The master bedroom is the final room to be done upstairs, and it's about half-way finished. Here is how it looked before...

The carpet and wall panelling has been removed, the wainscoting on the ceiling has been installed. Left to do is remove the blue underlay and install the birch walls and trim. Then we'll be ready for paint, after which the floors will be put down...

Lorenzo commented on how much the air quality has improved since removing the carpet and underlay upstairs. Neither of us was sleeping well at the cottage prior to the renovation; in fact, we woke up most mornings feeling dreadful with swollen eyes and clogged sinuses.

I read that the average homeowners' carpet harbours about 200,000 bacteria on every square inch, about 4,000 times as much as their toilet seat. Here are some of the lovely entities that may be living in your carpet:  skin cells, pollen, carcinogens, fleas, norwalk virus (which can live up to a month) kawasaki syndrome, dust mites, salmonella, stachybotrys chartarum (house mould) norovirus, e-coli, staph. Just to name a few!

And to think that I was going to replace the carpet. Thank you to Liana for talking me out of it.  Instead, the entire cottage will have hardwood floors - we shall breathe easy at the cottage!   

Our feet will freeze in the winter, but that's what slippers are for...

The more I read about carpet, the more horrified I feel. And the aforementioned list doesn't include the chemicals involved in the carpet-making process which include toluene, benzene, formaldehyde, ethyl benzene, styrene, and acetone. If you have carpets, don't have them Scotguarded - it is toxic.

So, that's about all to report - just bought two crabapple trees for my back yard in Burnaby which I will be planting soon. My wildflowers are starting to spring up and it's nice to see the butterflies and bumble-bees visiting my back yard...