The Carpet Story

With the kitchen working, we moved onto other necessities. The rest of the floor in the flat was just a subfloor at that point and we needed to put something down. It was suggested that we just buy a set of ugly matching rugs from the market (you know, a “Kompleksa”) and throw those everywhere. No thanks. Wood was the obvious choice seeing as though my husband helped run a big saw mill outside of town, but I had a baby coming, and I wasn’t convinced that hardwood flooring would be manufactured or installed with any quality standard whatsoever. It seemed like a recipe for trouble, especially with a baby coming. Ideally I wanted carpet. All the Latvians (except for Ainars) thought we were crazy because carpet holds allergens and bugs and dirt so they said. Never mind what could be living in the rugs from the market that likely had fallen off of some truck from Tajikistan as they were suggesting. It was all mostly a fear of the unknown. Most of these folks had never actually SEEN carpet, so like anything it was skepticism of the unknown.

Once every few weeks we would travel 4-5 hours to the capitol, Riga, to see friends, try to get things we needed that weren’t available elsewhere, take care of business, etc. While killing time one day, I found carpeting. It was in a shop that sold pots, pans, and general house wares, and there they had sample boards of commercial-grade nylon carpeting. I asked the guy behind the counter if I could look more closely at the boards (at that point I wasn’t sure if this place actually sold the stuff or was just showing off the sample boards), and the man proudly said that this is carpet from Poland, it’s very expensive and no one has ordered any yet. Why he was so proud about this, I have no idea, but maybe it’s because I was the first person to inquire. I asked how much and how long it would take to order it, and he gave me a price which didn’t choke me, and a time frame which almost did. All he said was “a long time.”

Long story short, we ordered the commercial-grade nylon carpeting from Poland and “a long time” ended up being about 12 weeks. We kept checking in with the shop to see if the delivery had arrived yet, and finally after our 3rd or 4th visit and phone call, it had arrived. Good ol’ Ainars happened to have his truck in Riga that day and was happy to pick up the roll for us and deliver it. Another bucket of glue later, we had installed wall to wall carpeting in the living room and hall of our big empty flat. It was instantly warmer, and if there were any allergens and bugs, the VOC’s got ‘em.