Pet sitter? Laminate flooring?

[doctork]

No I am not so bold as to think I can hire a pet sitter who will also put in new flooring while caring for our pets when we are on the cruise.  Dream on...

We have 3 pets, Callie the Beagle, Johnny the Terrorist Cat, and Small Black Cat. We will be gone for 2 weeks so my new friend Bruno the petsitter has offered to pet sit for them at a fee of $450. He usually charges $300 per week, but since the cats are easy, it's two weeks worth of work in one shot, and we are Friends of Michi, he'll give us a discount. I think that is a good rate; does that seem fair to you?

We have an urgent need to replace our wall-to-wall carpeting (Callie caught a bad flea infestation boarding at the kennel while we were away for the funeral) sooner than we had budgeted for professionally installed hardwood flooring. We had also planned to wait until after the kitchen and bath remodel. I have limited experience with this, having helped a friend in Seattle put in her bamboo flooring in her condo living room; we were successful and it looked good, wasn't that hard.

Our house has 3 BR and living/dining area upstairs, about 1,000 -1,100 sq ft. Can Howard and I do this? Perhaps with the help of our handyman neighbor Mike? Or just live with area rugs on the sub-flooring for a while after Mike pulls up and removes the carpet? Other thoughts?

As I type I notice "Hey! We get by with a little help from our friends."

[Jane]

That sounds like a lot of money for pet sitting. Is he staying at your house? I usually have a grandson or two do it for $100 for a week, but since you have no available grandsons, Bruno sounds great, especially if he stays at the house, brings in the mail and paper and waters the plants.

I would wait for "real" wood. Right now, my bedroom carpet is awful, but I just try to avoid looking at it. We will probably refloor in the fall sometime. Have you looked at something they are calling "luxury vinyl"? I thought that sounded awful, but my daughters inlaws have it throughout in the condo they bought, and it looks good and is super-easy to care for. We might go for that in the bedroom/bathroom.

[doctork]

The vet thinks that fleas are being harbored in the carpet and furniture and are re-infecting Callie despite the treatments she has been given. I just about couldn't stand the carpet anyway, but this tips the decision in favor of removal. I will research and shop but I think I want new flooring sooner than we can afford real wood. I will check this luxury vinyl - I think I saw it on HGTV and you're right, it was pretty nice.

A quick internet search suggested that the going daily rate for a pet sitter was $15 - $60 per day, sometimes even per pet. Bruno won't stay at the house, but he doesn't live far away and will come in 3 - 4x/day. We do need to negotiate the details, but he will bring in the mail and paper (or we could pout them on hold) and water the plant. Yes, singular plant. We hadn't been ready for plants yet, but I won a hanging basket in a raffle last week.