t1day

The story of this day is probably one of my mother’s favorite to tell.  Sometimes I think it’s because she’s so proud of her determined ‘put your mind to it’ daughter, but others I think it’s because she’s trying to convey to people what she has to put up with every time she comes to visit, slave labor!


Anyhow, I dropped a slight hint in my last post about my interest level in the Berber carpet on the second floor, and let me remind you with another…. I HATED it, a lot!  From the moment I walked in the house for the very first time I knew it had to go.  Don’t get me wrong, carpet certainly has its place, but it’s more like in the basement (where we have the exact same Berber, and I LOVE it).

So the story goes a little something like this…. We closed on the house on a Friday morning.  That afternoon I picked up mom from the airport just as Gus was en route from Florida to Allentown for the last Ironpigs baseball series of the season.  Before heading to the stadium, we stopped by the house so we could walk through and make a list of what needed to get done before our new pad was move-in ready.  Guess what was numero uno on my list.  That right, we’ll see ya carpet.  It was the only thing I could think about, and while Mom tried very hard to distract me with other projects, I could not focus on anything until that carpet was gone.  I might add that at this point we weren’t 100% positive there was hardwoods underneath, so really quick we both grabbed a corner and tugged at the staples until we were able to catch a glimpse of my treasure.  Once I locked eyes with those beauts I was even more convinced.  And more importantly, Mom gave in.  So as we drove to the stadium we made our own game plan for mission “Hardwoods or Bust”.  Gus had to be at the field most of the following day so it was up to Mom and I to get some momentum going.  Surprisingly that part was a breeze.

For anyone who has ever pulled up carpet before, it’s a pretty common theme that getting the actual carpet out is the easiest task.  So we got busy first thing just pulling up all the carpet edges and doing our best to roll the pieces so we could get them out of the house at some point.  Only problem was, two of the bedrooms are quite large, and the carpet turned out to be one large piece in each, which meant it was heavy!  So, in order to get it out of the house, we both had to tug on the ends and drag it to the stairs.  Once there, we each got on one end and thought we would pull/push it down and straight out the front door…turns out we rode it/it drug us down the stairs!  I’m guessing it would have been pretty humorous to watch.  That’s how we role (almost literally), showing those new neighbors we were serious DIYers.  Here’s a pic to help you with the mental image…

We missed the front door on this one and had to redirect the freight train a bit.  Once we got it outside, we couldn’t drag it so we were forced to carry it, and I think our fingers were almost ripped off in the process, but we did it!  Gus got home to a big pile of carpet in the driveway, such a lucky man that one!  So once more, here is the before…

And then the after…

At this point I thought we were in the clear, but I’ve never been more wrong.  See those little bits of padding stuck to the floor? And also that light colored tack strip running around the perimeter? Together they represented an exhausting weekend for mom and I.  See by this time it was Saturday around lunch and it literally took us the rest of the day and into Sunday and Monday (holiday weekend = more torture for Mom) to get it all pulled up.  See complete pics below…

The bits of padding weren’t quite as bad because the staples weren’t flush with the floor, but rather held up a bit by the padding.  So for those, we just used a pair of needle nose pliers and pulled.  Granted there were several hundred of them, so our knuckles were definitely feeling it by the end.

But the tack strips, OH THE HORROR!  (I’m channeling SATCs Anthony Merintino preparing Charlotte for her wedding to Harry)  In fact, we actually wondered if we could invent some sort of special tool to get them up because we’d make millions if we could give people an easy way to get this chore done.  We ended up using a pry bar, a hammer and a flat screwdriver, but there has to be a better way!  The task involved prying up the strip bit by bit and wedging the pry bar where it could fit to allow for a bit of leverage.  Inevitably there were always strips that split, nails that wouldn’t come up, awkward angles, etc to push us over the edge, but the worst was how much our hands hurt by the second and third days.  I definitely feel responsible if my mom ever gets arthritis!

        
 All complaining aside, we had a pretty good time (as on most occasions) and certainly learned the meaning behind ‘A Labor of Love’.  As it turns out the floors had been stained (by hand with a brush it looks like) and not sealed, so they were/are quite dry.  We used the tried and true Meyer’s Soap to clean them up nice and planned to refinish them someday (flash forward two years later and that task is still on the list…).  In the end, I’m really glad we got it done before we moved in, because it would have been a much more time consuming task to remove furniture etc.  I should also note that mom agreed in the end that the carpet needed to go…one small victory for all the daughters out there whose moms are ALWAYS right (and who hate Berber carpet)!!!