Good-Bye Ugly Green Carpet

Five years ago when I decided to buy my house, the first thing I said was - 'this hideous green carpet will be the first thing to go'. It seems the previous owner had a strange fetish for all things green and rose, and the green carpet to me was the worst offender. Plus it was extremely hard to clean. The dog hair would burrow in and cling to it and it always looked dirty. And nothing matched it. I snarled every time I looked at my floor. The carpet had become the bane of my existence.

But the laminate flooring I had planned to put down immediately was put off. I painted first, needed a new washing machine. Then a new water heater. Then a new lawn mower. It was always something. And five years later the hideous green carpet remained, mocking me with its ugliness. When I decided to get a new dog, I knew it was going to be probably another year before the carpet could be replaced.

So when I decided to hold off getting a new puppy until next year, what was the first thing I did? I ran to the nearest building supply store and purchased enough laminate flooring to get the job done. Then I came home and called my brother-in-law, the carpenter and asked if he could lend a hand. I was thinking next month or something. He's a busy guy between work, my sister and two babies. No rush.

Sure, he says. I'm off tomorrow.

Uh...tomorrow? You mean like the day after today?

Sure.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I took him up on his offer. And I'm glad I did. I managed to do the prep work. Rip up the carpet and underlay, remove the staples and the board thingys the carpet was nailed to and to smooth out the floor where there were lumps of paint or plaster or something. When my BIL arrived, he got to work and I realized there was no way I would have been able to do that floor on my own. There were things he was doing I would have never thought of, and if I had, I wouldn't have had the tools or know how on how to proceed. Which made me really happy I managed to do the prep work so I didn't feel like I total waste product making him do everything. My contribution yesterday was to lay the underlay and hand him the boards as needed. At lunch today I need to go pick up the ¾ round edging and he'll pop up after supper to put that in and then we are done.

And the green carpet? Come garbage day, that monstrosity is gone for good.















My BIL hard at work.




Our job supervisor, my nephew Malcolm.