New Floors! - February 21, 2012

When we first moved into our cottage, we decided the carpet in the living room (blue and in really bad shape) had to go.  Last year we had new carpet installed and have lived with it for just a few months.  Unfortunately, what we chose turned out to be the worst stuff.  The guy who came to clean it said it had a useful life of about six months.  What a waste of money!  So we decided to have vinyl installed in both the living room and the bedroom, which had ugly pink carpet. 

Here's how our old (new) carpet looked after just a few months' wear.

 It isn't dirt, it's just worn.  And here's the old pink carpet in the bedroom.

Today we got our new vinyl and we love it.  It looks like tile but is actually sheet vinyl.

We also got a new rug for the living room and runners for the bedroom.  The floors can get really cold here.  We've been assured that the vinyl will last a long time. 

Fortunately today was beautiful, 76 and sunny, so we went for a walk to the library and then to lunch.  When we got back from lunch, the floor was almost finished.  I did a little touch-up painting and we moved back in.

Easy Birding - February 3, 2012

Yesterday we had some errands to run so we decided to visit a city park to look for ducks.  This was the easiest birding we've ever done.  There were ring-necked ducks. wigeons, canvasbacks, and redheads among the group.  But the most amazing part was that they have obviously gotten used to being fed by visitors, because they practically followed us around.  Taking photos of them was a cinch.

 

There were also lots of turtles there, which looked exactly like the pet turtle I had as a kid, only these guys were the size of soccer balls. 

 

The weather has cooled off a bit, in the 60s, but still nice and sunny.