This year I received a rather large bonus from Syngenta Lawn and Garden. Besides buying some new suits for me we decided that it was probably about time to replace the carpet in the family room upstairs. I'm not sure exactly how old that carpet was but my guess is at least 25 years. It was already in place when the home was remodeled 13 years before we moved in and we've been here 10 years so you do the math.
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| Last Roper Family dinner on the old carpet. Didn't have to clean it this time |
Around the 1st of April Susie and I went to RC Willey because they were having their carpet sale. We were looking for something that would not show dirt as easily as the old carpet. We basically had to clean the carpet after every Roper Family dinner or Youth event.
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| It's a very large room with no furniture in it. Notice all the books on the counter. |
We found a nice carpet with a brown and tan pattern and decided to splurge on the memory foam pad as well. The floor in the family room had always seemed hard we wanted something a bit softer. Because of the sale we saved 40% so it wasn't as expensive as I had feared.
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| The carpet was really worn by both entries |
Once the carpet was purchased and delivered to the warehouse we had to schedule an installation date. With my travel I wanted it to be during a week when I was home. We settled on Monday, April 25th.
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| Removing the top layer of carpet. That's glued down carpet underneath |
The room had to be emptied of furniture so this meant emptying three book cases, moving a piano and lots of furniture. We started the Saturday a week before the installation. Once Susie and I started sorting through the books we realized there were lots of books we didn't need and would never read. We eventually filled eleven boxes with books that I took to DI's.
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| Laying the pad. At least we have high quality plywood floor boards |
On Friday April 22nd my brother Bryce and my brother-in-law, Jared and his son Chris came over to help us move the 6 or 7 very heavy pieces Kevin and I couldn't move. Most of them went onto the deck but some went into the living room and kitchen. It really made the house crowded. We would have never been able to get everything out without their help. We paid them with birthday cake and ice cream. They seemed satisfied.
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| Getting ready to roll out the carpet |
The installers arrived Monday morning. One man and two 14 year old boys. I was a little worried but they got right to work. The first thing the installer asked was, "Did you know there is glued down carpet under the carpet we were replacing?". Well no, I didn't know that. I assumed there was some cheap padding and that's why the floor was so hard.
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| Just about finished. The first vacuuming filled the hopper on the vacuum cleaner |
Turns out it cost me an additional $300 to have the glued down carpet removed but it had to be done. We also learned that there are 4 electrical boxes hidden under the carpet. We covered all those holes with metal plates.
The installers worked hard and had the job completed around 4:30. I was very pleased with how the new carpet looked and even better was how soft it felt under your feet. They vacuumed once and then I had Kevin go over it again. We vacuumed up a lot of lint.
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| Doesn't really look much different but it feels much nicer |
While they were installing the carpet I drove to the U-Haul dealer and picked up a piano dolly. The manager didn't want to bother with all the paper work for a $7 item so I told me, "you look like an honest guy, just bring it back in the morning." Monday after the carpet was installed Kevin, Susie and I moved all the furniture back into the family room. It would take a few days to get all the books back in but the job was done in one evening. Tuesday morning I returned the dolly.
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| Half the new baseboard painted and installed |
The room Susie uses as an office had these ugly red wood baseboards. They were installed when the family room was remodeled but didn't match the rest of the house. The morning the carpet was installed I removed the old baseboards so we could install baseboards like the rest of the rooms upstairs have.
This Saturday I installed the boards on the two walls that didn't require a lot of furniture moving. I'll get the other wall after we retire and I have more time. The walls were quite crooked and It took a bit of work to get the baseboards nailed in place and sealed to the wall on the top edge of the board. They look much nicer than the old redwood boards. One more fix up project on this house completed.
