But then... Steveio saw a Craigslist ad....
It was a wool oriental rug, for a very reasonable price. Real wool, not polyoleflin junk. And it was JUST THE RIGHT COLORS that we wanted for our livingroom. We drove about 50 miles to get it, and it was in like-new condition. It had recently been professionally cleaned before the people moved and it was not the right size for the lady's new house. So that is why she was selling it. It came home with us for only $130.00.
Also, the new rug coordinated with our dogs.... heh heh
Okay.. so no big deal, we bought a rug, right? Well..... we stretched it out in the livingroom on top of the beige wall-to-wall carpeting and it was perfect.
But----
Seems Steveio has been chomping at the bit to rip out the wall-to-wall carpeting in our livingroom. There is nothing wrong with the carpeting, it's in great shape. But he knows that underneath is some lovely hardwood flooring. We had peeked at the floor when we uncovered the hearth tiles after putting in the gas log insert in the fireplace. So he KNEW what was under that carpeting and he wanted to tear it out to highlight the hardwood flooring.
RIPPP up came a corner to check it out (this was at 4:20 pm)
Soon we were cutting a seam line to the dining room
and he started to pull up the entire piece of wall - to - wall carpet.
(I had to quickly roll the new rug out of his way!)
Finney supervised.
We pulled the carpet out in one whole piece and rolled it up. Then I posted on the local Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade page for anyone who wants it to come and get it. Free. It was clean and in good shape. A young couple who own a big old farmhouse were first to place dibs on it. They said they would love to have it on the cold floors upstairs this winter. They were here in 15 minutes to pick it up. (and if we decide to pull out the matching hunk in the diningroom, they want that too)
Within minutes he peeled back the padding to reveal
THE LOVELY 101 YEAR OLD HARDWOOD FLOORS!
This was the time-consuming part. Armed with a pliers and a bucket, I started pulling out the zillions of staples that were used to secure the pad to the flooring. It was a "sit down" job and I scooted around the floor pulling staples till my hands hurt. Steve was going around all the edges prying up the tack strips for the wall-to-wall carpeting. He used a pry bar and a piece of cardboard to pad the floor underneath so he wouldn't leave any marks.
We did take a little break for some supper, but soon we were right back on the job. By now it was after 6 pm and we pulled the very last staple! I went over the floor with a Swiffer and hardwood floor cleaner. The pad on the Swiffer let us know by snagging on any little pieces of staple left behind. Whew..... it sure looks PURTY!!!!
In the matter of two hours, we REALLY transformed the livingroom floor...
There is a noticeable outline where a previous rug had been sometime during the last 101 years. But we whipped out the tape measure and sure enough, it was a tad bit smaller footprint than the wool rug we bought. So it would cover up the outline almost perfectly! What luck!
We do have to buy some lengths of red oak quarter round molding trim. You can see the gap where the old quarter round had been removed to install the wall-to-wall carpeting. There wasn't any old trim left in the garage of that size, so I imagine it was tossed out by the installer of the wall-to-wall carpeting. I will stain and varnish the new quarter round trim to match and then Steve can nail it into place around the room. Some of the flooring varnish has marks pressed into it from the padding. There is a little bit of wear here and there. For 101 years old, that ain't so bad?
I think if I do a light sanding in some areas and a thin new coat of poly will take care of it. That is what I did in the foyer this past spring, and it looks great. So a little touch-up can be done here and there once we get the quarter round all into place.
The fireplace looks even bigger now with the tile hearth is nicely featured.
Years ago the tile hearth had been hidden under the carpeting by the installer.
Why hide that beautiful tile hearth?
In the famous words from HGtv's Nicole Curtis of Rehab Addict
(and I quote) "Why in the Hell would you cover that up????"
Now it's 7:30 pm and time for us to set the furniture back into place. I bought a pack of heavy felt pads to put under the legs of all of the furniture. We carried in each piece and set it back into place. It was all coming together and felt soooo good! I think the most time-consuming part was hooking up all the tv/recorder/modem/antenna wires to the tv in the corner.
Looking from the staircase in the foyer into the livingroom...
it sure looks like
HOME SWEET HOME
to us!
What started with a Craigslist ad
has ended with a transformed livingroom.
(and I have a feeling he has his eye on the diningroom next)