Goodbye Pink Stairs

Last night we were what I like to call Weeknight Warriors. We even have the battle wounds to prove it (ouch). Our beige berber carpet is being installed today in the master bedroom, hallway and stairs and we had a ton left to do to get ready. Mike had to work late so Mom came over to help me rip up the pink carpet in the hall and on the stairs. WORST. JOB. EVER. Seriously. Even Mom, who had to rip up a horse hair carpet pad back in their first house thought this was horrible. Getting the carpet up was dirty and tiring but doable with a thousand staples, prying up all the staples in the floor was annoying. But the carpet pad -  oh that horrible carpet pad - was the carpet pad from hell. I will have nightmares about this carpet pad like the boogie man for years to come.

It was cheap, it was dark red, it was really really old - and it had melted. It was SO DISGUSTING. After scooping up the bulk of it, the floor was covered in sticky bits of melted rubber. It was like having the floor covered in blood red gum. It stuck to our skin, it stuck to our shoes in thick clumps, it stuck to the tops of my socks. We tracked it all over the house unintentionally. Blood red sticky messes were everywhere. Blood red footprints. Red fingerprints on the fridge. Melted clumps of red rubber stuck everywhere, staining my rugs. It took hours to clean up (with a broom, vacuum, scrub brush, scrub sponge, cleanser and 2 rolls of paper towels) and I'm still scrubbing out a couple of blood red stains on my new chair. It looked like there had been a murder.

After the carpet disaster was cleaned up (poor Mom got so much more than she bargained for and I am SO GRATEFUL to her for sticking it out and saving me), I joined Mike in the master bedroom for more work. He was cutting all the holes for our future electrical boxes  - outlets, light switches, ceiling light, etc. - to get the mess out of the way. I helped paint the ceiling before cutting out at midnight. Mike stayed up until 2 am finishing the ceiling, sanding a wall, cleaning up the room and ripping the carpet out from UNDER the radiator in the bedroom. When we had the master redone, the contractors removed all the rug for us except around the radiator because the rug was installed UNDERNEATH IT. Well that's nice if you know how to remove a radiator and have the strength to then lift it up. However it really sucks if you're the homeowner trying to pull it up and can't get scissors or a knife under there to cut it. It required brute strength to rip the final section of carpet out. Awesome fun at 2 am.

Hopefully this was all worth it. I can't wait to see the new carpet installed when I get home.