I was unwell over the weekend and spent a whole day basically doing nothing but read the archives on Crazy Aunt Purl. Since I'm in a nesting phase, Laurie's writing on making a home was particularly resonant. She documented the process of pulling up a ghastly old carpet in her "Encino-adjacent" rental to reveal the original wood floors.
Years ago, Mr. P and I did the same thing. We pulled up the old carpet in our first apartment to install cheap wood parquet. The carpet was not by any means new when I moved in, and I had been there for several years before Mr. P joined me. Under that carpet we found a foam pad so old and filthy it was sticking to the (unspeakably stained) subfloor, where it didn't crumble away in our hands altogether. Under the pad were drifts, sand dunes, a Coast Range of dirt (and who knows what the constituent elements were, but almost certainly they included dust mites), cigarette butts, a cigarette pack, hairs, nails, dead roaches, and basically the kind of debris you don't want in your home. At least I don't.
(Note: I don't care what kind of vacuum cleaner you have, it is not going to pull up the dirt that has sifted down through your carpet and foam pad to the subfloor. So no comments on my housekeeping, please.)
I understand the thinking behind carpeting apartments; it does help keep the noise level down. But really, couldn't the same thing be achieved with an insulating underlayment? That's what we used under the parquet in our current residence, which has a concrete subfloor. And then of course there's the issue of insulation in the walls. The issue being that there typically isn't any insulation in the walls, of older apartments (and homes), at least. Better insulation would not only reduce the costs of heating and cooling these properties, it would make them quieter. Without the need for disgusting, filthy, expensive, petro-chemical-based carpet. (Tell us how you really feel!)
One of the main reasons I have no interest in buying a residence in our area is that the properties in our price range are either old, and thus in need of serious renovation to make them secure and efficient, or brand-new, and - almost without exception - cheaply and hurriedly constructed. I don't want a mansion or a ranch. All I want is a decent amount of space that is easy to keep at a comfortable temperature with a minimum of HVAC and that is easy to keep clean, e.g., not carpeted. I love being able to run around with my (quiet, energy-efficient) Swiffer and have a gleaming, clean wood floor. The place looks big, it looks bright, it looks like a million bucks. We've even been told it looks designer.
We have done a lot of work on our current apartment. "We" of course is mostly Mr. P, who has the DIY skills that I wish I shared. He put in that parquet, which gives us our own dance floor; he's changed out every faucet in the place; he's changed out most of the light fixtures. We've painted, put up new window treatments throughout, changed all the cabinet hardware. This isn't our property, we'll never see a financial return; these changes were made to give us better quality of life in the here and now.
You know those home makeover shows, where people are trying to fix up their houses so they can sell? That makes me nuts. Why not fix the place up while you're actually living in it? Why not put a little time, a little money, and a little thought into what will make your life better right now? Why not open the door after a long day at work and think, "Aaaah! My peace and comfort are ... right here"?
In the spirit of new beginnings, let us resolve to look beneath the surface and really see how we are living. And then let us resolve to make one little change to make our lives better.
Even if all that change involves is replacing a doorknob. Or a carpet.
Comments