I Did It All By Myself

Or better known as...how I surprised Josh with a big, giant mess in our master bedroom.

One day a week Josh goes into the office for a 4 hour shift. Knowing this, I decided it was time to do something all on my own. I kept it a complete secret from Josh. I crossed my fingers that Eden would take a nap so that I wouldn't have to worry about her health and safety during this process. I got really lucky the day I decided to master a new skill.

At 1:15 in the afternoon I set out into our room with these things in hand. Yep, just ONE tool and a pair of gloves.

Want to know what my target of attack was going to be?

The final bit of carpet left in our entire house. It was the thorn in my side. Little bits of carpet and padding would fall off and I would find them tracked throughout the house. Drove me batty. On top of that our lovely extremely small bladdered dog felt the need to use this as her potty spot during the days that we were A) out of the house for a long period of time or B) it was wet outside and she didn't want to get her paws wet. Spoiled much? Anyway, I was DESPERATE to get rid of this nastiness.

I definitely knew this was something I could do, but I still was a bit hesitant. I mean, I had NEVER ripped up carpet...well besides the day that we toured the house when we were getting ready to buy and I snuck into the closet to see if there was wood flooring underneath, THERE WAS! Hello captain obvious.

The first step was to rip up the carpet.

Next, I knew I had to get rid of that awful padding. I just pulled up and carefully maneuvered it out of the staples that were holding on for dear life.

The next step is removing all of the staples that were holding down that carpet. For some this task may be easy, for others this may be the most daunting project every. It may have you cursing, even if you have never cursed in your life. Thankfully ours fell more towards the easy side. We were quite lucky with all of the carpet in our house, whoever installed the icky carpet over the gorgeous hardwoods was at least smart enough to not do too much damage. Thank you carpet installer. I will say that some staples were particularly hard to pry out with the pliers so I would usually just move on to another one for awhile...otherwise I would get a bit persistent and would let the pliers dig into the hardwoods in order to get that staple out. I am semi very stubborn like that so it is best for me to take a break before I do permanent damage.

The next task on the list is to remove the tack strips. These are ridiculous and while they do not take much time to pull up, you can very easily damage your floors. Instead of being super woman and pulling them up, I decided to just leave it to the pro a.k.a the husband. Although I would have liked to have the entire project done before he arrived home, I decided that having damaged floors would probably make him too frustrated to realize just how great of a wife I was to pull up the carpet in the first place. See my dilemma? So, I left them knowing that he would be able to pull it up super quick and figuring he would still be thankful for the little work that was left. I was right. It took him 2 minutes and he was thankful that I didn't attack the floors with a crowbar (that was what I planned to do). So if in doubt, let someone else do it.

Want to see the final result? No? Okay then I won't show you. Just teasing...

See that collage of photos on the ground? That frame has been sitting there since we moved in over a year ago. It is supposed to be hanging above our clothes on that back wall. A certain someone in our house who shall remain nameless has yet to follow through on that assignment. The shorter person in the house is crossing her fingers that this post will spur him on to check it off the list. I'll let you know if it works...

Oh that's right...you are all curious about what is up higher. It really isn't very pretty. I have plans to attack the closet with a paint brush and try to make it a little more organized and fun in there. I mean, who wants to pick out clothes in a bland closet? Yeah, didn't think so. Okay, don't say I didn't warn you...

See, I told you. And yes, Josh and I both fit our clothes into this one tiny "walk in" closet. Our nightstands are also full of undergarments and such, but other than that the closet is where it is at. We are trying to live by the "less is more" standard. Basically if it doesn't fit in the closet then it can't live here...okay this only applies to clothes...not children, animals, or any other living thing, just wanted to clarify. Yes, I have become quite the minimalist. Although, we do have a dresser located in our basement that does have off season items as well as all of the clothes that didn't fit me while I was pregnant....and still don't...another ranting for another day.

I have also been trying to keep it real on here so I am going to tell you something that I never admit. If you come over to my house and think I have everything all neat and tidy and put together all the time well you are very wrong my friend. See, I can clean with the best of them, but sometimes I just don't have the time. Want to know my secret? Here she is...

A laundry basket. There is typically always one hiding in our closet full of stuff that I just don't feel like putting away or don't have the time to put in the right location. Josh loves it. Oh by the way, complete sarcasm, he can't stand it and is always trying to get me to put everything away. My thought is...at least it's not on the floor. In fact, my closet is always my downfall. I can keep the rest of the house spotless, but I always have one place where I feel like I need some chaos. I feel like a bit of chaos is good for my perfectionist ways. Got to keep the balance.

So all this to say, go forth and prosper! Not really. What I actually wanted to say was that I encourage you to push yourself to do something you have never done before in your home. Be courageous. Obviously I picked something that wasn't super scary, but I am sure I could have screwed it up. Doesn't take much for me. Even you renters can find some projects around your home that won't do permanent damage, I am sure of it. I also want to make a full disclosure that even though I did this without Josh's knowledge, he was fully in support of getting rid of the carpet. I would never do something that he wouldn't be okay with. That's just how we roll.

Obviously it is much too late for me to be awake because my jokes are just pathetic today. Who am I kidding? I should say EVERY day. Glad you all love me anyway! Oh and yes, I do realize I owe you some pretty pictures. If this post didn't feel like a novel already I would add some, but alas it is rather long so I will make you wait. Hopefully not for long.

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Let 'Er Rip

So just because we had a baby does not mean we have totally fallen off the face of the DIYosphere. Look it up, it's in the dictionary...maybe the dictionary I made up...but in the dictionary nonetheless. 


I have truly been aching to get my hands dirty in the house (other than by changing diapers 24/7). I actually have two projects on the brain right now...ok well I have a lot, but two that are doable within the next month. The update that we made was actually done by Josh. I had no part in it, other than to say that I wanted it done. My excuse is that I was working full-time and just did not have a free moment to help...oh and because my wonderful hubby decided to do it without even telling me so in my defense I really couldn't help. 


Now, on to the project at hand. One of the first big projects we took on in our house was ripping up the carpet. I had peeked underneath it when we were first purchasing the home to make sure that the original hardwoods were still intact. Not only were they intact, but they looked in fairly decent condition. Well, we Josh ripped up the carpet in the living room, hallway, and Eden's room while I was busy cooking up a baby...seriously, I shouldn't have even stated that, but oh well. The one room we didn't get to during the pregnancy was our bedroom. 


When we were moving in we had decided that our master bedroom would be the last one that we focused on. Now, that wouldn't be what we would usually do or recommend to anyone...I think the master bedroom should always be a focus. However, in our house, the master was the room that needed the least amount of work, and we felt that it looked "good enough" to just leave as is since we had other rooms that desperately needed our attention. I still think this was a good idea because the room, although not perfect, still has a romantic touch to it and we are happy with what we have for now. So, without further adieu, here is the before and after of our in progress master bedroom...

BEFORE

(The serious BEFORE from our first showing)

AFTER

As long as you ignore the green tinted floors (seriously don't know why three rooms out of four have green flooring), the room is  actually looking fairly decent. Oh and please ignore the lump in the bed, that is our firstborn daughter, a.k.a Bella the dog, in the spot she frequents the most. Honestly, she is in bed from 10 p.m. until 2 p.m. the next day. It is ridiculous. Anyway, we still have a rug to add and some other touches, but for now I am just so happy to be rid of the carpet. Josh and I absolutely love hardwoods so it is nice to be rid of all most of it. That is right, there is still more.  Thankfully all that is left is a small square in our master bedroom closet which should take just a couple of hours to rip up and then we will be free from carpeting. I. CANNOT. WAIT. 

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