The color of mud

So---I have never shopped for floor vinyl or carpet or formica or anything else in the home improvement world. Did you know it is possible to go to RC Willey and not find a single couch you like? This is because everything they sell is the color of mud, or was the last time I looked--years ago.

Therefore I should have not been surprised after 5 minutes of looking in Nampa's premier chi-chi floor covering store to find---kitchen vinyl is all the color of mud. ONly 5 minutes to flip through each and every sample (100's) and hate them all, though I wasn't shopping for myself. I was shopping on behalf of Grandma Ison and her buckled kitchen floor. Whatever happened to pretty vinyl, with little flowers and pastel coloring? That's what she has now and I was fairly certain she would want the same again. Why is the hip look all slabs of granite, muddy at that?

I seem to require hand-holding in these situations from someone who loves shopping--Kevin. Tonight we ventured into the world again, but at Lowe's instead and found fewer choices but several quite grandmotherish pieces. We "checked-out" 3. Did you know Lowe's rents out vinyl samples for $10? Now you do. With Kevin at my side, I felt sort of triumphant and we drove to Caldwell fairly betting grandma would favor the light beige with little pink flowers.

In the past, Grandma has been a very slow decider. Her fading memory is part of the problem. If she makes a decision it will be forgotten 5 minutes later, so decision-making can stretch on indefinitely. This is where Lora Dawn's primo facilitating skills save the day. My plan was to leave the vinyl samples with grandma overnight, have LD sweep in Sunday afternoon, apply some great facilitating pressure. I figured by Monday morning we could call Biff ( floor installer) and say, "Order the flowers." Ta DA!

Well, well, We found Grandma in her TV room, looking at treasures. Kevin said, "Mom, come on out into the dining room. We have a little job for you to do." I had spread the 3 samples on the dining room table. "What's this," she asked? "Oh! I like THAT one." and she pointed at the muddiest of the 3, not the flowerdy one. End of decision. I nearly fell off the chair. We slapped the favored vinyl down on the floor, where it looked perfect next to her carpet. She said, "My kitchen floor is too light. It shows dirt too easy. This one will help conceal it." My head was spinning. She chortled, "Oh, I have been so worried about this. You two are the best shoppers and now I don't have to think about this anymore."

You can bet we had Biff on the phone two minutes later, placing the order. He said, "I wish I had more customers like your mother." (Quick deciders)

Is this irony? To the 10th power

----------
Jocile & Richard, Biff will call us Monday to say when the vinyl will arrive. Then we can nail down a schedule.