Flooring prep

It's happening! After my escalating complaints about the grotty carpet, and my impulsive removal of most of it from the piano room, and a bit of uncharacteristic leadership from me in terms of contacting suppliers and installers, we are now less than a week from new flooring.

When we moved into this house 15 years ago we looked at the carpet, which was already 10-20 years old at that point, and said "well, that has to be replaced, but maybe we should wait until after we no longer have a pukey baby." After that it was "until after we no longer have a toddler spilling juice." After that there were more pukey babies and more spilly toddlers. And then there was just the inertia.

We tried to make do. We bought a steam cleaner. We bought a lovely Dyson vacuum cleaner. But the frequent, powerful but ultimately fruitless cleaning caused the substrate and underlay of the carpet to break down faster and faster. It was basically just rotting away. Going bald. Smelling terrible no matter how much it was steam-cleaned.

So here we finally go. The tax rebate cheque is covering the cost. The installers will be here Monday.

We've moved four huge bookcases and an entertainment unit. The carpet is gone from the living room too. Patches of irregular concrete have been levelled. The last of the painting is underway. The remaining furniture, plus the entire piano room contents, need to be removed over the next few days. It's fun work, though. The inertia seems to be gone.