Carpet, Carpet, Carpet!

Can't start this post without sharing this mishap one of the final LATE nights before carpet. We were cutting the wood for covering the support post in the basement, and I was supposed to "catch" the wood as it came out of the table saw. I missed.

It was terrifying. Let me give you an idea of the power that thing must have come with off the saw. It penetrated the 3/4 inch drywall AND the 1/4 plywood (this is a support wall). It did not come out on the other side (the exercise room), but it was certainly at head/eye height of our children. If it had happened while they were down there (which was pretty much always except for after bedtime) it could have been catastrophic. It also could have really done some serious damage to my or Ryan's thigh. All in all, we got it patched and painted before all the real fun began...

Saturday, October 20th

Ryan (aka He-Man) moved all our upstairs furniture off the carpet. We emptied all our closets, moved all our beds, took apart all the bed frames, moved all dressers, and basically moved out of our house.

Living room furniture-less

Master bedroom furniture-less

This is what our front hall/dining room looked like.

Awesome, eh? That is all our life on non-carpeted surfaces. I now know while everyone gets carpet before moving in or after moving out.

 

Monday, October 22nd

 

I took Collin to school, and my parents came and picked up Brennan. They did all kinds of fun things (playing at the hotel & McDonald's) while Ryan and I WORKED.

One of the worst areas of stain in the living room. Not a tear was shed to see this crap on the curb.

We washed all the baseboards, pulled all the carpet, pulled all the pad, yanked all the staples, and swept and vacuumed until we thought we drop. I also sprayed everything down with a bleach/water mixture. (Thank you to the Balls for their help!)

 

I had the bright idea (at 4pm?) to paint the hallway to the bedrooms while the carpet was removed so we wouldn't have to use drop clothes doing it another time. It looks great, but we were up until midnight painting, cleaning and prepping. Sigh.

 

Our wonderful neighbors (Thank you, Marshes!) let us use their home for nap times and nighttime. I was able to put the boys down there on Monday afternoon, Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon. Don't know how we could have gotten it all done otherwise.

 

Tuesday, October 23rd (THE BIG DAY!)

 

I "slept" (aka fretted) at the Marshes and at 8am the carpet-layers were calling to say they'd be at the house in 10 minutes. I drove the boys down the road, and they were pulling in just as we got there. Ryan was barely dressed (he'd thrown a mattress on the bare boards the night before), and they got right to work.



The boys were pretty interested in the work for an hour or so, but as they expired my parents showed up from their hotel and swept them away. It was wonderful! They loved time with Grandma and Grandpa (Chuck E Cheese, shoe shopping, Dunkin Donuts), and we loved watching our house transformed.

Like that pad? I particularly love the complementary red argyle and blue & brown pinstripes.



And by 3pm - we had a new house! We moved all our furniture back in (words can't express the exhaustion by this point...) and slept in our new home that night.



It is so soft and plush and cushy on your toes. It is warm and comforting. The house is so much more cozy. A new house, really.

 

And we have a play room (and theater! and exercise room! and guest room! and craft room!!!!) in the basement! Hooray!

 

Want to see pictures? You'll have to wait a little longer. I need to clean. :-)