Rug change, pool maintenance, Rocky the big cat

This is the "before" picture of our living room floor. See all those stains? You could thank all those cats that used to live here (13 now, but 23 then) for peeing on the floor. We knew that they had been urinating in those areas, but we didn't know they had done it THAT much. sigh. We had been constantly (well, almost) putting Borax on the carpet to soak up what we thought was just surface pee... we were wrong, the carpet was literally soaked. We knew that the living room had a slight (to us) odor of cat urine, but since we live here we couldn't smell it very much except when first coming back home after being gone a few hours. Plus when we tried to sell the house a couple of years ago, all who looked in the house complained of the odor. Now we know why :-( The carpet in the video game room has one area (probably more) by the fireplace, to the left of the front door that more than likely has been stained too, but the carpet in there is a little better layed and attached to the floor. But definitely before we try to sell again we'll have to deal with it, and we will. Meanwhile, Rain sprayed home-made urine odor-be-gone on this floor and we've since let it dry and have put a different carpet down over the spots (obviously).

This area rug was upstairs in the kids' old bedroom, so we brought it downstairs and put it in the living room. Looks MUCH better than the ugly, pee-soaked, beige carpet that was there. Not to mention that is doesn't have that lovely (not) smell of "cat". Plus it livens the room up quite a bit. Took us all afternoon (3:30) up until around 8 p.m. to finish, but we finally did. YAY! Had to get the carpet out from underneath a computer desk, entertainment center, and a full-size sofa. What a hassle, but very worth it. Now we're going to be MUCH more attentive and WILL toss any cat that even THINKS about peeing on it, outside... maybe permanently. And because I like the "new" carpet, I took a picture of the middle design. Wanna see? I thought maybe. *smile* Well, as it turns out I didn't take a picture of just the center. Sorry for the tease. *smile* The old carpet is now laying in the driveway, where I did a major hosing-down of it yesterday. Thought it would be drying in the sun today, but as it turns out it's cloudy and threatening rain.

This is Rocky doing what we wish we could've done after everything was put back in place.
Idn't he cute, with is head on the lamp as if it's a pillow?

I strongly considered wading into the pool yesterday and scooping all the leaves and stuff that has sank to the middle. I stuck my arm in the water, up to my elbow, and decided the water was still too cold. Then a while later, when it was 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun, I sat on the top of the pool ladder and hung my feet in the water. It wasn't super cold, but I think my body temperature would've dropped considerably if I were to wade around in it for any length of time. Generally takes me about an hour to vacuum the pool, but I was only going to get the leaves out. Ultimately I decided the water WAS too cold and DIDN'T clean it at all (I did get some surface stuff with the skimmer though). The plans today include a friend coming to visit today, but I didn't hear from them last evening, so I'm not totally sure they visit. I've been wrong before though, and I hope they DO come for a while. We shall see!

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