SURVIVAL TIPS FOR RE-CARPETING AN ENTIRE HOUSE

This is the true story.  Of seven strangers.  Picked to live in a house…

Haha, just kidding.

But I am going to get real about carpet today.  Oh yes.  If you read my prior post about making over my living room for One Room Challenge, you know that I planned to rip out my old flooring and install something new.

BACK STORY

It took me 13 years to make up my mind about what I wanted for flooring for my house. Constantly looking at different types of Carpet & Flooring, trying to find the best for me. The trouble with searching for the perfect carpet, is that sometimes you will come across a website and fall in love with their products, and then you go to make a purchase, and find out that the products were from Carpets in Bournemouth. After much disappointment, I decided that actually, I didn’t want carpet, but when they came back with a quote to install wood laminate flooring through the rest of my house, I about fell over. I found these awesome cheap carpets online and that made the decision for me! So carpet it is.

Since I couldn’t have wood, I wanted the flattest, most sisal rug looking carpet I could find.  I found it and it was on sale.  So I danced my way out of the store and eagerly awaited a call from the installers.

Then reality started to sink in.  Or, rather logic.  This is how it started to sound in my head…  “Oh, I’m gonna want to paint my living room before the new carpet goes in, because then I won’t have to cover the floor.   And the baseboards in that room…and in my office.  AND I’m gonna have to clean out my master closet… and my guest closet.  And everything in those rooms.  Oh wait, where will I put everything when they need to clear out a room?”  Oh shit.

Y’all, I have so much crap.  And I never realized it until I had to cram it all into two rooms.  I immediately thought of my friend, Sarah and how she’s had such good luck selling stuff on local Buy-Sell-Trade groups on Facebook.

Note to self, order that nifty little scanner that my cousin, Julie recommended so I can thin out my double wide, 4 drawer metal file cabinet.  Uffda.

I intentionally scheduled the install for a Friday.  I spent the entire week prior painting.  I was putting coats of paint on the baseboard at midnight the night before the install.

INSTALL DAY

I get up early the next morning and head to Dunkin’ Donuts for a dozen donuts.  This is one of the best tips of all time!  I have used donuts to schmooze over my landscaping crew, the guys at the dealership when I know they want to charge me an arm and a leg for car work.  And it works.  Everytime.  So when I have little nitpicky requests, they are happy to oblige every time.

They show up and the guy is super stressed about not having enough.  Since there is a pattern in my carpet, they need to have enough to match it the patterns.  Now I’m stressing.

They help me move the big stuff.  I almost had an anxiety attack when I saw them take a hammer and screwdriver to take my doors off of their beautiful new brass hinges.

AND THIS IS WHAT MY HOUSE LOOKED LIKE DURING THE INSTALL

All of my office items were moved into my kitchen.  Those are my old sofas stacked in my office.

This is my dining room from my kitchen view.  My file cabinet and office bookshelf are where my kitchen table is, and my table is shoved into my dining room.

This is my guest bedroom – the same room I made over two One Room Challenges ago…

My master bedroom, my first One Room Challenge.

This is my master bedroom closet.  I didn’t realize they were going to take my closet doors off.

This is my second guest room, that I use as a closet/ironing/shoe room.  Thank goodness I put new carpet in that room a couple years ago.  I could use it for storage for my two other bedrooms.

THINGS I OVERHEAD DURING THE PROCESS

“Oh shit.”

“That wasn’t me!  I didn’t do that.”

“Are we gonna have enough?”

“How the hell…?”

“Owww!”  “You okay?”  “I almost just cut my finger off.”

“You don’t have pets do you?  Cause this is the worse kind of carpet to have with pets.”  (Editors Note:  Homeowner began drinking wine at this point.)

HOW IT ALL ENDED

I have new carpet.

Within seconds my cats dug their claws into it.  I screamed.  Now there are cat scratching posts scattered amongst the house.

The seams aren’t perfect, but they will smooth out after enough foot traffic.

My freshly baseboards are a total wreck.  The back of the carpet scratched them up.  I was told I picked out a carpet with an especially scratchy back.  Who would have thought?  Not to mention the new carpet has such a shorter pile, that you can see the bare wood along the bottom.  So regardless I would have had to repaint them.  I’ll be posting soon on how I painted them post carpet install.

I’m going to keep you all in suspense a little longer to see how the new carpet looks.  It’s exactly what I wanted, and I’m so glad I went with my gut and picked the carpet I did.  If you’re not signed up to get new posts sent to you, make sure you sign up below so you can see how my living room finishes up!

MY TIPS FOR SURVIVING CARPET INSTALLATION IN YOUR HOME

• Pick a carpet that is pet friendly.
• Give yourself at least a week to move everything out of the rooms.  You will be tempted to start making piles of things to throw away and donate.  Wait until it’s time to move things back in to do that 😉
• Beware of patterns.  Make sure you tell the retailer and installers multiple times how you want the pattern to go.
• The flatter the carpet pile, the more the seams will show.
• Donuts
• Take a peek at what the back of the carpet looks like.  If it’s bad, you may want to cover your baseboards in painters tape.
• Don’t kid yourself.  Every single thing has to be moved out of the room.
• Closet doors and interior doors will be removed.
• Compare the the pile height of your current carpet and new carpet in regards to your baseboards.
• You’ll need a lot of time to move things back into rooms.  So don’t plan on having company over the following day.
• It’s a loud process.  They brought their own stereo which sorta covers up the racket, but really only makes it all louder.
• Be home and available to the crew.  Questions come up often.
• Tie up curtains so they aren’t in the way.
• If you have a big bed (like me), you’ll want to dismantle as much of it as possible before Install Day.
• This is a perfect time to flip mattresses!

Make sure to sign up below to hear more shenanigans about my living room makeover 😉

See you all next time,

XO, Jen

*The first sentences were from MTV’s Real World, just in case you weren’t a teenager in the 90’s.*