Carpet, be gone!

Tearing out old carpet. Sounds like an easy enough job, right?

I figured that with three helpers, we'd take care of the family room and the living room all in one day.

I was so wrong.

The carpet is heavy; very heavy. Tearing it out, along with the pad, was hard enough - the carpet is filthy, the pad is dirty, and it took some maneuvering of furniture to wrangle it out of there. Even with helpers, it took some effort.

And that isn't half the battle. The real work started once the carpet was out. We had to pry up the tacking strips. But even that was easy compared to the roughly 8,546* staples used to hold the pad in place. We - and by we, I mean Alison and I - had to use a hammer, crowbar, and pliers to get them all up.

Maddie and Sylvia followed behind us. We vacuumed, then we scrubbed with Murphy's oil soap.

It wasn't a terrible two days. Yesterdays we made good use of our Netflix - we watched "Clue" and "Becoming Jane," which kept us occupied (and distracted some of us).

I even got some added help. How would you define a true friend? My definition includes those who call, ask what you are doing, and offer to come and help tear out old carpet - even bringing her own tools. This is my friend JoAnn, who spent three hours here with me, working on that floor. And for at least part of that time, we actually worked. Plus, she filled me in on some critical news that has been going on, updates I desperately needed to put recent events into context.


We worked all day yesterday and today, and we only got the family room done. Here is the end result:




Boxes in the corner? Record albums. As in, the vinyl kind. We rarely play them; I'm not even sure we had our turntable connected at the last house. Mostly, they take up space, and we pack them and unpack them when we move. Anything we really like, we have replaced on CD. Yet there they sit, waiting for their new storage place. Which we do not have. Yet.

The floors need to be refinished. But frankly, I'd rather look at worn floors than worn carpet - it was creeping me out.

My back is killing me. But I feel good; I love making this sort of progress. it is very satisfying. Much like refinishing furntiure - I love seeing immediate results.
I guess now I must get back to unpacking. But it was fun to get the process started. Wonder what Gary will say when he returns from his business trip ...

(*number is approximate)