Spending your money, Part III

Scanning the cat facility for "shabby moments," one aspect leaps right out. The climbing wall needs some serious help. Carpeted with two remnants donated by Donna, it didn't stand a chance against 20 cats. Hey, they've had fun with it, but because it was in two pieces and also not bound, they were able to destroy it in short order.



Coming back from the vet this morning, I dropped into Warehouse Carpet Outlet. When I told them what I wanted the carpet for, they led me straight to a 6'x9' bound roll of dense beige carpet for $89. "But that's not your price," he said, and lopped off almost 30% without me even having to dicker.



While he was ringing me up, he began talking with knowledge about what makes good cat carpet. And guess what? Warehouse Carpet Outlet will re-carpet cat trees! Granted, you can do it cheaper yourself, but some folks simply don't have the time, the inclination, or the elbow power to pull out all those staples. He told me that if people take the old carpet off themselves, it brings the labor cost down.

I know I'm heartily tired of recovering my own cat tree, although given the other things I can use money for, I can't justify paying someone to do it for me. But there are people who would gladly pay not to have to deal with that task, especially for a sturdy large cat tree, so it's good to know someone is available for the task!

Speaking of carpet:



What's this, you say? Just a broad expanse of spotless purple carpet?

Exactly. The new cleaner is wonderful. You want to see something disgusting?



Those are the fur clods that the cleaner couldn't suck up, that the rollers spit off to the side. It's from the deep-down shed fur that was in the carpet, that the beaters on the cleaner turned into pickupable clods. This is AFTER the carpet was vacuumed and the edges attended to with an edge tool. You can see why we needed a deep cleaner.

The cleaner is very easy to use. It uses quite a bit of cleaning solution, and I had to refill the water tank four times, but I'm quite happy. You know that nasty perfumed smell you get with the spray-on carpet cleaner in a can? If that stuff smells overpowering to me, I can't imagine how overwhelming it is to the cats.

This cleaner merely smells nice, not overpowering. The carpet dried within a few hours. I'm looking forward to trying the cleaner on the vinyl next, since that is dull after months of damp-mopping and Swiffer-mopping.