Project #1: Carpet

After nine years and five kids in this house,

we finally re-carpeted some of the rooms.

We put the new carpet in the living room,

den, up two sets of stairs and

the hallway that connects them.

Heidi and I took out the old carpet and padding,

and took up all the staples to prepare the floors

for the installation of the new carpet.

The Good:

A picture of the stairs with the new carpet.

The Bad:

Here are the same stairs with all the carpet

and padding stripped off.

and

The Ugly:

The stairway with the ugly green carpet

that was installed when the house was new.

As you can see, the carpet is faded and well worn.

This is the living room.

The carpet is in the same condition in the den.

Heidi is taking up the pad in the living room.

The carpet was installed for only a dollar. But we

had to do all the preparation work of taking out

the old carpet and pad. We also had to take out

all the remaining staples.

After getting out all the leftover staples,

we had to make sure the floors were clean

and free of any debris.

Here is the upstairs hallway before we began any work.

The upstairs hallway after we got all

the carpet and padding up.

If you look at the window in this picture

you can see that it is now dark.

We started around dinner time

and finished about 10 p.m.

We had a few breaks also.

It actually was easier and quicker than I thought.

Although, the stairs were the toughest part.

Here is the upstairs hallway after the

installers laid down the padding.

The two installers cut out the new carpet

in the road in front of the house,

then they rolled it up and brought it in.

They cut it as one piece for the whole hallway.

Here in the hallway they unrolled the new carpet

and got it ready to install.

They took all the doors off their hinges

to make it easier to install the carpet.

And all finished.

There were two installers, one with 20 years

of experience, and the other with 30 years.

It took these guys only three hours to finish.

Here is a picture of the hallway and second set of stairs

with only the new padding installed. They used the

original tack strips and only put new ones in

where ever they were needed.

Here is a picture of the den with

the new carpet installed.

Here is a view of the den with everything

put back in place.

The finished living room with

all the furniture moved back in

and the pictures back on the walls.

Another angle of the living room.

We think the carpet goes real well

with the hardwood floor in the entry.

Look! I found a quarter!

I put the coin in the picture of

the carpet to show scale.

So, sometime in the future, we will repaint

& re-paper, and with any luck

replace the furniture.