The William Morris Project, Year 2, Weeks 7 & 8

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." This is weeks seven and eight of the William Morris Project*, happening again, every thursday in 2013. {I promise, I'l get myself together!}

*Pancakes & French Fries started this whole business a while ago, and I have been trying to keep up ever since!

Lets have a show of hands: how many of you consider wall to wall carpet a good thing? Now, how about wall to wall off white carpet plus kids? I didn't think so. {to the one crazy person with their hand still up ~ you might be in danger of a mental breakdown sometime soon.}

In any case, that happens to be the lot we drew, kids and carpet. I am not in the market for added stress right now, so we opted to go the route of faux cool, with a carpet on carpet look. One carpet for the living room carpet, check! In the dining room we put our other, more weathered rug, because honestly, most of the abuse is bound to happen where food hangs out. But wait! What about the other living room? You know, the Parlor? No rug. We do have Miss Scarlet and a lead pipe handy, but no carpet. In every situation like this, there is only one solution. Craigslist. I found a rug that looked nice in pictures, but was a bit of a drive. After much debate, everyone loaded up and off we went, in the dark, to Washougal. In fact, we went ten miles out into the woods beyond Washougal, to a mobile home, filled with pre-teen girls having a Taylor Swift karaoke party. I was greeted at the door by a partly dressed, and very friendly woman who took me 'out back' to the dark, dark deck where the rug was.

At this point, what would you have done? Here are some key facts:

Rug=cheap price but, unknown condition

Car=full of family who have been winding through the forest for over an hour, and is now out of gas

Me=under pressure to find something AWESOME for a stinking fantastic price, yet again, on craigsamazinglist.

Of course I bought it! No way did I haggle, I am far too English. I paid full price for a wadded up, dirty rug that somebody kept in their shed out in the woods for a year. I swear, it seemed reasonable at the time. The next day I used my carpet cleaner {thanks mom!} about seven times on it, front and back, and it is almost lying flat now! The color is a little different than what I thought it would be, by the moonlight, when I first saw it, but hey. If someone throws up or spills pasta on it, at least it will not be on the beige carpet beneath.Now, I just need some furniture!

Going to see a man about a dishwasher, Alice