Joe & Kendra 15: Mother/Daughter Pregnancies are So Not Icky

[Iamtheway]

20 hours ago, wendy-sparkles said:

yeah I'm in NZ and I've never ever had a bedroom without carpet (and I've lived in a lot of houses). It's pretty standard to have every room carpeted except kitchens and bathrooms, with dining rooms/areas carpeted maybe 50/50? The houses here tend towards being poorly insulated/single glazing/ no central heating so I think that's one of the deciding factors. 

I studied a semester in New Zealand (loved it!) actually and that bedroom was carpeted! I forgot about that one. It was also so cold in winter! Very poorly insulated. There was snow coming in under the front door. ? 
Best six months of my life!

[wendy-sparkles]

9 hours ago, Iamtheway said:

I studied a semester in New Zealand (loved it!) actually and that bedroom was carpeted! I forgot about that one. It was also so cold in winter! Very poorly insulated. There was snow coming in under the front door. ? 
Best six months of my life!

lol sounds about right

[CarrotCake]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:13 PM, Iamtheway said:

I live in Sweden. I don’t know anyone that has carpet in the bedroom, or any other room. The only carpeted bedroom I’ve slept in regularly is the one my husband grew up in in Australia. To be fair that one is colder then the ones I’ve slept in in Sweden though because we have way better heating.

I did once stay in a hotel in England that had carpet in the bathroom. I thought that was pretty weird. It went up right next to the shower. 

I feel like carpets in houses are really old fashioned here in the Netherlands.

For sure in the living room (especially the combination of carpet and rugs, which is seen at 80-year old ladies houses ?) but I also don't know anyone under the age of 60 who has carpet in the bedroom.

I find carpet a bit nasty, especially in hotel rooms where you don't know what happened in the room before you arrived.

[GreenBeans]

55 minutes ago, CarrotCake said:

I feel like carpets in houses are really old fashioned here in the Netherlands.

For sure in the living room (especially the combination of carpet and rugs, which is seen at 80-year old ladies houses ?) but I also don't know anyone under the age of 60 who has carpet in the bedroom.

I find carpet a bit nasty, especially in hotel rooms where you don't know what happened in the room before you arrived.

Same in Germany. I’d say wooden or vinyl floors are the norm nowadays for living rooms/bedrooms, with tiles in kitchens and bathrooms. I’ve never lived in an apartment which had carpet. But plenty of hotel rooms do.

[Workingmom]

9 hours ago, CarrotCake said:

I find carpet a bit nasty, especially in hotel rooms where you don't know what happened in the room before you arrived.

Agreed. I never walk barefoot in a hotelroom. 

And because of my allergies and astma no carpet. So much easier to clean 

[HereticHick]

On 2/2/2021 at 7:18 AM, GreenBeans said:

 But plenty of hotel rooms do.

I think carpeted hotel rooms is for sound insulation as much as anything else.

[Grace]

On 2/1/2021 at 1:02 AM, wendy-sparkles said:

lol sounds about right

I always read this about New Zealand homes and I wonder why the newer construction isn't better insulated? I get older buildings from when natural building resources were harder to come by because island in the middle of the ocean but surely there are solutions now. Aren't utilities really expensive there as well? So a poorly built house AND expensive to heat ?

[Alisamer]

In my area, it has usually been carpet everywhere except bathrooms and kitchen, but my sister recently built a house and hers only has carpet in the bedrooms and laminate flooring everywhere else. She put down a large rug in the living room to define the space since her house is very open.

My house has pine floors, except linoleum in the bathrooms and kitchen. No carpet anywhere. But my house is over 100 years old - when they renovated it they gutted it but left the original floors, thankfully!

I do have area rugs here and there. 

[wendy-sparkles]

4 hours ago, Grace said:

I always read this about New Zealand homes and I wonder why the newer construction isn't better insulated? I get older buildings from when natural building resources were harder to come by because island in the middle of the ocean but surely there are solutions now. Aren't utilities really expensive there as well? So a poorly built house AND expensive to heat ?

I looked it up and we didn't mandate insulation till 1978, and I have some doubts about how comprehensive those standards were. There are some rules about retrofitting insulation now but sometimes it's just not possible - my uncle tried to insulate under their house and literally couldn't because of how it was cut into the hill. But I would say most houses people live in are pre-80s (although I live in the city and most of our suburbs are 50s/60s/70s or a lot older, I think they have more newer suburbs in the outer satellite cities), and they're generally considered desirable houses because lots of the other construction standards were higher. In the 90s and 2000s I think some red tape was cut and so we genuinely have a whole generation of buildings that leak (also the wood used was bad???). So it's better to live in an old cold house than a newer one of dubious quality.

I have no idea if our utilities are more or less expensive but they certainly feel expensive (most things are more expensive here though). Also all these terrible houses I'm discussing are probably worth near a million each (I think they have hit a median house price of a million in Auckland). House prices are basically going up between 10% and 20% every year and have gone up almost 300% total since 2000. We have the highest rate of homelessness in the OECD and housing is just impossibly expensive and in really short supply. So - you're going to live in a crappy house if that's what's available to you.The UN has described our housing as a human rights crisis l o l

[medimus]

I think carpet everywhere is an Anglosphere thing. In the European countries I have lived in (minus the anglosphere), tile, wood and linoleum are normal. Maybe with rugs if you like that. In the Anglosphere countries I (and my family) have lived in, wall to wall carpet has been the standard. 

I actually went on a bit of a wikipedia wormhole about this, as the house I currently live in was built in the sixties and has basically no insulation, but does have carpet wall to wall. Carpet had been a luxury until the early 20th century because it was wool or handmade etc etc, and when it became cheaper to produce in the forties/fifties/sixties, it became an affordable luxury and also made your home feel a bit warmer when it wasn't insulated properly. So became popular. In the western european countries I have lived in, the standards for insulation have been gradually updated with technology every few years, so even old houses that have been renovated have been updated with some insulation where possible and carpet is not in fashion. Whereas where I live now carpet has remained normal and only the latest building standards (mandated by the EU for nearly Zero Energy Building =nZEB) have really upgraded the rules for insulation.

 

Wall to wall carpet instead of insulation is a terrrible idea from a health perspective. Built in carpets are bad for allergies and asthma etc and no insulation means it's cold and often damp.

Actually now I think about it, maybe this contributes to the UK and Ireland's terribly high rates of Asthma (it is shocking, as a GP).

[moreorlessnu]

In some parts of the US they have tile on the floor, even in the living room. I would love that because it's so easy to clean and you can use whatever cleaning solution you'd like. Here, in New England, we put either carpet or hardwood in the living room. It can be difficult to truly get carpeting clean, and I never know what cleaning solution I can safely use on hardwood, whether it be pre-finished or varnished. 

[Baxter]

Where I live in Canada, houses mostly have good insulation. It is very typical for people to have hardwood or laminate on their main floor. Some people might have carpet but that is less common. But I can only think of one person I know who doesn't have carpet in their bedrooms. When I was looking to buy my first house about ten years ago, the only houses without carpet in the bedrooms, were older ones where there was the original hardwood. 

If a person was renovating with resale in mind then they would put hardwood or laminate on the main floor and then some sort of lower pile type carpet in the bedrooms. I'm an outlier in that I am planning on just replacing the carpet in our family room when we renovate. It just seems more comfortable to me. We will probably get rid of it in the living room and dining room though. I'm not planning on selling my house anytime soon though. I would probably make different choices if I was.

[OHFL2009]

15 hours ago, moreorlessnu said:

In some parts of the US they have tile on the floor, even in the living room. I would love that because it's so easy to clean and you can use whatever cleaning solution you'd like. Here, in New England, we put either carpet or hardwood in the living room. It can be difficult to truly get carpeting clean, and I never know what cleaning solution I can safely use on hardwood, whether it be pre-finished or varnished. 

In Florida, we pretty much have tile or carpet. For new builds, tile is generally standard in wet areas (bathrooms, kitchen, laundry) and carpet is standard everywhere else. But the vast majority of people upgrade to tile in the main living areas like the dining room and living room. Some put tile throughout, but many leave carpet in the bedrooms and upstairs "bonus rooms".

Just in the last few years vinyl and laminates are becoming a little more popular. When we built our first house in 2013, I don't think those were even available options. When we built our second house in 2018, laminate was an option but more expensive than tile. Hardwood is available here, but few people use it because it doesn't fare as well with the humidity. 

[adidas]

Heh. Check out the carpet in this kitchen:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CK7Lybygw2u/?igshid=1aq803ocvf4n2

[Not that josh's mom]

8 minutes ago, adidas said:

Heh. Check out the carpet in this kitchen:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CK7Lybygw2u/?igshid=1aq803ocvf4n2

The carpet in the last two pictures! Wow!

[Melissa1977]

11 minutes ago, adidas said:

Heh. Check out the carpet in this kitchen:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CK7Lybygw2u/?igshid=1aq803ocvf4n2

It must be a 70s house! I'm astonished carpet still looks fine. Daily vacuum or photoshop? 

[Travlr98]

Looking at the tile gives me a headache ? 

[Baxter]

Wow that house is something! I don't think I've ever seen carpet in a kitchen before.

[Travelfan]

When I was a kid I had a friend who had just moved into a new house. There was shag carpet in the kitchen!!  Even as a kid I thought that was the weirdest thing (this was early 80s). They got rid of it fairly quickly.  Carpet is bad enough, but shag carpet!  So gross to think about all the hidden food lost in there!

[SassyPants]

Saw a recent IG of Kendra at the park with her kids. She looked so tired and pale. She needs to give herself and her body a reproductive break.

[GuineaPigCourtship]

The idea of being pregnant with a toddler sounds so stressful. I can't imagine how exhausting it would be to have 2 kids so young on top of pregnancy. I felt like I was going to die of exhaustion during pregnancy at times (dramatic but true) with my first and currently only.

[ophelia]

I'm in the early stage of my first pregnancy and I'm sooo sooo tired. I can hardly last without a nap and luckily my work hours are flexible enough right now to sleep for an hour each day. Homeoffice also helps of course.

I can't imagine being this tired and have two other little ones at the same time.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

Kendra is 36 weeks pregnant and most women look tired at that point. 

[Jewels64]

On 2/4/2021 at 4:17 PM, moreorlessnu said:

In some parts of the US they have tile on the floor, even in the living room. I would love that because it's so easy to clean and you can use whatever cleaning solution you'd like. Here, in New England, we put either carpet or hardwood in the living room. It can be difficult to truly get carpeting clean, and I never know what cleaning solution I can safely use on hardwood, whether it be pre-finished or varnished. 

I am in Texas we have tile that looks like wood in most living spaces. We do have normal tile in the bathrooms and kitchen. I have a house full of dogs and love only having tile. It is cool in the summer as well. 

 

[BadMurphy]

14 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

Kendra is 36 weeks pregnant and most women look tired at that point. 

Even so...Joe needs to sleep on the roof for a while after this one