by Shoshana Brand
I happened to fall in love with a floor. A tile floor, to be exact.
Don’t judge me for that. I’m sure it has happened many times to you too.
Well, maybe not. But still…
Just hear my story.
It all started in October 2018, when I renovated the house I had just bought in Texas. In place of the rough dirty old dusty carpet that covered the three bedrooms, I wished to install a wooden floor. Since wood was out of my budget, I was advised to consider a tile floor that looked exactly like wood.
The day I stepped into this popular grand showroom was a fatal day.
I met this nice salesman and we talked for about 45 minutes, examining different wood-like tiles.
I made up my mind on a brown wood-like tile, and the salesman said: “Ok, I’ll walk you to the cashier.”
So far so good and wow, so normal!
But then it happened. On aisle 10. When walking innocently with my purse and my determination and all that. All of a sudden I took a glance at this tile floor that was hidden away from other more popular samples. Shy and pure it was laying there, like a breath of fresh air.
I stopped, and could not go farther.
I looked and looked. And looked again. My heart was bouncing like a tornado in a rural construction area.
“It’s a floor…?!”, I wondered loudly, hardly finding the right words that would express my feelings.
“Yes”, said the salesman, nonchalantly, as if the vision in front of us was not a magnificent piece of art. “And it’s like half a price of the one you selected,” he added.
I stared at this glorious image in front of me for long minutes, trying to keep it cool. “I need some privacy, I will take it from here”, I wanted to say to the salesman, but no word came out of my mouth.
I longed to hug my floor, caress it, dance with it, but all I did was stand there, inhaling this unworldly site into my lungs, and immensely busking in its brownish warm well-being. The showroom disappeared, and Italian villas surrounded by long rows of grapevines and scented Jasmine stretched themselves in front of my eyes.
A hasty voice grew out of the green fog: “So… do you want it?”, it asked, and from the stormy spring that galloped throughout the store, I heard my shaky voice mumbling: “I do”.
After a week, when this floor had already been installed in my house, the sudden crush between my floor and me deepened and became a strong love.
I love this floor. I will love it forever. It has inspired me to paint my house in terra colors, place unique furniture, and plant nurturing trees and flora around my garden. It always looks clean, and it’s a constant reminder of my life-long loving relationship with the arts.
