Rug Lucky and the price of tiling....

The tiling job on the bungalow was a bit pricey, more than I had budgeted but once you are committed, you need to finish, there is no going back.

Tiles $1.99 sq ft            $1667.00
Mortar bullnose misc      $400.00                      
Ditra underlayment      $1,000.00
Rimoldi Leveling             $286.00

Equipment rental            $200.00
demolition hammer
grinder

Delivery (truck rental $153.00)

790 sq feet $4,70 sq foot


This left me with a deficit for floor coverings for the big house I had thought the cost of the tile would be the cost of the floor, but did not factor in the under layment, the floor preparation, and misc, in the initial budget.  This is a shortfall of $1,500.00 I will need to get creative in the big house.


 I've been very lucky to find 4 area rugs.  Three Oriental hand knotted rugs, and one rug that looks like needlepoint.  They were purchased because I liked them but after some research, they look to be very good rugs.

This was the first, the colors were neutral, and it had a label which was not visible when purchased.
It is 10' x 14'.  I buckled down and paid $150 for it, it is wool, and had one or two snags but no stains.

I purchased it for the small house, as you can see it looks good with the grey tile.  I was going to have it cut down to fit the room, then did a little research and found this.  The sticker on the back claims Stark, as the manufacturer.  I had never heard of them.

After a few months, I happen upon another thrift store and the carpets were thrown in the back, face out and rolled with secured with packing tape.  They all looked pretty grimy, I was willing to have whatever I found cleaned.  They were having a sale trying to move merchandise to make space for more donations.

Enter, the Persian rug, now I've always wanted one of these, I had one years ago, that wasn't nearly as nice but gave it to my brother when my cat arrived.  I couldn't bear the thought of the kitty ruining it.

This one is aprox 12' x 9', and I bought it for the big house (the one that won't be ready until next year).  This one was $60, I liked the back almost as much as the face.

I vacuumed the face and flipped it over to vacuum the back, I was very surprised to see the amount of dirt that was in it.  I continued to flip and vacuum until nothing else came out.  This brought out the shine in the rug, this mystery would soon be solved.....

It's a Persian Rug, made in Tabriz, and the pattern is Mahi (fish) pattern.  The fibers are wool and silk woven on cotton yarns.  The prices I have seen range from $1,400 to $6,000.  I'm unsure about the quality, which is measured by knots per square inch, it is at least 150 which is on the lower side but would have to research it some more to see how the threads are knotted and what the criteria is for counting threads.  I'll need a loupe because my eyes are not what they used to be.

Then I went back to the same place and they had a coordinating runner. This one was $50. The prices don't make much sense, this is 10' x 3' vs 12' x 9' for $10 more.

The fourth rug was a salvage project, when they were loading it in the car they dropped it, and a large plume of dust exploded.  I took it in to be cleaned professionally, and that one will be ready next week.  The cost of cleaning is between $2 - $4 a square foot, so keep that in mind if you find one. That rug will go into the bedroom 10' x 8', it had a few stains on it but if they can't get them out, they will be covered by furniture.  That one was $40 and the fringe is worn in places, one of my first sewing projects in the new house might be to find a fringe and repair the end.

Anyhoo, what I am trying to say, is that if you are working on a project with cost over runs, don't lose hope that the universe will help you make up for it in the future.  Also tiling is not as cheap as it seems, and it is back breaking work.  If I had it to do all over again, I might just hire someone to prepare the floor and install the tile, which runs about $2 - $3 sq foot.  It would have been just a touch more money, but it would have been finished sooner.