After finishing our deck stairs, we decided to move on to our interior stairs. When we moved in way back in 2012, we tore out all of the carpet in the house. The man who lived here before us was disgusting and there was grossness all over the house. We didn’t want to breathe his filth, so we tore up the carpet on the stairs. It stayed bare wood until this week. It wasn’t so bad when the basement wasn’t finished, but with our basement tiled and upstairs complete, it only heightened the horrible interior stairs.
After (literally) years of debate about the right floor covering, we chose a grey carpet. It’s literally the only carpet in our house. We considered wood, laminate, a woven vinyl, amongst other options. Carpet is just tough to beat for durability, “feel”, and cost. It’s not permanent either, so could be swapped out without much lost. We’ve never carpeted anything, but figured we could handle the job.
It turned out surprisingly well! It wasn’t as difficult as we feared. And totally transforms the experience going up and down the stairs. The final task with the stairs is adding a white piece of trim where you see bare wood. The drywall isn’t uniform all around the stairs, so it needs some trim to hide that fault.
We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! It’s hard to believe how quickly time flies. To ring the bell for the occasion, we ordered vegan Taco Bell for the first time. It’s definitely a crowd pleaser!
While trading off getting cousin Aidan, we met some puppies at his grandparents’ house. They foster dogs for the local shelter and happened to get a pregnant one. We just had to meet the puppies! Adelaide could sit and care for them all day. Emerson was more interested in exploring their house.
Speaking of Aidan, we made sure to put him to work a little bit. In addition to playing with our kids, he helped power wash our cement in the back yard.
Exercise has become a new/old focus of ours in recent weeks. I’ve been lifting weights during stock market hours when I need a break from the computer screen. And started running after the close to clear my head and think about the day that just happened. Karissa has finally gotten back into running a bit too. Heck, even Adelaide wants in on the fitness craze!
Karissa continues to do pretty well with her Norwex business. We seem to get packages all the time. If you haven’t heard of it, check it out. It is cleaning with water – removes the various harsh chemicals we find all too “normal” from our homes. If you are interested in trying it, let us know!
Schools are staring to roll out their plans for the fall. Obviously, with Karissa being a teacher and Adelaide set to start Kindergarten, the plans are foremost on our minds. At the end of the day, we don’t see how schools can justify opening in-person learning just yet. We’re in worse shape, as a nation, than when we closed. And any progress we’ve made will surely be lost with schools being a super-spreader. Plus, starting physical school and moving to online is disruptive. Starting with online and moving to physical school would be a celebration. But safety doesn’t seem to be the focus of too many decision-makers. So we’re watching all of the plans with a keen eye, knowing we’ve got some big decisions coming soon. In any event, we’ve got the kids practicing wearing masks. They don’t mind them and understand they’re being good neighbors by wearing one.
Have you seen the new Netflix show, “Floor is Lava”? It’s an embodiment of the game we all played as kids. Well, it’s gotten our kids to play “floor is lava” all around the house.
Other than that, we’re still eating some tasty food and having as much fun as possible. We hope you are too!
