Carpet..

So far I have focused on mostly generic happenings from my summer. But this time I think I'll switch it up a little and talk about one of our interesting adventures from the week. We ordered special maroon carpet for one of our homes about 2 weeks ago, but instead of ordering it from Lowes, we ordered it from a local carpet store. Lowes had a leftover carpet that was the perfect color that they were going to give us for $50, but the bureaucracy that is Lowes wouldn't allow us to buy the carpet since it somehow wasn't in the system. So we compared prices and decided it would be cheaper to order the carpet from this local shop. Also, as part of ASP's mission we try to buy local as much as possible in order to support the communities we live in during the summer. We ordered the carpet are were told that the carpet would come in last Thursday. As the days went by we stopped by the carpet store everyday, but everyday we were told that the carpet hadn't arrived yet, but it should be arriving shortly. After several days of this, at staff meeting one night we decided that we should ask for a discount since they carpet was so much later than promised. However this was much easier said than done. The woman that works there is the sweetest old lady, and after all it really wasn't her fault that it hadn't been delivered- it was the fault of the supply chain and she was just the messenger. So when the carpet finally came in a whole week later than promised, we just couldn't bring ourselves to yell at the little old lady to get our discount. We delivered the carpet out to the worksite, and they began the installation. I happened to be the one going out to this house the next day for runs, that Friday. As I arrived and was standing on the brand new carpet, marveling at how good it looked the volunteers started telling me about how they couldn't stain the base board since the previous group hadn't put the top on the stain and it was dried out. They then proceeded to hand me the can, so that I would be able to match the color when I went to the hardware store. What I didn't realize when they handed me the can was that is was dripping. All over the brand new carpet. As I stood there, chatting away. Fortunately, someone finally realized what was happening. I threw away the quart of stain and then looked down in horror at the 2 new stains on that formerly flawless carpet. As soon as Ms. Alice (the homeowner) saw this she wasn't flustered or angry at all. She simply told me "that'll be alright, I'll just put a scatter rug over it." However, I still felt awful and had no idea how to get oil-based stain out of carpet. So I drove furiously to the carpet store to ask advice. After the carpet lady consulted one of the men who works there, she determined that paint thinner would be the best thing for the job. I quickly bought some, and raced back to the house. I tested it out on a scrap of carpet, and it worked fine so I proceeded to use it on the stain. After several long minutes of scrubbing, the stain was completely gone. I'm not quite sure what the point of the anecdote was other than to share this random event that would never happen anywhere else except working for ASP. And to explain that I never thought I could ever care so much about a carpet as I did about that one. Finally, it was to show how gracious all of our homeowners are, Ms. Alice as the prime example.