Tile floors

I have done a lot a thinking about the choice of flooring used here in Dominica. Can you imagine that? I guess I don't think about it consciously all that much but when you stub your foot on the raised edge of a tile your mind makes a note. Most places use tile everywhere through out the house: floor, bathroom walls, shower stalls and counter tops. I have come up with a little list of pros and cons to this, mainly the floors because that's what I want to talk about.

Pros:
- Keeps you cooler, temperature wise. It does feel nice to walk bare foot on the cool tile floor.
- Easy to clean. Sweep it up or mop it up when there is a spill. And Roomba (our robot vacuum) has a really easy time with it.
- I think we could actually use dry erase markers on the squares to have a big tic-tac-toe game or hop scotch or make up one of our own games, but I haven't tried it yet.
- Because the tiles are 1' square it's easy to see how big things are when we are watching the Planet Earth videos. It's a little unnerving too because they talk about 3 m long giant salamanders in Japan and that's more than 6 feet. Also, we figured out how long adult intestines would be if we stretched them out... so they are fun for measuring.
- My friend Chelsie also pointed out that fleas and other bugs don't live in/on the tile. That is truly a bonus because we hate biting bugs.

Cons:
- Really hard. Can't cushion any of the falls = lots of bumps and bruises.
- Not a smooth surface so you can't roll toy cars on it because they get caught up on the edges. Not to mention the toes and feet that you hurt because of the corners of the tiles.
- Slippery when wet or when wet feet walk on it which causes the falls and leads to the bruises.
- Noises are extra loud because there is nothing to absorb the sound.
- Gets dirty easily, especially with our windows open, and you notice it. If we had carpet you wouldn't notice it as much. Since we leave our windows open, and doors most of the time, and with the wind blowing and the dirt road right out front of the house we get a lot of dirty dust blowing around and it ends up on our floors and then on our feet. You know it's not good when the kids say, "Mom, your feet are dirty."

Okay, so that wasn't as good of a post as I thought it would be. Oh well. When I look at the houses around here I'm surprised. They are very simple - especially the smaller homes. Most are made out of cement but if you can't afford that then you just put up four walls of boarding, cut a window and door, and call it home. I love that it really can be that simple. Most of the simple homes are on cinder block footings or even just long stumps to keep them off the uneven, wet ground but nothing is done to cover it up. The privacy fencing is tin sheeting that sometimes gets painted or is just left as is. The window hole might have a glass window put in or you just use the piece you cut out and put hinges on it to have something to cover the hole at night. The house we are in now is the most elaborate I have seen here. I think they went the extra mile to make sure it wasn't just another square block home. And Americans will pay for it because it's more like home back in the States. I am very grateful for the home we have. We are very comfortable and we have had fun hosting some "parties" so that has been really great. But I guess we could survive with a three room cottage with bare floors and I wonder if we could go without electricity because some people here do. I don't like the idea of going without indoor plumbing so I won't even go there. Anyway, I think I'm starting to ramble so I'll sign off and go to bed.