Day 21 of 'The Daily Post'.
I am unique in the world. I don't see the attraction of hardwood floors.
Carpets are cosy and warm, and soft and quiet. Hardwood floors are clean and hygienic, I grant you that much, but they are noisy and have an unwelcoming look about them. Hardwood floors are unforgiving. Every speck of dust, every hair, every drop, every footprint shows. They are a pain to live with, unless you want to vacuum every day. I don't. Either want to vacuum every day, or vacuum every day.
Hardwood floors are for catalogue people. You know, the ones whose beds are made perfectly every morning, and whose sofas have scatter cushions beautifully placed on them. Whose bathrooms have bottles in neat rows, and no toothpaste smears round the basins. Whose hand towels hang square in the ring, and whose kitchens have clutter-free counters. Hardwood floors are for these people.
Kitchen counters. That's another one. I don't like granite kitchen counter tops. I just don't. I find them dark and oppressive, and they reflect the lights too much. I go to my kitchen for comfort and homeliness, not for a space age experience.
And yes, I know hardwood floors do not make much of a blog post, but this is day 21 of my month of daily posts, I've had 3 out of 3 children off sick in the past week, and you have to hand it to me, I did throw in granite counter tops at the last.
This is not a sponsored post, by the way.
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well i've been trying to be the 1st commenter for the past however many days (not 21)but my stupid internet connection fails me every time. It's as bad as beinn outbid on ebay because my internet is so slow or just so rubbish. It's my own personal challenge on y rdaily post& if I rant for longenough I'll b epippe dagain.
ReplyDeleteANYWAY you sounn just like my mother. I thought it was an age thing. She is equally passionate about tupperware. You know, when you've grown up with wood floors & lino you think wall to wall carpet s are the bees knees etc.
Have to say I'm in the wood floors & granite work tops camp. In fact granite is so cheap here I'm already planning how I cd get a huge slab of it back to the uk to make a granite work top with. (You can get it in light colours & you can chop straight onto it, no polish maintenance etc needed. It's as lazy a surface as wood floors are a high maintenance one)
I also like scatte rcushions........ but clutte rfree work surfaces, oh no.
Perhaps we'd best not meet in real life. At least no t in each others' houses;o)
Yay did it! You see I was typing so fast, my typos are even more of a shocker than usual. Ho hum.
ReplyDeleteI just don't get the British thing for carpet in the bedroom. That's just unsanitary.
ReplyDeleteOMG - I was just having the same internal rant myself about f*cking hard wood floors. And don't even get me started on granite worksurfaces...
ReplyDeleteMy floors are constantly covered in car hair and spilled juice stains and it drives me bonkers. Not that I make any effort to clean it of course. Much more productive to just let it raise my blood pressure day in and day out. So I would love to have carpets. Okay, so the cat hair and the juice spills would still be there...but I wouldn't have to see them and so could ignore them and convince myself that I didn't live in a hovel and wasn't a lazy tart where cleaning in concerned.
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ReplyDeleteParadise, I don't object to scatter cushions per se. It's just that they never remain neatly on the sofa like in the pictures. They get, well, scattered.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Mwa, why is carpet in the bedroom unsanitary? Did you mean bathroom? What do you do on your bedroom floor that British people don't? No... Don't answer...
Nicola, ah, a kindred soul. You've got the hang of it. It's really so annoying when you've hoovered, and then ONE cat hair is enough to make the place look dirty again.
I'm more of a wood floors with rugs kind of gal, I have to say. It's what I grew up with, and I guess I'm used to. (I'm definitely not a catalogue person, though. Far too messy).
ReplyDeleteI don't object to carpets in bedrooms, though they have to be really decent, soft fluffy carpets - I can't bear threadbare or manky looking. Mind you, if the boys were to throw the amount of milk, juice and general muck they do on the floor onto a carpet, I'd be in trouble.
Ah. Well. Here's the thing. Our flat? Hardwood floors throughout. Our kitchen surface? Granite. And you know what? NEVER AGAIN! Everything you say is true. Plus, what you didn't mention is that a) hardwood floors are a nightmare if you have two naturally noisy small boys, the sound bounces everywhere and is twice as loud as it would otherwise be. And b) granite is all very well and looks lovely when it's first installed but here in hardwater London it's a nightmare to maintain. So I don't. I know that somewhere underneath that cloudy surface there is beatiful granite trying to get out, but for the life of me I can't see it...
ReplyDelete(In my defence, both the floors and the surface were in situ when we bought the place. But like I said; never again...)
Hmmm, I've had both and I definitely prefer hard surfaces, much easier to hose down when my clumsy self inevitably spills something. And as the "biosafety" officer at work, I'm all too well aware of the critters that can be living inside fabrics...
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ReplyDeleteGod I am so with you and I have both. Hardwood floors because, well, everyone says you just can't sell your house without them, and I have allergies so carpets make it worse for me. And the bloody granite. My kitchen windows face east so every morning when I walk in there, I am faced with the wipe marks from the night before. I used to have Corian which I loved, but the particular colour that I wanted (flecky brown) they didn't do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, screens on windows, which make every window look utterly filthy.
I'm with you on granite countertops - how many damn mugs would get broken on those? All mine, for starters... We have hardwood floors everywhere except for the spud's room and I love them although next time I'd have them in his room and carpet in ours... They don't actually get dirty that fast and I just run a quick broom over them and then clean them once a week. I quite fancy a lovely soft carpet in the bedroom though, but the spud's is absolutely filthy... I think I'll wait for him to move out before carpeting his room next time!
ReplyDeleteIota - I have to admit I'm right there with you in regards to both. If I had my dream house, the kitchen would be hard wood, but not the rest. I really like some of the counters they have now that are non-stone, but also gray worksurfaces that you can put hot stuff on. I have no idea what they are called, but I love them. They are completely scratch-proof and clean easily.
ReplyDeleteHard wood looks fantastic, but not for me, thank you!
Oh goodness. That last one was me. For some reason when I was playing with my profile name it saved. Whooops!
ReplyDeleteDon't you have a swifter? Will change your view...
ReplyDeleteI did buy a swiffer when I first moved here. Oh, the power of the tv commercial. It's brilliant for the first 2 minutes, and then it's so clogged up with dust and grease, that I feel I'm just pushing the dirt around. Can't beat the Dyson, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYou and my husband were separated at birth. Gotta say, I love hardwood floors. Quick sweep and ta da! Getting the vacuum out - Arrrrghgghgh.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing well on the daily post front. I am impressed.
I only have carpet in my bedroom and it is the only room that stay cleanest of all the rooms in the apartment. I hardly ever have to vacuum or dust, whereas in the other rooms the floors are a constant mess of grit and dog hair and there's dust all over the place. From now on, I want carpet everywhere. The next time I have surplus money, that's what will happen.
ReplyDeleteYes but isn't it scary that the carpet never seems to need a clean when the hardwood floors show so much. It just makes me realise how much stuff gets trapped in the carpet - and then we sit/lie on it. Yuck!
ReplyDeletethis has all been very informative. I had no idea granite work tops caused so much agro, show marks, look dusty, etc. You have all saved me probably a small fortune in buying a slab here (cheap but still not that cheap here) We inherited a real wood (teak) work surface in our house in the UK, & it required SO much maintenance, treatment & showed every little mark & ring & very heat sesnitive, which then made it look skanky. So for the time being I'm quite grateful for our veneered MDF here in ALbania. The floors are all tiled too, beautifully cool in summer, but flipping freezing in winter. No such thing as wall to wall carpets. And the whole country is so dusty, don't think carpets wd make any difference
ReplyDeleteI love hardwood! the dog hair collects in the corners, easy to pick up the tumbleweeds or swiff them away.
ReplyDeleteGood that you got rid of your granite tops,but I love both hardwood specially in my children room I can hear them play and also keep the room clean and the granite top to see my kitchen spotlessly clean.
ReplyDeleteHi, I think that you are truly unique since you don't like granite kitchen counter tops. That's unique!
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