.... a lot done that way just in time to put pants on for Adrian the Handyman's scheduled visit today-- and did WE kick some butt.

A long-running problem has been dog dust in the house. A hard-to-address source of the dust has been the dog porch between their kitchen sleeping corner and Dog World. It has always had a rug for their walk-off mat, but it was always cheap, undersized rug scraps that never really laid flat. It would shift, but worse, it would ruck up and wrinkle so that no vacuuming could pick up the dust that, in spring mud season, is so bad we feel like we have horses in the house. And pigs and goats.

Today-- I'm having a hard time typing BTW due to the transports of Peanuts-like Snoopy-dancing-- we implemented My New Plan. The goal-- a dog porch Hardi can VACUUM as he now regularly vacs the kitchen and downstairs, with the big AccuSuck shop vac.

So-- we took pieces of scrap plywood (created as scrappage when the sleeping-attic shelving was replaced with a beautiful thrift shop locker), and cut puzzle pieces to fit the oddly-shaped floor in the dog porch. I had some leftover crappy ruggage we'd PURPOSELY left on the front porch in storage-- an old bath carpet that makes a good cutting-pattern for the periodically-replaced carpeting in the loo.

Anyhoo we "upholstered" the scrap-ply flooring's "puzzle pieces" with this, wrapping and staple-gunning it securely. ("Oh NO! Hardi away, my staple gun missing, what to DO!" Cell + landlord = joy.)

I can take the puzzle pieces out as needed for a thorough pressure-washing, and I can add new layers of ruggage as each loo carpet is recycled out of use and demoted to dogdom.

Removable cleats will hold the pieces down, around the perimeter, acting like baseboards. The cleats will ALSO improve the weather-proofing around the base of the dog porch. On Ade's next visit we plan to make a dog door to cut winter cold-air flow (from Dog World into their corner and MY COLD KITCHEN).

We cut and fit the ruggage so well that from a 6x9 piece, we had only a few handfuls of unused scrap to toss! And we had JUST enough plywood, too! I LOVE using up stuff!!! (STUFF!)

Then we addressed the last saved scrap of really-good carpeting Hardi and I'd gotten a year or so ago.... one piece had gone in my office, one huge one in the LR, one in the K, and Ade helped me lay a BIG piece up in the sailboats-bedroom a few months ago. THAT one was the newest, thickest, best grade of all the pieces. An odd-shaped remnant was left.... and PERFECTLY fit the dogs' sleeping corner, so that a years-muddy MESS that had sat there (to keep them off cold, bare, ceramic tiles) LEFT.

The old piece was duly bagged and saved-- it also makes a great cutting pattern. In mud season Hardi will take it to the carwash to blast the mud out, and it will go back into their corner one more time while this THICK winter one gets a good cleaning.


THE RESULT: The dogs' total indoor environment is now actually CLEANABLE, and the tax refund (tax lady called today, YAY!) is going towards a GOOD kitchen air-cleaner to supplement the little one we funded, which has been a champ; it was planned to go IN their sleeping corner and has pulled so much more dust out of the air than I had ever hoped. The new, BIG one will do even better; Ade will install the little one in their corner to reduce how much dust floats up above the barrier and into my DR.

Also on his next visit (2 weeks) we will build a mondo shelf unit out of 2x4's to take up the space the nasty, energy-hog fridge took up. Hardi always needs more storage space in the laundry room/mudroom. Adrian LOVES carpentry so HE will be in hog heaven, too.

Today's visit was courtesy of #1 son and DIL. Their gift $$ arrived while Ade worked, in the mail.

In between helping Adrian I finished the blog postings for the friend-- 23 postings at an average of 1,000 words each. LOVED seeing his writing mind and his heart in these-- a real privilege to be allowed to help, even at 23,000 words!

A little Tramadol and Aleve, and it's chairtime for me!

~Susan