Alright, my first post...here goes nothing.Well, our 10th anniversary was last Friday. We're going to have a marriage blessing and party this Saturday. I thought I should clean the carpet in the living room so it wouldn't look quite so bad for the party. I borrowed my friend's steam vac, and fired it up Saturday afternoon. David had taken everyone to go see WAll-E and Gabriel was napping, so I knew I could get it done.
After about 5 passes, the machine starts to spit out these huge blobs of dark, rusty, brown water. Those of you who have been in my house know I have very light, cream-colored carpet (which I'm telling you looked darker in the showroom when I picked it out).
Okay, I tell myself, don't panic. I'll try to use the machine to get the spots up. After about 10 more passes, I realize the machine's supply of rusty water is not running out, and now the spots are covering an area of about 6 feet by 3 feet. I turn the vacum off, look at the damage, and literally say, "Oh Jesus, what am I going to do?"
I get out the can of carpet stain remover, spray the entire area, and start working on all the water stains with a mountain of paper towels. I realize very quickly this is going to take an eternity, and I really need another steam vac to get the stains up. So I'm racking my brain, b/c I can't think of anyone else who has one. And then... the lightbulb goes off in my head! I had been talking to Tim (my friend Cathy's husband) that morning at McDonalds, and I'd been telling him what I was going to do that afternoon (cleaning the carpet). He mentioned they had a carpet vac, and used it all the time.
I FLY to the phone, call up Cathy and say, "Cathy, I need a really BIG favor!"
Cathy comes over right away with her steam vac, and 2 bottles of the cleaning solution (BTW, Cathy gets the "Lifesaver of the Year Award"-- thanks Cathy!). She gets me started, and it's clear her vac will get the rusty water stains out. She heads on home, and I get to some serious vacuming. By the end of the day, and 2 rounds of cleaning, only a few very, very faint spots are left. But I scooted the couch over, which meant moving the coffee table over, and it covered those spots. Yeehaw... I'm saved! My right arm is still sore, but don't even care.
The last thing I have to do is call my friend Amy (the owner of the spitting steam vac), and tell her what happened. I feel terrible b/c I didn't want to say anything, but I definitely didn't want the machine to treat her carpet to the same rusty water fate mine went through. She is of course, really apologetic, and I tell her not to worry, every thing's fine, and the carpet is now clean (thanks to Cathy's vac).
Don't think I want to clean the carpet again for a while.
