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Design your own custom carpet

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When we moved into our house we removed all of the wall to wall carpeting on our second day of owning the house.

The previous owners had had a cat- and while I think that cats can make great pets, both my husband and I are very allergic to them. We removed the carpet to lessen any allergens from the cat, plus the carpet was an ugly robins egg blue color throughout the whole house. I have nothing against robins egg blue- but not only was the carpeting that colour but so were the walls in all the rooms but the upstairs bathroom. Ironically enough the only room that has any similar colour to the one that dominated the house is the upstairs bathroom.

We refinished our floors and we have wonderful white oak hardwood floors- the original flooring too I might add. It’s lovely. But …

Sometimes I wish we had at least an area carpet in the living room. My feet get cold, and also I think some area carpets add to a rooms overall feel and style. So I’ve been looking around and I was quite pleased yesterday when I found a company that lets you create your own custom rugs. That’s right, you can remodel an existing design from their collection to suit your style or you can create a custom rug style of your very own. I’m definitely going to be looking into this to see if there is anything that I can come up with that would look great in our living room.

If you are interested in creating your own custom rugs you could visit their online store Luxrug.com or you might be lucky enough to live near one of their showrooms in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, or Dallas. The actual company that makes the rugs is called Tufenkian and they specialize in handmade Tibetan and Armenian carpets. That’s right- I said handmade. The carpets are made of high quality materials, handknotted and are often of Tibetan and Armenian design. If I’m going to create a design for a custom carpet I think this is the company I would choose to work with. Why don’t you visit the site and browse through there designs and styles.






GTA finder puts renovators and home owners together

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Anyone else in Toronto here? I just found a great site that I’m certain will come in handy at some point. As I’ve said before Chris and I have been renovating our home. Slowly, ever so slowly. I’m pretty fed up with our slow progress and I’ve toyed with the idea of hiring a professional to come in and finish the job for us.

Perhaps this is a sign? I just came across this site that offers Renovator Quotes in Toronto. It’s a relatively new service for residents of Toronto. If you re in need of home renovations- sort of like we are – you can just go to the site and fill out a short form where you’ll describe what kind of work you need done.

Once you’ve submitted your information you just need to wait for a short while and soon, you’ll hear back from up to five different contractors or renovators who will offer you quotes and or estimates for your job. While you are waiting you can read articles on their site that have tips on renovating, and there’s even a Do it yourself section where you can get some tips on things you can do, and perhaps what you should leave in the hands of the contractors.

You’ll be able to find people that do renovation work, Roofers, workers who specialize in heating and air conditioning and of course painters too.

I’m really happy to have found a site that offers a service like this for the Toronto and GTA area. You never know, I may just call them soon and get some quotes if we don’t get back to work on our own reno plans ourselves.

Tin Ceiling

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My husband and I have been renovating our house for the last five years. 3 years ago we started to put in a new ceiling in the living room dining room. It’s still not done! Oh we purchased our tin ceiling tiles and I antiqued them. It’s going to look very nice if it ever gets done, but that’s about all that’s been done so far.

You see, a short while after we started renovating the whole living room/ dining room my husband I both became ill. Different illnesses and no nothing that can be traced back to the house or our renovating projects. We had finished our walls with venetian plaster – so that looks good, but don’t look up! We have wooden uh what do you call them? Slats? running along the ceiling, ready to attach the tin ceiling. We don’t really have all that much to do, but even so, it’s still not happening.

I’m getting frustrated. So frustrated in fact that I went looking for Local Contractor Services. Yep. maybe it’s time to stop doing this project ourselves.

I found Contractor Clicks and I’m going through the site looking for just the right type of contractor for the job. I think I might find the right type of contractor under room remodeling. Hey, they even offer 4 free estimates from contractors who’ve been working for at least three years. Alright, well then If can’t get my husband on the move to help me finish the ceiling I might just go back to that site and get me self a contractor.

Hey, I did my part of the job. I did 600 square feet of venetian plaster – two shades, 5 layers- over three weeks! Hand polished and everything. Then I opened up all the boxes of tin ceiling tiles and painted them, and antiqued them – all 83 2.5′ by 2.5′ tin ceiling tiles. All my husband has to do is put them up – with my help. I don’t think that’s too much to ask is it? Well if we don’t start working on it within the next month I’m going to get a contractor in here.

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