New Carpet!

Good morning,

Regular readers have already heard that we have had a great deal of painting done inside our home recently.  The living room, dining room, entrance hall, and three stairways were painted.  Now it's time for the new carpet.  We don't usually keep that baby grand in the entrance hall.  ;)

A team of four installers arrived to remove the old carpet.  They cut it into four foot strips and roll it up, and tape it to put out by the curb for trash pick up.

That is an original Rookwood fireplace over there and we use it constantly in the winter.  Right now we have put burnables into it, but won't light it while it is so hot outside and have the air conditioning working inside.  When we moved in 32 years ago, the fireplace tile had been painted over with many layers of paint.  It was a dark gray.  *sigh*  The previous owner thought Rookwood was old fashioned.  *even bigger sigh* It took me two weeks, two jugs of paint remover, and a box of latex gloves to strip the paint off of that Rookwood fireplace.

Rookwood Pottery is a Cincinnati company that has been reopened to again produce quality products.  To find out more about it, check out the link or just put Rookwood Pottery into a search engine to see its value now.  It's old fashioned, all right.  I love it!

You'll notice one of the installers is a young woman who arrived in short shorts and flip flops for shoes.  A friend said, "She's surely there for inspiration."  Wow, I wonder how much these people's Worker's Compensation premium is!

Here comes the new carpet.  Yes, just about the same color.  The house is Greek Revival so we've kept to the blue and white theme since we remodeled when we moved in 32 years ago. 

 The hard wood flooring is very pretty, but would need a great deal of refinishing to be able to use it as a bare floor.  We tried that when we moved in 32 years ago, but it didn't last long.  The whole house echoes, even with rugs in place.  With the dogs, too, it is nice to have the carpet so they don't slip and slide on the hardwood.

 That curio and buffet belong in the dining room.  *sigh*  Talk about feeling all discombobulated!

 They were using the dining room to cut padding and carpet for other areas.

 This is the first floor hallway looking toward the second floor.  When the house was built, this was the access to the servant's quarters directly from the kitchen.  We remodeled the third floor when we first moved here for our two boys to live up there.  There are two large bedrooms and a bath.  Daughter Catherine lives there now.

 That open door at the bottom of the image is our "secret" door.   It is off the hinges now so that the carpet can be put in.  The door is between the main staircase landing and the servant's staircase from the kitchen to the second floor.  Is this house fun or what?  When we first moved in, the kids were six, eight, and sixteen.  They spent the first couple of weeks just running up one stairway and down another. 

 When we moved in the leaded glass was not here.  The lady who sold us the house said she had the original leaded glass removed - it was old fashioned, you know.  *gasp!*  My Honey and I commissioned this window.

 That open door is a very large linen closet.  There's a window in the linen closet.  In the old days, there were windows in some closets so the items in there could be "aired."  The other door is one of the ways to access the master bath.

 This is the servant's stairway between the third and second floors, looking from the top.  The old carpet is gone;  the new carpet hadn't been installed here yet.

 And, this is the view of the stairway to the third floor with old carpet removed, some new padding on the stairs, but no new carpet yet.  I have no clue why the previous owner felt the need to paint the front of the stairs orange, red, yellow....  *another huge sigh*  We have always kept this stairway carpeted.

 And, now we're wrapping up after two days of carpet installation....

 We have some extra pieces that will go into a huge closet on the third floor.  You never know when you might need an extra piece of carpet, you know!

 And, now for the most important part of all:  Lab Testing of the new carpet!

 It's a real pain to do this, but it certainly is lovely when finished!  Now we are waiting for our new furniture to arrive in a few days.

Was it all worth it?  Yes, I think so.  :))

Best,
Lois

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 Home Dynamix Royalty 8083-100 Ivory 7-Feet 8-Inch by 10-Feet 4-Inch Traditional Area Rug

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