Saturday, June 20, 2009

Away, damn carpet!


Five hours, a hobbled back, and a million staples later - no more carpet on the stairs! Woot, woot! Yes, I somehow managed to convince Thom of the necessity to remove the hideous carpet on the stairs and we can now officially say that this Bangor Foursquare has been de-1970s-ized! Hooray for the 21st century! Tomorrow I will work on stripping the banister and newel posts.

What convinced him, you ask? I think it was the promise of a vacation to Disneyworld. You see, to get the floors done we're going to need to vacate the toxic promises (as will Mancha) - so why not use it as an excuse to take a vay-kay? Yes, after 35 years of avoiding all things Disney, I have now succumbed to the Mouse. Sigh. But - yippee! - upon returning, I shall have beautiful new floors upstairs! July 9-11 is the date!

I'm sure I will then have to reckon with Thom again about some kind of runner. However, after spending all this time pulling tack strips and staples out of our once beautiful floors I am not all that willing to see more holes. In fact, I think I consider carpeting hardwood very much akin to wallpapering. Indeed, one of the 10 Commandments of Our Old House:

1) Thou shalt not wallpaper over beautiful plaster walls.
2) Thou shalt not cover hardwood with carpet.
3) Thou shalt not punch holes in walls to accommodate wiring.
4) Thou shalt not hammer something with 50 nails when 3 will suffice.
5) Thou shalt not hire lazy contractors.
6) Thou shalt not build garages without proper foundations.
7) Thou shalt not create half bathrooms in coat closets.
8) Thou shalt not paint woodwork, then paint it brown to look like wood again.
9) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's hot tub.
10) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy wife, who is doing all this stinking work.

2 comments:

sarah said...

Nice - and why does a hot tub sound so good? We almost got one last time we were at Marden's - luckily we were able to control the urge. Maybe...

Susie said...

They had one "on sale" for $3K when we were there yesterday...maybe it's calling your name :)