Adventures In Remodeling: "Miss" Meadowlawn Dr.: Carpet Cooties

Eduardo pulling staples out of the floor.

02/23/14

Almost everyday I have been writing for the day before, because I have been so freaking tired the night of, that I can't stay awake long enough. Yesterday, despite skipping the gym, and having a lazy morning, was no exception. We got to the house around 9:30 with a list of things to get done. The first was figure out how to get the rest of the popcorn ceiling down. We figured it out, and with the help of some duct tape, and a mop and a spray bottle we got almost all of it down. My hands and arms were sore from the day before, so as silly as it sounds, just holding the spray bottle and squirting it was exhausting. Lol. Yes, I know, I need to work out my arms more! Eduardo had to get up on our tallest ladder to reach some of the spots and my job was to stand on the first step of the ladder to stabilize it, and hold on to his legs and the ladder. I may or may not have wiped my nose on the back of his jeans a couple times while I was stabilizing...It was really cold inside the house and my nose was runny, and I didn't want to leave my post.

Next we started ripping out the carpet. I don't know why certain things gross me out more than others, but carpet is definitely one of those "things". We cut the carpet into manageable pieces, rolled it up, and started hauling it out to the garage. I wore my rubber gloves (my good work gloves are in the truck that is supposed to be delivered tomorrow) and a mask. Even so, I was still pretty disgusted. And it stunk really bad of smoke, and mold, and who knows what else. As we rolled it up I was able to witness what 20 years of stains looks like...uggg. I think in the future I will probably replace my carpet ever 10 years, just on principle.

We pulled out the carpet, the padding, those vicious looking tack strips and some of the staples. It seemed like a lot of the particle board underneath was in rough shape, and moldy. Upstairs by the doors to the deck the wood was actually wet. The steps were time consuming and a little difficult, but we just kept at it and finally we got it done. We only have the two bedrooms left to do tomorrow, or Tuesday, or whenever we get to it.