Midtown Ranch

I adore having solid floor instead of carpet. The dogs have adjusted well and when I clean the floor it is actually clean when my labors are complete. Briefly.

The downside is every tuft of dog hair, every tracked in bit of dirt or leaf, is dreadfully apparent. The floor is certainly no dirtier than it was when we had carpet however now the dirt is painfully visible. Particularly the dog hair. Great drifts of it float across not unlike tumble weeds. Within minutes of sweeping or vacuuming the dust bunnies come lolloping back and mock my attempts to keep a clean house.

Daily sweeping wasn’t going to cut it – Elizabeth and Scott deserve better than a fluff obsessed woman in dubious battle joined. Plus I was doomed to lose. I swung thru a pawn shop the other day and spotted a Roomba, model 551, marked at a couple hundred. Hmmm. I read a few reviews to see how they coped with hair, their expected life spans, required upkeep, cost of consumables and general hardiness. Looked good. The clerk and I dickered for a bit over the relative value of the device (‘but it’s used and dirty and missing the box and manual!’ ‘But it’s cool and you won’t have to vacuum and it’s a robot!’). I walked out $120 poorer with the Roomba, two door guard things, and it’s docking station.

I cleaned it thoroughly the tested it at work for a couple of days on carpet and to see how it navigated – no problems and my carpet got really clean. No sweat with cords on the floor either.

Brought it home, have done the dining, kitchen, hall and living room. Watching it is frustrating as it will roll tantalizingly close to a dust bunny (‘get it get it get it getgetgetit!!!’) then bizarrely and abruptly reverse directions. However if I ignore it and just observe the results. Oh my. Super ultra cool.

I haven’t set up the programming yet but intend to configure the device for daily runs. The dogs are a little wigged and watch the Roomba from the safety of the couches while it merrily rolls around, stealing their shed hair.

Once I’m confident that the dogs are accustomed to it and that it’s not going to wreck something I’ll let it do it’s housewife of the future thing.

It’s fun and cool to have a robot vacuum. I’m still waiting for my flying car.