Hello there. You probably forgot all about me. The Boy reminded me yesterday that I did not post a Sunday Salon post. Apparently, he looks for them. I had no idea. Well, Sunday has come and gone but I just wanted to pop in to say hello. I had quite a weekend which kept me busy and because of it, I just never got around to posting. Plus, I am still using that lame laptop of mine and it’s glitchy, at best.
Friday night, I completely lost my mind and ripped out all of the downstairs carpet. Why? Because the dear Otter Pup, AKA Chloe, Squirrel, Pupper Dog, got scared during a storm we had and did a number on the carpet. Not once, but several times and it was just too much to deal with. So, I ripped it out. Plus, this post on Pinterest piqued my interest. Stained concrete will be the end result. We spent all of Saturday doing prep work and then this weekend we will do the final prep work and then apply the stain. It will be nice to finish this weekend, but I am okay with it taking another week in order to get it right.
Here are some pictures. The first one, you can see the huge stain we made while cleaning the carpet. We have one of those home carpet cleaners. We always thought it was doing a really good job. Nope. It may have been clean on the surface, but underneath the carpet and pad… ugh. I never want carpet again.
After all that ripping, and sweeping and sealing, we went out to eat and I had one heck of a reaction from three bites of a tortilla. It was supposed to be a corn tortilla, but apparently it wasn’t. It did look a little suspect. Needless to say, after all the dust from the carpet and then accidentally glutenizing myself, I had the mother of all allergic reactions. Blisters down throat, near fainting and dizziness. It took me awhile to figure out what it was because I really didn’t think it was that tortilla. Needless to say, I collapsed into a heap and was out. The pup checked on me once to see if I was breathing but no one else did!! I woke nearly four hours later and they were eating dinner. Hello??
When Sunday came along, I was not feeling up to hitting the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, but The Girl saw the event insert and noticed that she missed Judy Blume on Saturday. Talk about guilt! I was barely functioning and I had no idea she would be so upset about missing her but it also warmed my heart a tiny bit that she was so passionate about seeing her. That said, I sucked it up and off we went.
We did not see Judy Blume, although she was there because we saw people waiting in line to see her.
I did not buy any books. I was REALLY out of it.
I took silly pictures with my phone because I wasn’t focused enough to do otherwise.
All in all, it was a fun trip. Normally, I attend the panels but I always regret not having the time to browse so this was a nice change of pace.
On the reading front, I am still juggling a handful of books and doing well, but still behind on my reviews. I suppose I will never catch-up if I continue to read. If everyone could have such problems! Ha!
Book Chatter 
OMG, what a terrible thing to have happen…UGH, corn tortilla my butt! I hope you are feeling better and cannot wait to see the floor once its done.
It was definitely not a flour tortilla, but maybe stone ground with wheat. My heart rate has finally returned to normal. Scary!
Oh Ti, that’s horrible! The reaction, the carpet… can’t wait to see the finished project though.
Thank you!! I hope it all turns out the way we want it to. I have to tell you, even with the bare concrete…it’s so much better than the carpet we had. The pup is now seeking out the upstairs carpet but we’re working with her to retrain her. She just got spooked with all that weird thunder and lightning we had.
Oh my gosh, I was at the Festival of Book on Sunday too. We got to see Julie Andrews, Betty White, and Florence Henderson. All and all my sister and I had a great time and I don’t know what I was expecting but I was a little disappointed. I guess I was thinking it would be more like BEA. That being said I did buy an Icebox Pies cook book and a new mystery series set here in San Diego.
When it was at UCLA, it seemed bigger and more impressive. At USC, it seems to have been down scaled a little. I had a good enough time considering I was walking around in a benadryl haze, but I had more fun when it was at UCLA. Plus…it was cold when we got there at 10am. It was nearing 85 when we left our house so my daughter dressed for a hot day. Hot day it wasn’t.
Wow, I am so not handy – I would have hired someone to do that work. Your reaction sounds scary!!
Oh my goodness that reaction sounds horrible! I’m glad that you’re okay. It’s so understandable that you didn’t get around to doing other stuff at the festival.
Oh, wow, that sounds like one scary reaction. I hope you’ve completely recovered. We have too much furniture for me to succeed at ripping out a carpet on my own — need a bigger house to fit the furniture I inherited, actually. I occasionally go on a crazy tear like that, though,with other projects. We do pretty much everything ourselves.
We have only one section of carpet in our house too! With animals it’s just not worth it! I think those floors will turn out awesome. So sorry to hear about your allergic reaction….sounds like your family and mine are related. No one would check on me either except for the dogs!! 😀
Yay for the stained concrete, it will look amazing, but huge huge boo for that nefarious tortilla. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you to have that happen and then be out for the weekend. Resurants and retailers need to be really clear with their ingredient list! Hope you are feeling much better now!
So sorry to hear about the reaction. I get canker sores from too much refined sugar… seriously… I have tested it. Another reason to stay away from premade food (for me).
Good luck with the floor project, it’s a big project but I bet you will love the outcome. I don’t understand concrete floors but our basement is unfinished… I wonder if this is an option for us to improve the unfinished look.
I should expand… living in a four seasons area I can’t understand concrete floors since we need to be bundled up so much of the year. 🙂
yikes, i hope you’re feeling better! i get a reaction–blisters on the roof of my mouth–to certain foods but have been unable to pin down exactly which foods cause these burning, painful welts.
as for the carpet, i’m an ANTI-carpet girl myself and ripped up a whole house of carpet–living room, dining room, stairway, hallway, and four bedrooms worth of electric blue horror. i uncovered gorgeous hardwood and though it gets a bit dusty, it’s much better than carpet in my eyes. 🙂 poor pup, keep her in the kitchen next time around! lol.
Now that is a weekend! I am impressed with this project you took on and am intrigued to see the results. I love pinterest. Hope you are feeling better!
It cracks me up that your son monitors your Sunday Salon posts! It kind of freaks me out that you have a carpet cleaner and it didn’t really do the job. Lord knows what is happening due to my beloved Romeo. I’m already pushing for hardwood or Pergo in the worst room. Not sure about stained concrete but that is because I’ve never heard of it and it just sounds like a driveway in the house!! Good for the Otter Pup for taking care of you … boo to everyone else!
I saw the stained concrete here: http://dibbledabblelife.blogspot.com/2011/07/diy-painted-stained-concrete-living.html#comment-form but if you go to Pinterest, there are DOZENS of gorgeous examples. We have a really good cleaner too and it did nothing… zip to the underside of the carpet, plus it was wet….from like…way back. Â
How great the The Boy keeps up with your blog and that The Girl is so passionate about books! But, argh, sorry that you had that awful allergic reaction!