How to remove your own carpets!

We ripped out our own carpet, and disposed of it ourselves. Despite being novices, it was pretty easy – but it was a dusty, dirty process and a little time consuming.

You’ll need:

• Several rolls of duct tape
• A utility knife and replacement blades
• Needle nose pliers
• Something to pry up the tack strips – a crowbar, or, we used a metal spackler tool
• dust masks
• protective eyewear <— YES, you’ll look silly, but DO IT.

Putting in hardwood? Useful things to know!!

We are nearly done having our hardwood installed, and I thought this would be an opportune time to chronicle some of the things we’ve learned so far:

1. Get a BUNCH of quotes! The estimates we got were all wildly different. Ask for a breakdown of the estimate, and take a closer look at:

• the price per square foot of your wood (Are you going to match existing flooring elsewhere in the home? Do you want an exact match or wood stained to match (less exact)?)
• the installation cost per square foot
• are they going to be hauling away their garbage? How much is that going to cost? (One contractor was charging us for bringing a dumpster to the house, filling it and taking it away. That’s nice and all, but…. $$$$)
• are they going to uninstall the existing flooring? And dispose of it?

The Renovation Upstairs – Part One

While I would love to start at the beginning and share all my projects chronologically, I thought “Where better to start than the present?” And oh, what a messy, chaotic present it is! We are smack dab in the middle of having hardwood floors put in on our second level! For those of you who know us, y’all might be asking “Uhhhhhh…l didn’t you just move into that brand new house eight months ago? What could be wrong with eight month old carpet, ya bunch off crazies?!”

Well – not much, but at the same time – all the most important things!