Surprise!
Surprise honey!! While you were at work…well, I decided to pull up some carpet!
Not very much carpet! Just that little bitty bit in the hallway!
You know, it kind of needed done. I mean, it was cheap carpet to begin with, and well, it looked bad.
See, when people come to your house and see carpet that looks like that “they think, eww, thee people are dirty”. We’re not dirty. There’s not a steam cleaner in the world that would help that carpet!
Plus, we’ve been blessed with hardwood floors under all of the carpet. I mean, remember when we pulled up all the carpet upstairs and all we had to do was mop and the floors looked great? That was cool, wasn’t it? A huge improvement too.
This is an improvement too. I promise. It’s just as BIG of an improvement. Because these floor need some work. Just a little bit really. Well, it kind of looks like someone sanded part of them to try and refinish them, but then something happened.
Here’s what I bet happened. I bet a doting wife noticed that the floors looked kind of dull and decided to sand and refinish them. Yeah. So she started on afternoon but then the husband came home from work, saw the mess, exclaimed “We don’t have the right tools for this” and called the carpet guys to cover it all up with some cheap carpet. In fact….I bet that’s why they had such a nasty divorce and had to sell the house to us so cheap.
Thank goodness we’re not like that! Because I know how patient and accepting you are of all my home improvement things (please don’t cancel my HGTV). Plus, let’s remember that this is an IMPROVEMENT! I mean, people come to your house and see hardwood floors that need work and they think “Wow, they are refinishing real hardwood and maintaining the original, natural beauty of their home! Those are going to look so great when they are done!”
And they’ll get done. When Celia goes to pre-school next year I’m going to rent me a power sander and get started on all the floors. They will look great! They’ll gleam! You’ll love them. I promise.
Besides, by then I’ll be done with this next big project I have planned. It’s going to be so cool! Cheap too! I’ve got an awesome plan. Umm, I just don’t think you’re ready to hear it yet. We’ll talk about it some other time…a little closer to spring. It’s really cool and ingenuitive.
Anyway…well, here’s the floors before I got started. Nasty, huh? I mean, the lumpy carpet…and that black spot by the bathroom where I tried to remove the wax from that toilet bowl ring that you dropped when remodeling, and I tried to clean it by ironing the damp cloth and I melted the carpet? I mean, that looks awful.
Here it is all cleaned up! Can’t you just see the potential shining through? (Say hi to Bree wandering into the frame. She’s out of the sugarpants and back into the “do not lick yourself” collar)
For now we just need to get a rug. A nice rug to dress it up a little. I’m going to check freecycle for a nice rug…..
I want to do that so bad in our dining room! How hard was it, really? The wood underneath the carpet really doesn’t need that much work… it’s actually in pretty good condition!
Becky
October 19, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Not hard at all. Well, maybe a little hard, but only because I was trying not to make any noise because Celia was napping. All I did was removed the gold strips (between the carpet and hardwood in other rooms) and cut a straight line through at the bedroom door (because I’m not ready to pull it up yet). The carpet comes up very easy…there are strips along the walls with pokey staples sticking up, so watch out for those, and watch out for staples coming down through the carpet near the doorways. The padding was just laying there, so it came right up. Pulled the staples with pliers, then pried the strips around the edges up with a flat head screwdiver. Sweep and sweep and mop and mop.
The hallway is small, probably 6×8…it took me about an hour and a half.
The only thing you’ll need help with is carrying out the carpet, it’s heavy.
Check the floor underneath first to be sure you’ve got something decent down there. Just pull up a corner of the carpet and padding. If it’s bad, just flop it back down. Sometimes evil people attach the padding with glue….which would require hours with a sander and be nasty, dusty work.
jandcandme
October 19, 2007 at 2:40 pm
lol what is that on your cat? Poor thing hehe
Wooden floors always look so much more classy
Just don’t try to run on them in socks. Or if you are a cat.
AllClick
October 19, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I say call it old country rustic and call it a day.
Wendy
October 19, 2007 at 4:59 pm
You’re a hoot, girl! I hate my freakin’ carpet. It’s nice carpet but it’s off WHITE. Wtf were we thinking there? I swear it looked more beige in the store and I was pregnant with my firstborn at the time. I had no idea it would end up so bad. I was all idealistic back then and didn’t think about what kids can do. Ha!
Elisa
October 19, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Allclick, looks like you haven’t been following the sugarpants saga. My cat had what I thought was an abcess, boarded her at the for care while we went on vacation. Turns out the lump was a mammary tumor and had to be removed. Came back from vacay to find my poor kitty with a 4 in incision in her tummy. After a week of the “do not lick yourself” collar, it became apparent that she wasn’t healing so she spent a week wrapped in purple pants filled with sugar. She seems to be healing now and is back to the big, blue, “do not lick yourself” collar.
jandcandme
October 20, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Cool! Ours is actually pretty good. The most difficult thing for me will be getting the carpet out from beneath the computer desk, which weighs about as much as a minivan. Gah!!!
Methinks I’m gonna do it. Now I just have to get teh hubs out of the house because he would have a cow. *g*
Becky
October 21, 2007 at 11:41 am
I’m racking my brain to figure out what the ‘closer to Spring’ project is gonna be…..I always do floor projects last, so that if they get messy from other projects it won’t matter as much…..it must be yard work…!!??
C'tina
October 21, 2007 at 1:26 pm