Home Improvement

I am embarrassed to say that I found mold growing in my home.  I have always hated the carpet in my kitchen, but the last straw was when I noticed actual mold growing on it near the refrigerator.  GROSS!!!!  I love my old house with all it's charm, but you have got to be kidding me.  Mold?!!  So the home improvement began...

First, I ordered Chris to take up the carpet in the entry way where said mold was found.  Luckily he follows orders quite well and that was mostly done within a day.  My dad came down a week or so later and helped move the fridge and get the carpet up under there.  Now, about this carpet.  Imagine that you have a paint can size can of glue.  Now imagine that you poured the whole thing on an 9 x 9 foot section of hardwood floor.  Can you imagine that?  I can't either,  but that is what these people did.  It was horrible.  The entry way wasn't as bad because there was linoleum underneath the carpet and that came up ok.  The kitchen was a nightmare.  Chris had done a couple of sections in there by himself and still had not made a lot of headway.  

Well, to my surprise my dad and Nathan showed up the Saturday after Thanksgiving and started working.  It took a lot of crowbar action and inappropriate pulling with back muscles, but eventually they got it all up.  It helped that about 2/3 of the way into the job, they figured out that if they cut the carpet into half foot strips it came up a little easier.  

Once the carpet was up, there was a decision to be made on what to do with the hardwood.  I had originally planned to go the cheap route and purchase peel-n-stick vinyl tiles.  But when I found out there was actual hardwood under the carpet I began to question that decision.  Well, the hardwood was in pretty bad shape so we decided to add more work to the day and we ended up pulling that up as well.  That wasn't as tough, just time consuming.

Next we were off to Lowes to get supplies.  Oh, but first it was lunch.  Mom had sent along a nice meat loaf.  Mmmm.  But.  Wait.  Where's the oven?  Oh, that's right.  It's in the middle of the dining room.  Hmmm - not going to work.  Although she did suggest an extension cord, but alas, it is a gas stove!  

Once we got back from Lowes, Randy and Marcy showed up.  Randy had power tools for a couple of minutes but that situation was remedied quickly.  He was given a pencil and some paper.  Measurements for the plywood were needed!  We were going to give the power tools to Marcy but she was found unresponsive.

Anyway, all of the plywood for the kitchen got put down.  I wanted to get the plywood in the entryway done, but decided that a night out without kids (and with martini's) sounded like more fun. 

We are still not done with the project, but I love the plywood floor a lot more than the carpet.  And yes, Bennett was a big help!