No More Carpet

When we first bought our house, we knew we'd have to do something about the upstairs carpet. It was dirty and stained, and there were remnants of what may have been a melted green crayon in one of the rooms. (I know, I know. You're all going to tell me that I have this and many other messes to look forward to as a parent. I am still in denial. Let me have my final few months of wildly inaccurate imaginations about clean houses and pristine toddlers, ok?)



At first, we considered replacing the current carpets with new carpets. Maybe something a bit darker, to hide the dirt. We picked out colors and brought home carpet squares. And we even got the old carpets professionally cleaned.



But then my dear sweet ancient dog Carlie developed a lovely bout of incontinence. Which continues to this present day, and may necessitate her wearing diapers soon. We decided then and there that we were fed up with carpet. Fed up with steam cleaning it, fed up with the dust and the dirt and trying to lug a vacuum up and down the stairs and using the attachment to attempt to clean the actual stairs themselves.

So we decided to RIP IT ALL OUT AND THROW IT IN A PILE ON THE NEIGHBOR'S YARD!



Ok, so perhaps the decision wasn't that drastic. We actually hired a local place to put in hardwoods upstairs. They brought lots of equipment and they laid it all out in our front lawn. Steven stayed home that day and sent these slightly unnerving pictures to me at work. (Is that a circular saw?)



I'm glad I wasn't home that day, partly because I would have sneezed myself to death in all the dust, and also because the sight of my upstairs ripped to shreds would probably have made me a little crazy in the head.



Oh look. There are my doors. Leaning against the wall.



Ok, this is starting to look a bit better, but my doors are still not where they belong, and there are still big unidentifiable machines in my house.



So I held my breath for a couple of days, hoping that it would all turn out ok, and hoping that they would remember to put the doors back on the hinges and not leave in the middle of the job or anything. (I spend my working hours dreaming up the worst possible things that could happen in other people's cases. Its only natural that I apply such a skill to my own life. Steven really appreciates when I do this.)



And as it turns out, all my worrying was in vain, because the folks at Ayoub Carpet did a fantastic job. (Sure, why not give them a plug? Maybe they will give me a discount when we need to get the main level floors refinished...)



Instead of feeling stressed about icky carpet everytime I go upstairs, I am super happy about our new floors. It makes our bedroom kind of feel like a nice hotel.



And its SO much easier to clean. I hate, detest, and abhor vacuuming. It makes me sneezy and sick, and it hurts my arm. Now all I have to do is sweep and sometimes mop the floors with one of those terrycloth hardwood floor mops.



And they just shine so pretty in the sunlight. Yay for no more carpet!



Also, I am not at my most glamorous in this shot, but I think it shows how well they matched the floors to the hardwoods we already had downstairs, as well as the stair railing.


Its even pleasant in my closet now. No more stinky carpet. Just beautiful gleaming hardwood.



I think this will really help our allergies, too. Steven and I just keep saying to each other -- "it's just so ... so clean." It's wonderful.



Now we just need some actual bedroom furniture to put in our room, so it doesn't look quite so desolate.



Oh, and then we need an infant to spit up all over our brand new floors (and then drag toys all over the place and drop magic markers on the floor and spill juice boxes and attempt to rollerblade and play basketball indoors.....). I think I've given myself a preemptive neurosis about the destruction this kid will cause in our house. But by gosh and golly, that kid will not be sneezing from dusty carpets!