More Carpet Pics

Putting in new carpet is HARD WORK! Seriously! We had to move all of our furniture out of the rooms we were carpeted. In addition, that meant having to pack up all of our trinkets, knickknacks, TVs, cables and cords, movies, and stuff. It was tough! Ellis and I also decided that we would remove the old carpet our selves to save some money. So here are some more pictures of that process.


Just a reminder.... we started out with BLUE carpet. Isn't it lovely?!?

We moved all of the furniture out of our bedroom two nights before the new carpet came in. And I just couldn't miss two days of the Today Show, now could I? Ellis was so nice and put together this fancy set up for me! Big TV at the foot of the bed, nice! Chewy seemed interested in this new development.

My toes on the blue carpet in the living room. There was a little wear and tear over the course of 24 years!

Our blue carpet in the dining room. And no, that is not our permanent dining room table. It has been great for wrapping Christmas gifts and stuff. But if will NOT be there forever.... just until I find the perfect table! Do you like our new paint?

Our blue carpet in the living room! Check out my new living room lamp! Sweet! (Oh, and we were watching Showtime's Dexter. I love that show!)

After we moved all of the furniture and started pulling up the carpet, we had to be a little silly. Ellis took some pictures of me on the floor.

(Notice the outlets that are in our floor. We'll talk more about those later!)

Chewy had to see what was going on. Very curious!


I even got a little kiss on the cheek from her!

I think I was getting ready to start a dance routine.... maybe a cartwheel.... I don't know. Once we moved all of the furniture, that area near the piano was FULL of couches and cushions! You couldn't even go through that area.

Before the carpet could be installed, Ellis needed to move the floor outlet. The current location did not work with how we had our furniture arranged. The outlet appeared to be in the middle of our floor. We wanted it to be under the couch so it had to be moved about 3 feet towards the front door.

To do this, Ellis donned his overalls, work boots, and head lamp then crawled under our house. He was a dirty mess when it was over!

He had to start by finding the new spot for the outlet. Chewy was acting as his supervisor.

She offers encouragement as needed during these big projects. She must have been whispering a little hint in his ear.


Once Ellis was under the house, we had to remove the old outlet.

I stayed in the house and helped Ellis from above. Sometimes passing his little drill through the hole. I must have trimmed Chewy's nails while I was helping Ellis. What can I say, I multi-task like a pro!

Chewy tried to help, too!

Ellis's new headlamp came in VERY handy during this project!


Isn't he cute!!!!???


It was so funny to see him working through a hole in the floor.


Chewy was really trying to figure out what was going on.

In the end, Ellis did a great job with the outlet. The new position is perfect and we haven't had a single problem with it. Go Ellis!!

Carpet is COMING!

First, I have to totally apologize for these pics. There are a few from Ellis's phone camera and a few from mine. And my phone camera is terrible! Stupid Nextel/Sprint phone!

This is what our living room looked like when we moved in. Actually, we had already replaced the dining room light fixture. It is pretty, isn't it! As soon as I took this picture, I started tearing the wallpaper off!



This is the same angle last night. Since it was night time and we had the light on, it is really bright! But you can tell that the wall paper is gone. And you can see that the blue carpet is gone!



And here is the other side of the room. This is the living room area. I was a little surprised by the dust beneath the carpet and pad. Ellis and I decided that the pad was disintegrating a little bit. I guess that is what happens after 24 years!


This morning, I took a couple more pictures. These are from my crappy phone. We moved the love seat to in front of the TV so we could watch some stuff that we DVR'ed before bed. Notice how we just cut around the TV and left a carpet rug! We aren't going to move it until we have to!


In the morning light, you can see the chandelier. Isn't it pretty? One day I will find a dining table to go under it. The wall with the four windows was painted "Macadamia." The wall with the one wall is just wall paper backing. The area above that is "Kaffe." I will have Ellis take some pictures with his camera soon so you can see the colors better.

Tonight we are going to work on removing the carpet in our bedroom. We moved several pieces of furniture last night. Tonight we will just have to move the night stands and take down our bed. It looks so funny being so empty!

As usual, Chewy has been actively involved with the renovation process. She instantly missed the carpet. She had nothing to dig her claws in as she raced across the huge, empty room. I think Chewy was actually abducted by her evil twin. She scratched me, meowed a lot, and climbed all over the furniture all night. I think I snapped a picture of her body snatcher. You can tell by the glowing, lifeless eyes. This is a picture of PURE EVIL! BEWARE!

Wallpaper and Paint

Remember that sweet photo of our blue carpet from the other day (just scroll down if you need a reminder)? See that lovely wall of paper and ladder? Well, this weekend I am going to tackle the wallpaper removal from that wall. Thankfully, there is just one wall that is papered and it doesn't go all the way to the top of the ceiling (removing wallpaper from 20 foot ceilings is NOT something I am looking forward to).

I tackled our bathroom in January and it took a total of 20 hours to take down the wallpaper in that tiny room. It was disastrous! After that, it took another 8 hours to texture the wall and patch all the lovely holes that I managed to create. By the time I painted, I was ready for it to be over with. I am hoping and praying that this wall won't be so bad. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the bathroom was that bad because of 24 years of steam and humidity from the shower. Anyway, the final product turned out pretty good. Still needs a little work, but I am fairly happy with it.

So, Ellis and I have been full of discussions about the colors we want to use in our living room. Every day it has been a different discussion: Portabello brown (the same color as our bedroom)! Then "That is too much brown!" How about GREEN! No, I don't like the green. How about red?! No, I am over red. How about beige? This house is going to be all brown and boring! Add some color to your life, girl!

I have been hesitant to bring the color blue into the conversation. Mostly because of the current blue carpet and blue countertops. It kinda seems counter productive to rip out all sorts of blue just to add it back again. But, after some discussion, we did settle on a lovely blue and brown idea. Now, we have a long way to go before painting. Mostly this weekend I am going to work on the wallpaper removal. If all goes well, in a week or so we can start the painting processes then get our new carpet installed! It is all so very exciting! What do you think about the blue and brown? I think it is going to rock!

Speaking of Carpet....

There are some pretty great perks when your husband works as a sweet-ass designer for a huge carpet corporation. One is thatI get to take a day off from work and go have lunch with him at the Oakwood and have the best Mac N Cheese in the world (and I know, I am a conissour and try it everywhere)! Also, I get to look at the secret showroom that has the newest and coolest floor stuff to pick out for our new house.

Since our new house was originally built by my parents in the mid 80s, it shouldn't be a surprise that they were cutting edge and super hip with the style. So please enjoy the plush country blue carpet while we choose our new stuff! Actually, the carpet is still in good shape in some places. I mean, not neccessarily right in front of where the couch used to be. But, when you run across the room barefoot, the space UNDER where the couch used to be is super nice! And the area around where the formal dining room table was is pretty schweet. But, it is still blue. COUNTRY blue. But, fortunately for me, the kitchen countertops match perfectly! (We will get into that at a later date!)

So, my trip to the showroom yesterday helped solidify our choice for our new carpet. So, here is what we have in mind: Macabi in Bronze Door for the living room and in Khaki for the bedroom. And, by the way, it is no longer called SHAG, so get that out of your vocabulary! It is FRIEZE now, people! I think it will look good. And it will continue with my boring brown theme, at least according to Ellis. What do you think? Will shaggy brown work in our house? Do you think it is cool or crappy?


I also took a gander at some hardwood. And I fell in love with this floor! I think it is great! I think that the dark color will look great with our crown molding and windows. I think that changing the hardwood is pretty far down the list, but it is never to early to plan! Plus, I love to think about it, plan, and dream a little.