2003-09-29-11:10 a.m.
mold madness
The mold thing turned into a huge argle-bargle and it's still really frustrating. We're in the process of getting other estimates. Two companies have said the first company who did the mold assessment were crazy people who drum up mold hysteria. So, It may be less of a big deal than we thought. it's so hard to tell, because whose going to say good things about their competitors. Basically, they're saying the first company overcleans. They said we need to be assessed by an industrial hygienist and they'll write up a New York State approved cleaning protocol which the remediation people will follow. They say there's no way to get a true estimate of the work without this protocol. The first company doesn't bother with the protocol because it's expensive to have written - i.e. around $400. They just go in and blast it with everything they have. Even if the cleaning costs less than the original estimate, I have a feeling the industrial hygienist will cause it to cost the same or more. However, I. H.'s have the power to force companies to go in a redo work for free if mold tests aren't improved. So.......... I don't know. The other estimate isn't that much lower than the first and with the I. H. on top of it would be higher. Sigh. On a side note, the sellers cleaned out the basement and the air quality is already noticeably better.

bad mommy confession
I've been so consumed with the house stuff that I did something awful. We went to Home Despot and priced a lot of items. When we left, my head was reeling with all the possibilities. I put Ro boy in his car seat and when we got home I realized I never buckled him in. I wanted to kill myself on the spot. I felt so guilt stricken and awful. Fortunately, we didn't have a wreck. It made me realize how much my mind is elsewhere when it should be in the present. I feel really bad that Ro boy could've gotten hurt because I was absent minded. :(

room planning
There's a neat furniture store outside of Boston called Jordan's. They have a nice Room Planner that lets you specify room size and move furniture around. It's nifty if you use a Windows box. I can't get it to work properly on the Mac. Jordan's has good prices and way more furniture variety than Ikea. We may make a run up there rather than buy stuff here. Rochester has ridiculously inflated furniture prices. It's bizarre for a town this size. We found a solid cherry swedish design dining chair that we paid $170 for in Seattle. The same chair here is $350 and we thought we were paying a lot in Seattle. In Buffalo, the same dining chair costs $250. Hmmmmm... It might be cheaper to have stuff shipped from flippen Seattle than buy it here. Un-be-leev-able.

carpet quandry
The downstairs of the house is hardwood, which Husband and Stepdad are going to refinish. [[Scary!]] The upstairs of the house is carpeted in Dusty Rose (AKA Hideous Pink). I dislike carpet in general and this pink carpet in particular. I'd like to put down hardwoods upstairs or maybe cork flooring at some point, but that won't be for awhile and it will make the upstairs unusable for a week or more. So, I thought I'd have to just suffer with the pink carpet for several years because I wasn't about to pay to have new carpet installed. Ugh. However, I saw these carpet tiles featured in a Seattle Times article. I might be able to come up with something tolerable using them and they look easy to work with. It would sure beat hideous pink carpet.

paint themes and furniture
I noticed the Sherwin- Williams web site had paint themes to help you organize colors. They have the obligatory Martha Stewart, plus palettes geared toward certain time periods like the Arts & Crafts era that generated mission style furniture (i.e. Stickley) and other cool things. It would be fun to have an entirely retro Craftsman house with all Stickley furniture and A & C color schemes. Other than Stickley mission furniture, I hate matching furniture sets . Matching bedroom sets or living room sets in particular practically make me want to break out in hives or something. It's like too much of one taste. I wish they made non-matching furniture sets which sounds like an oxymoron but wouldn't be. It would be furniture that didn't match specifically but still complimented each other in some way. I've actually noticed a trend in non-matching in a few catalogs in the last year or so, especially with dining sets. You know like blonde wood chairs with a dark wood table or something like that. Maybe it will spread to other stuff too.

from punk to mainstream
When I was a young lass, the cool boots to wear were Docs, Fluvogs, or Palladiums. Each had it's legion of followers. So, 15 years later, I got the Garnet Hill catalog in the mail and was totally stunned to see they were selling Palladiums. They're pretty cute if you're a fan of chunky shoes and boots. I've only seen Palladiums made of canvas not leather. Anyhow, I'm sooooo tempted. I'm not much of a girly-girl. Especially, with shoes. I'm rarely into girly shoes except maybe some chunky mary jane type things.

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