Take this rug and shove it....

I don't want you any more!!!  Well, that is an exaggeration to some extent.  Remember when I posted about that beautiful runner we finally found for our stairs?  We had it installed and we have been miserable ever since. Not because the rug is ugly or poorly made but rather due to the install.  I knew the day the flooring guys arrived at the house and I spoke to my husband on the phone that he was not a happy camper.  You see, at the top of our very old, narrow stairs is a very unique shape called pie stairs.  We happen to have three of them.  When the consultant came out for the first inspection and measure, he was very confident that the installers would be able to accommodate our pies.  Ha! Not so much...

So we now know we love having carpet on the stairs as it makes it much easier for all of us (animals included) to get up and down the stairs with ease.  However, the pies are an eye sore since the carpet pattern is all out of whack.  Thankfully, The Home Depot is a great company that stands by its word and they have refunded our money completely.  We have now located a carpet company that is more than confident that they can do the job.  They have shown us examples of pies they have done which has raised our comfort level. Unfortunately, we are back to the drawing board on what pattern to pick.  We attempted to look at samples this past weekend at the showroom but every pattern I seemed to touch belonged to the wool family which runs about $68 a square foot.  Yep, you read that correctly...SIXTY EIGHT DOLLARS.  We are going to try and get back there later in the week to search through the many, many books of samples to see if we can find a match.

Slip and slide!

Finally...we have heat in our entire house.  When you program the thermostat to 70 degrees, it actually feels like 70 degrees no matter which floor you are on! YAY!!!  As I mentioned, the HVAC guys came in the following Monday and popped the roof to put in a vent for the second unit.  By sundown we had heat on both floors.  Such a novel concept.  Finally, my family is together under the same roof and not freezing to death.

Since the heat has returned to our world, life has moved on.  Christmas decorations went up.  We continue to get settled in our "new" digs while we bring the last bits and pieces over from our former home.  Thankfully renters are moving in to that house at the end month and we will only have one house note to fret over.  Becoming landlords is a totally different story...

The one downside to the dream home is the stairwell.  Old and creaky as well as very narrow as you reach the top, we are always fearful that our three year-old will fall down them.  Who would have thought one of the adults would take the tumble first.

This weekend I was running around with only my socks on while taking care of a few things upstairs.  When my daughter started hollering for me, I ran to the top of the stairs to let her know that I was in our bedroom.  As I stopped at the top stair to let her know where I was, my body stopped but my feet did not.  Hard I crashed on my back side down 11 of our hardwood stairs.  My blackberry in hand went flying over the rail and broke my house warming gift to myself, the blue floral knick knack bowl from Glory Haus which I think has now been discontinued :( Thankfully, that is all that was broken. Sunday, I went to the emergency room  since the pain was worse the day after of the accident (so much so that I passed out in our hallway!). The x-rays showed only sprains and bruises.  For that I am most grateful.  We have always known we would have a long laundry list of projects we would like/want/need to do over the next few weeks, months and even years but I think the one regarding a carpet runner on the stairs just got bumped up on the "must do" list.