Renovation Step #2- Goodbye Carpet, Hello TV...

You know how they say that your mattress doubles in weight after 10 years? I wonder if the same if true for carpets.  The carpets in my sewing room were almost 13 years old, so they had some age to them, and removing them was the next step in the renovation.

To recap, after painting, the room looked like this...

Sewing Room after paint

Having never before pulled up carpeting, I sort of assumed you'd cut the existing carpet in strips and just roll it up along with the pad and cart it away.  I naively thought the pad just laid under the carpet.  I had no idea it was held in place with a bazillion staples, each of which had to be removed!  I was smart enough to know that there were tack strips around the outer wall; however, I was unprepared for just how sharp those things are.  We had to break them down into smaller pieces to throw away (one of my jobs), but really, have you ever tried to grab one of them?  There's no place to hold them because nails stick out both sides.  Hauling the carpet away was heavy, but having never moved new carpet, I can't say if the old is heavier than the new stuff.  Removing the old carpet wasn't a terrible job, just dirty and much more time consuming than I expected.  Then again, every job is more time consuming than I expect.  It's my thing.

Sewing Room with the carpet removed

My husband took the next day to sand all the rough patches on the floor and to remove the baseboards.  Initially I thought we could leave them in place, install the floor and just put quarter round up, but we decided it'd be better to put the floor under it.

So the carpet/floor cleanup took one weekend and the following weekend was spent picking up cabinets and installing the TV.  What I expected to take a few hours mounting the television, ended up taking about 7 hours.  However, when I think about all the steps involved it makes sense.  We had to install a new electrical outlet and a new media outlet, move the coax cable, pull all the media cables through the wall, install the TV mount, hang the TV and fix some of the sheet rock.  Actually I'm surprised it didn't take the whole weekend!

New wall mount and cables

The TV's not actually a new purchase.  My husband got a new TV for Christmas last year and the old one was moved up to my sewing room.  I'm excited that there's just enough space to the left of it for me to make a little wall hanging.  Because the ceiling is slanted in here, wall space is at a premium, so it's hard to find room to hang quilts.

Step by step, it's slowly getting done.  Actually, the cabinets have been installed, the floor is almost done and I ordered the counter tops today (but I'll share those pictures soon).  It's still probably going to be another 6 weeks or so before it's completely finished, but that'll be here before I know it.  Besides, patience is a virtue!

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Colossians 3:12 (NLT)