Last Friday we decided to get rid of the old stinky carpet that runs throughout the house. And when I say stinky, I mean cat-pee, dog sweat, elderly person, shut-up for a year stinky. Those carpets had to go. A sneak peek at a couple of corners revealed hardwood underneath, so it was really just a matter of ripping up the carpet and removing the tack strips. Easy.
Except the padding underneath was so old it had basically disintegrated into sweep-up-able piles. Except where the cat/dog pee had soaked through and the padding was stuck to the wood.
Friends took Maggie for a couple hours in the morning which was enough for us to get up all the icky icky stuff and just left the dangerous stuff. (Truth be told, we thought it would be enough for us to do absolutely everything, but below is a picture of bedroom number one after about two hours.)
We continued to pry up staples and disinfect during Maggie's nap, and by the end of the night we had a pretty darned good head start on things. Good enough that Mags' room was completely done, tack strips and all, and the rest of the house "only" had tack strips left.
By the end of day two, thanks to gracious friends again taking over Maggie duty for a few hours, all the floors were barefoot enabled by Saturday evening. A pretty smooth operation, besides Bill's continuing bout with mild mold "poisoning".
The house no longer smells like cat pee (mostly -- occasionally I still get a whiff), and the hardwood floors are in pretty darned good condition. Good enough that we can let them sit for a couple of months while we go on to more pressing improvements.
And eventually, when we get to ripping up the carpet in the kitchen and laundry room (who puts carpet there?), we'll have some idea of the torture we're in for. But don't worry; it'll still be exciting and new laying down tiles for that project.
Friends took Maggie for a couple hours in the morning which was enough for us to get up all the icky icky stuff and just left the dangerous stuff. (Truth be told, we thought it would be enough for us to do absolutely everything, but below is a picture of bedroom number one after about two hours.)
