Dogs, allergies, and a new vacuum

So when we moved into the rental house on Thursday night, the carpets and couches were supposed to have been professionally shampooed and cleaned. We realized relatively quickly, however, that this had not happened. Whenever the kids sat on the floor or couches to play, they came up COVERED in white dog hair (thanks to the very large dog who moved out two days before we moved in). Needless to say, my allergies and asthma worked themselves into a tizzy, and for the first 24 hours, I was utterly miserable. I even had dreams about not being able to breath because I was having such a hard time in reality.

Greg talked to the guy who supposedly cleaned our carpets. He swore up and down that he spent five-and-a-half hours cleaning the carpets, but you just can't up dog hair with a steam cleaner. We notified our landlady who is still attempting to get to the bottom of the situation.

Our second evening in the house, after the kids were in bed, I was still so miserable that Greg ran out to the grocery store (small town, small store, not much selection) to buy a vacuum. He called from the store to say they had a low-end Hoover or a Dyson. Because of the extent of my asthma- and allergy-induced misery, we opted for the more expensive Dyson . . . and I will never go back to anything else.

Greg spent three hours that night vacuuming the carpets and couches over and over. After vacuuming only about 10 square feet, the canister was already half full with long white dog hair. After finishing the house (minus the two bedrooms where the kids were sleeping), we had a basketball-sized hair and dust ball. My vote still remains that the carpet cleaning man has work ethic issues.

Before the first canister emptying:The beginnings of the hairball:

Mess on a 35-gallon yard bag:

The final product from the side (8-oz. water bottle for scale):