A Man Named Ballard Saved My House

How’s that for a catchy title?  Did I get your attention?  Not sure how it will do on the search engines…

 

Anyway, how’ve ya been?  Same old busyness here, with a side of spring fever.  March has got to be the longest month of the year. 

We’re getting plenty of early spring rain here, leading to many many muddy footprints.

 

From these two.

You all know Archie, he’s been here awhile.  Ole Arch is 10 years old now, and this is his favorite thing to do. 

 

This is Zeus.  He’s 5 months old and the bane of my existence.  the thorn in my side.  the irritant on my very last nerve.  Can you see the madness in those eyes? 

It’s a really lucky thing for him that he’s incredibly cute and the color of chocolate.  I had forgotten what Lab puppies are like.  Which is VERY different from Boxer puppies.  Zeus is all about chewing and eating and water.  He drinks from his water bowl,  sticks both front paws in and proceeds to jump up and down.  He creates mud puddles and rolls around in them.

And then he has the nerve to come in my house.  The house that I spend every day redecorating in my mind.  Ugh.

 

We’ve tried placing your standard cheap throw rugs everywhere to soak up the gunk. 

 

He ate those. 

 

We have one nice rug in the house, and he hasn’t chewed that one, but it’s a pain to clean.

I was desperate to have CUTE, but tough and easy to clean rugs.  That’s where Mr. Ballard came in.  You know, Ballard Designs.  I’m assuming that there was or is a Mr. Ballard somewhere.  And I LOOVE him.

 

And his fabulous Indoor/Outdoor rugs.  And I’m not being paid to say that.  My first purchase was these awesome brown and cream chevron beauties for my kitchen.  The one in the foreground is a runner.  These rugs have had food, mud, and urine (sorry, but puppies do that) on them.  And it all scrubs right off.  They are made out of some recycled plasticy material and can be scrubbed and/or hosed right off.  Oh my, I said to myself, I need more of these.

You might remember that this one was my Christmas gift.  It’s the 5x8 black and cream version of the kitchen rugs.  I’ve clean dog vomit off of this one and it was a breeze.

 

So a couple of weeks ago, I bought another.

 

For the family room.  Our carpet is only a couple of years old, but the dogs like to lay in the space between the coffee table and the sofas, so it was wearing fast.  Now the carpet is protected and I can scrub the rug.  Ahhhhhh…..

 

The only drawback to these rugs is that they are not the softest under foot.  But I’m okay with that because I have a little peace of mind.  And I can wear socks. 

Have you purchased any life-changing products for your home?  I’d love to hear about them.

 

geez, I should have been paid for that.