At my insistance, Hubby decided (!?) that the carpet indeed needed cleaning. Now the things to keep in mind are that the carpet is abt 12 (or more) years old(and has seen various tenants) and it has not been cleaned for over a year. Mind you, I said cleaned...that is NOT to be confused with vacuuming..which I dutifully attended to every week.

Now then, Hubby went off and got the cleaning machine and was even offering to clean up a friend's carpet as well. All was well until they started cleaning. firstly there were multiple comments on my ability to vaccum the dwelling and then there was the issue of how many capfuls of the defoamer, the stain remover and the rest of the cleaning agents were to be used. Both these guys having done this before in their own ways now were fighting( literally) to prove their method was the best. OK..somehow figured that out and settled it. started up the machine and pressed the nozzle, only to find it blocked. tried all sorts of unblocking methods, but to no avail. Off they went to exchange the machine. Returned about 2 hours later with a machine from another store. Even tho' this machine too looked as if it had the the hose blocked, thankfully started working properly. Boys were hard at work.What was I doing u ask? I was out on the balcony where my dear dear plants are, baby sitting a widgety 20 month old!!! ( who happened to be the son of this friend who was helping with the carpet cleaning)

Anyhoo, with shouts and raised voices(mostly of hubby's) and complaints abt the friend having drenched the carpet or not cleaning properly the job was done. And much to my amazement the area in front of the kitchen and the bathroom corridor regained half of of their original colour! we let it dry and, later that night hubby decided the afore mentioned areas need some more sprucing-up, and cleaned them again. And he cleaned them up again on sunday before we went to give a hand to the friend's carpet cleaning. Now it looks like the dining area carpet where it's not too "new" looking and not too weathered either!

Of course the " I practically broke my back cleaning the carpet(as u asked), now apply some sports cream, and be my waitress bringing all the drinks and the food I ask for" followed the cleaning.... but then I must say the effort was worth it.

As for my plants...I can safely say that they have seen better days!!