puppy. So thats disgusting! eww. I'm grossing myself out now. I need to clean my house now! I'm having anxiety.

 

[Chrisdoc]

That's something that mine would do, chewing through the air bed haha.

I hate people marking walls, why is it so difficult to walk down stairs without touching the walls and especially if you've got dirty hands. I'm not obsessive about cleaning but I do like the house to smell nice and am obsessive about he bunnies area being smelly which is why I'm always running around picking up after them and changing their litter regularly.

I laughed when you talked about the dogs. I have a friend who has four dogs and she hardly takes them out. She lives in an apartment and they pee and poop on the terrace and she cleans up after them and she thinks this is normal....yeeeeahhh :shame When I got out of the life to go to the door, it was open and I could smell the house before I actually saw it. I used to go up more but I hate going up there cos it smells so bad and I don't think she'd appreciate me telling her......yuuukkkk some people can put up with anything.

 

[holtzchick]

Awh happy birthday to you. I would join in on the cleaning rant but I'm way too tired.... It's a shame about the mattress hopefully you'll find a different solution. Oh and I hope your tv gets there soon, I gotta buy me one of those

 

[ldoerr]

Happy Bday :balloons: I am SOOO NOT a clean freak. You will probably think that this is HORIBLE but I have only vacuumed my apt 4 times in the year that I have lived there. :vacuum: I HATE cleaning. I also have barely any sense of smell so it takes a bit for me to notice if anything sticks or what.

 

[whitelop]

Lauren, that IS pretty gross! If I didn't vacuum everyday or every other day, I would be walking around in knee deep fur. My dog sheds so much, year round. Plus I have three indoor/outdoor cats. So the fur would probably be so thick, I could walk on top of it. lmao. People would be like "oh when did you get carpet?" I would be like, "oh, we didn't. Thats fur. I just stopped vacuuming and made a carpet with it." lmao. That would be hilarious. My husband was only half listening when I was telling him about this and he said "what? you want to vacuum quarterly? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure the fur would push us out of the house, if we weren't careful" Then he went back to playing his game. lmao. I'm cracking myself up over here! hahaha. I'm sorry y'all, I feel a little crazy right now. :humour:

Jennifer, I hope you had a good birthday and here's a little cake. :littlecake I made it just for you!

 

[ldoerr]

The fur is not a big deal here. I have a short haired cat that I got around Halloween, the 2 rabbits who I groom on the deck, and a couple of fish tanks that I am trying to get rid of. O and a dog that visits 1x every month or 2 for a weekend. I do more shedding than all the animals combined. I have REALLY long red hair that clogs vacuums in 10 minutes. If my hair did not clog my vacuum every 5-10 minutes (not making that time up) that made it so I have to spend 2 hrs unclogging it, I would probably vacuum more.

 

[whitelop]

Jennifer, since you posted about those wood finish floor tiles, I can't stop thinking about them! I want them! I have hardwoods, but we have a front room(that was a front porch until the 70's) and the floor isn't great in there and its drafty. I would love to put those tiles in there on the floor and then make that room a play room for my son! lol
My husband is not going to be happy when I bring up alternate flooring! hahaha. We're already about to paint my kitchen this weekend, he's going to kill me.

 

[Imbrium]

Happy Birthday! :balloons:

I can't believe they chewed into your air mattress! They've been pretty good about it right?! I would be pissed. lol

Ughh, with the walls! Why would you touch them? I don't get it! My friends parents house is the WORST. They have teenage aged children, but they're 19 and 18. So thats definitely old enough to know how to KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE FREAKING WHITE WALLS! The whole stairway is like blackish along both sides, like a foot above and below the railing. Really? Get a freaking mr clean magic eraser, they're the best for anything! I hate going over there. Well, and they have 3 dogs, 2 being large breeds and none of them are totally house broken, at the ages of like 6, 5 and a puppy. So thats disgusting! eww. I'm grossing myself out now. I need to clean my house now! I'm having anxiety.

yeah, I'm more than a little miffed about the air mattress ssd:

as for the rant about walls, I'm honestly not really bothered by wall-touching in general... but WTF is wrong with those people that their hands are THAT filthy to leave black marks on the walls???

I mean, I'm hardly a clean-freak and/or germaphobe to where I wash my hands a crazy number of times each day, but I've never left a hand print on a wall I've touched! I wash my hands at normal intervals - if I'm getting ready to fix food, about to wash veggies for the bunnies, after I pee, all that good stuff... and if for some reason my hands get really dirty (tending the garden, poking around under the hood of the car, etc.) or I feel like I've just done something potentially germy (cleaning animal cages/bunny litter boxes, taking out the trash, etc.), the FIRST thing I do is wash my hands. it's common freaking sense that if your hands are filthy, you should WASH them... and NOT FREAKING TOUCH ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE FAUCET until you do!

 

[Imbrium]

Jennifer, since you posted about those wood finish floor tiles, I can't stop thinking about them! I want them! I have hardwoods, but we have a front room(that was a front porch until the 70's) and the floor isn't great in there and its drafty. I would love to put those tiles in there on the floor and then make that room a play room for my son! lol
My husband is not going to be happy when I bring up alternate flooring! hahaha. We're already about to paint my kitchen this weekend, he's going to kill me.

lol, just keep reminding him how pretty hardwood floors are and how much cheaper this is. if you want something *really* soft and cheap, you could even look at http://www.rubberflooringinc.com/interlocking-tile/foam/12-eco-soft-tile.html - it's 95c a square foot on sale right now with free shipping! I was drooling over the low price for the bunny pen until I had an "oh duh" moment where I realized they could totally chew foam up... which meant I had to go with plastic tiles at a little more than twice the cost for their pen . they should be virtually indestructible, though, and they come in a bunch of colors... including a really pretty blueish-purple (which ofc I had to get even though it doesn't go with my living room at all ) - http://www.rubberflooringinc.com/garage/diamond-grid-loc-tiles.html

 

[whitelop]

So you did order the hard plastic garage tiles too? Those things are awesome! I could find so many uses for those things. Ahhh, so many activities! I'm going to keep bringing it up to my husband until he buys me either the wood grained ones or the hard tiles! I'll figure a use out for them, lol.
But the hard tiles will be great in your living room with the girls! Easy clean up AND they can't ruin it by eating it. That was an awesome buy!

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, darn bunnies and their $238 christmas prezzie! I figure it's worth the sanity gain of not having to sweep the stupid tarp for the next 10 years, though - with the tiles, I can actually vacuum with the shop-vac without it sucking the flooring up into the nozzle, lol. also circumvents the possibility of them figuring out how to shred the tarp at some point... plus, it's purple! I'll probably still leave the tarp down, since it'd be a fair amount of effort to get it up (moving the condo is a *****, and I plan to tile around it rather than under it), plus if anything ever manages to seep through the cracks where the tiles connect, it won't make it to the carpet.

btw, if you hadn't already noticed, you can get up to 3 free samples of flooring from that site (no shipping fees, either)!

 

[holtzchick]

Seems like you've always got a home/bunny related project on the go! I was always the same.

You must post pictures after you've tiled. I would love to see the floor too!

 

[Chrisdoc]

Take my hat off to you and it's going to look great once you've finished it all. The tiles are so cool, wish we could get things so easily over here and free shipping to boot. And yes, mine would chew the foam no problem. I have marble floors, they do look really nice but they are a nightmare as they do stain very easily. Luckily, they haven't been too bad for the boys except they're really slippy but I have non slip rugs all over now so they don't slide all over the place and so they have somewhere to sit as it's really cold on the floor in the winter. Love getting all these ideas though, what we could do in an ideal world.

 

[Imbrium]

in an ideal world, my bunny habitat would be twice as big, I'd have a garden in there for them (protected so they can only eat the topmost part of the plants and not the main body, of course) that wouldn't die from lack of sunlight and the whole thing would be self-cleaning!

also, dust wouldn't exist, because DAMN, do I hate dusting!!