Margali's Griffin Wood Ranch

[Margali]

So the baseboard, linoleum, etc in great room hallway and bedroom will come out. Hopefully we can get a different pattern. This is what is on floor and counter tops. It always looks dirty.

 

[Baymule]

Always looking dirty can have its advantages, just sayin’………

 

[Ridgetop]

I always choose something that will hide the dirt because kids + livestock = dirt. My method for choosing hard floors: take the floor sample you like, drip a little coffee on it, shake off the sample but don't dry it off. You want the coffee just damp enough for dirt to stick, get some loose barn dirt + manure and sprinkle it over the coffee dribbles on the floor sample. Let dry naturally. Once the sample is dry shake off the dirt and lightly brush off the result. If you can't tell where the coffee/dirt was - buy it. Cuts down having to wash the floors from twice a day to once every other day, or even once a week.

Another hint I learned the hard way: Don't buy gray or light blue carpet, always buy carpet with a shade of brown in it. I bought gray carpet once and after a year the traffic pattern was ground in. Not in heavy wear but in dingy tan on the gray carpet. Would never shampoo out either. One room had multi shades of tan and brown and never showed dirt. I also preferred plush carpet since with small children any sticky stuff that got stuck in the fibers could be "shaved" off with a razor blade leaving a perfect plush surface. Bought Berber once having heard that it was very resistant to wear - not with small children who have toys with edges that can hook into the Berber and pull out the loops just like unraveling knitting. Picked up a toy hooked into a loop and suddenly a couple inches if yarn pulled out leaving several inches of bare backing. It took me 3 hours poking the yarn through the backing to approximate the Berber weave!

 

[Baymule]

Berber carpet is clearly not made for living on. You may only look into the room, never actually walk on it.

 

[Margali]

My parents supposedly picked out their carpet by plopping their calico guinea pig down on the sample book.
My issue with the current linoleum is most "planks" are all gray scale but only a few have tan. So those always look dirty.

 

[Baymule]

I have “oak” laminate flooring (I hate, loathe and despise laminate) but it does rather well at not looking so dirty. I sweep up a pile of black hair from Carson, it doesn’t show much either. Matching vinyl in the bathrooms, the fake wood grain hides the dirt. Now y’all know my dirty little secret! Baymule has dirty floors and doesn’t care because she can’t see it.

I kick boots off in the utility room to try to keep floors clean. Then in comes a big black dog that just wallowed in the dirt outside. I’m losing the dirt battle.

 

[Mini Horses]

I have oak laminate but, I like mine. Hey, it's 23 yr old and I've replaced the big rugs a couple times as they wore out! Bedrooms wall to wall carpets are next expense replacement. After fencing... See my priorities?

 

[Baymule]

You definitely have your priorities in proper order. Fence first!

 

[Margali]

Frustrated with the electric fence and these sheep! My NEW fencer was running 12kV yesterday but today only 2kV when I got home. I'm afraid I'm going to have to buy woven wire and completely nix the electric.

 

[farmerjan]

Unless it is actual electrified netting, I have no use for electric with sheep or goats. They will go through it and only get zapped once... and with it you are constantly having to trouble shoot the "where's and why's" of low voltage on the fence tester and all that. Cattle are less likely to just go through it... but there are some that do... but with their size they can't get between the strands as easy or as fast... Still, we have so much deer problems here that except for some interior electric for dividing some pastures, I would just as soon never have electric again... and keeping males away from females with electric and no actual physical barrier is just waiting for something to happen.