I will not be sad

to see this carpet go.

[biggest grin ev-ar]

Hallelujah!

A few weeks ago our landlord, C, had been over to fix our second garage door. (We have a two-car garage that is split down the middle, and has two doors.) One of the doors stopped working one day, and we were unable to fix it.

He came inside to check on a few things, like the toilet in our spare bathroom that he replaced over Christmas while we were out of town. It had been leaking back in December/January, unknown to all of us at the time. I noticed it one night. The carpet in the hallway had a wet spot that I stepped in with socks on.

Ick!

Of course I immediately turned off the water, told J and we called C. We dried everything out, the leak was fixed, and life proceeded.

Anyway, C came in and said how he needs to make a lot of changes to our home inside and outside. He wants to rip up most of the carpet, and install tile or laminate. The outside needs new siding, and possibly some brick or stone composite.

Why yes it does need work. Remove the 15 year old carpet? Fabulous idea! It may improve our allergies too.

J and I were in agreement, and thrilled. Our plans to move have been put on hold for a while, and we told C, that he did not need to wait until we were gone to make the improvements.


Back to the present.

C, called and spoke to J last night. Somehow, without even hearing the conversation I had a feeling I knew what they were talking about. I didn't even hear a keyword to tip me off.


Drum roll please...


We will be getting laminate hardwood floors throughout the house, leaving carpet (possibly new carpet) in the bedrooms. Tile will stay in the kitchen and bathrooms, which makes sense because of the potential for water spills.

source here.

Oh my, now to countdown the days, weeks, and months. It will probably be about two months, but that's not really too long. C and J want to do some of the outside work now while it's still cooler out, and leave the floor until it's hot and they can be inside to work.

Smart cookies.

This should be an interesting process. C thinks it will take a weekend to do. We'll see. I know we will need to rip up the carpet, clean 15 years worth of renter's dust and dirt (that my vacuum can't currently suction through the carpet) from the slab, treat it if needed, lay down padding, and then put in the flooring.

source here.

I think the flooring will be a darker wood, but I haven't seen it. C told J that he thinks we will both like it. I can only imagine how much warmer looking our living room and whole home will look with some added color.

source here.

I say, "added color" because our walls are still white. If we ever were to change the color, we would need to repaint the walls when we move. Not painting, is one way we'll save some money in the long run. I know, I should take an old large canvas I already have (gesso and paint over it), buy a couple small ones and make some paintings that we'd like to hang. We could add color that way.

I would really like to take down the outdated wallpaper in the kitchen and both bathrooms as well. Who ever thought wallpaper, let alone putting it in a bathroom was a good idea? Seriously. It's the most humid environment for something with an adhesive to withstand.

Actually, we should be extremely thankful that the wallpaper isn't still from the 60's and 70's - that I can see peeking from underneath and behind the bathroom cabinets. (It's a cream base with some olive green, harvest gold, and maybe a little orange in a strange pattern.) Wow.

Here it is:


Thank you C, for sparing us the pain of that.

Speaking of those colors, I remember growing up with a harvest gold fridge, and an olive washer and dryer. They worked for many years, and strangely enough I have a fond place for them in my memory.

I'll let you know if and when I see the laminate. Then I'll be able to describe it in better detail.

Off to dream of how our couches will look with new floors.

Not to mention how much easier they will be to clean up. True, we will have little balls of hair rolling around, instead of hair being "velcroed" to the carpet, but I can dust mop with the best of them... or run the vacuum on it's lowest setting if I am trying to save time, or if I'm just being lazy.

Me lazy? Never happen.

What are your tips and tricks to clean and maintain laminate and tile floors? I know not to wet mop them, because water seepage would cause it to buckle.