My oldest sister has always had an incredible knack for decorating. She lives a few hours away and one time when I was staying with her, I actually got out of bed extra early just so I could surround myself with her pretty stuff. True story.

I visited her home this past weekend and, though I wasn’t there for a happy occasion (same city, different sister), I had that same urge. This time, I actually fought the desire to fill up my car with as much as I could grab. True story.

Her living room. Swoon.

See that white sofa? SHE HAS A DOG. A big one, who runs freely in the rolling fields surrounding her house. First born overachiever!

This is her mud room. What you can’t see is the gorgeous, heavy, antique door that marks the entrance. What you can see? That she has forced bulbs in February and I can’t grow plants in June when I buy them from the nursery already in bloom.

Doesn’t everyone have leaded glass over their kitchen sink? Oh, look! More bulbs!

A nook for when one of her guests picks up the guitar and plays. True story. It happens every time I’m there. Also, look at her phone! Who has a cute phone? Oh yes, that’s right…she does.

All I know is that I’m 40 years old and I still want to be her when I grow up.

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While a lot of our friends are off enjoying Florida sunshine for Spring Break, my family is planted firmly in Ohio…well, as firmly as one can plant thyself when it’s raining two inches a day.

We have been using this time to catch up on doctor’s appointments and accomplish some much needed tasks around the house.  You have beaches and sand?  We have waiting rooms and window cleaning.  So there!

Yesterday, my 12 year old daughter stumbled out of bed and declared, “We should tear out the living room carpet today.”

And because all 12 year old, sleep-deprived kids make rational declarations, I agreed.

We have been wanting to tear up the wall-to-wall carpet for years.  We had it installed in 1998, before we bought our first puppy and before we had our first child.  At that time it was a very light, off-white color.  Because, apparently, new homeowners in their late 20’s are pretty rational too.

By the time our son was born in 2002, the carpet was looking pretty bad despite bi-annual cleaning.  When our boy, the one known as Mr. Reflux, started crawling, small spots would appear everywhere from his constant battles with stomach contents.  It wasn’t pretty, people.

So, yesterday, I took the advice of the 12 year old, grabbed a crowbar, pliers (oh my, the staples!), work gloves and a box cutter and went to work on our 13′ x 23′ living room carpet.

I knew there would be spots of paint on the hardwood, because when we renovated the house we painted the ceilings last and by that time we were pretty sloppy and just wanted to be done.  But, despite the paint, I was pretty happy with the condition of the floor.

We started in one corner and by the time we reached the opposite corner of the room nearly six hours later, we were exhausted.  My arm was so tired from slicing the carpet into strips for the trash men to take that I could barely grip anything, but we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and fought through the pain in our hands, knees and backs.

Until we tore up the last piece of carpet to find this.

And, suddenly, we weren’t seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but rather the light from the basement laundry room.

I think this looks like a good place for a plant…don’t you?

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I would like to introduce you to the latest thing to make my heart go pitter-patter. My mudroom. One sure way to make a woman happy is to give her family a place to declutter before entering the house.

This room at the back of our home has gone through a few transformations. When we moved in almost 12 years ago, it held the debris from the complete home renovations we did. If these walls could talk they would probably say they heard a lot of cussing back then.

After that, it contained hand-me-down furniture from my mom. It was lovely, but way too over sized for our small porch. You could barely walk through the room let alone sit in it.

Last summer we decided to make a change and finally start using this space the way we’ve always intended. We bought a table and chairs off of Craigslist which makes a great place for the kids to sort through their backpacks after school. We also purchased a storage ottoman that not only holds our patio cushions, but is also where the kids can sit down to take off wet or muddy shoes.

Yet, we made those changes and the room still looked horrible. Why? Because the flooring was astroturf. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING you can do to make a room look better when the floor is covered in astroturf.

Then like an angel swooping down with carpet-covered wings, I got an e-mail from Rite Rug asking if I would like to be part of their 75th anniversary celebration. They wanted to know if I had a mudroom that needed a makeover. Did I ever! I was thrilled with the idea of walking out the back door without feeling like I needed to suit up first!

Now there’s no more astroturf. In its place is this gorgeous, green carpet that was covered in mud the day it was installed. And, you know what? I never even knew. My husband waited for the mud to dry, then vacuumed it right up. It’s pretty carpet that cleans up nicely and you don’t even need cleats to walk on it!

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