Starting with positive news: We got new carpet installed yesterday!!! (in our 3 main level bedrooms)
Now for the negative news: We got new carpet installed yesterday!!!
Just kidding. It is good news, and I’m very happy, and grateful. The carpet looks (and feels) great. But omg, I’m exhausted right now.
Prep + Clutter…..
Tuesday evening we spent the entire evening prepping the rooms for Wednesday morning install. Meaning literally every single thing in the rooms had to come out. Everything from on the floor in the closets + lower level hanging stuff. Everything from under the beds. The drawers. Lamps/ alarm clocks/ picture frames/ etc. We had to take apart our king sized bed and move the box spring out and take the frame apart. (Doing anything with a king sized anything is a royal PAIN. Those mattresses weigh like 1,000 lbs. and it feels like wrestling an octopus or something. So awkward.)
The carpet guys dealt with moving the actual dressers around, but we had to do everything else.
We made like 1,200 trips up and down the basement steps to move everything to dump in separate piles. I specifically insisted that we NOT dump everything out in the main living areas of the house because I did not have faith that we would get the rooms reassembled promptly (being the middle of the workweek and all), and I couldn’t stand the thought of looking at all that stuff the rest of the week.
But the install went well, with the minor detail that our new carpet is thicker than our old carpet. So we have to have our closet doors cut down/ shortened a little bit in order to fit back on! Grrr.
Whistle while you work
I also got some joy/amusement out of the Mexican installation guys. When they knocked on the door, I opened and the guy looked down at the carpet order (presumably looking at our very Hispanic sounding last name), and then said in heavily accented English, “Someone here speak Spanish?” I said I did, so he launched into Spanish, happily. 🙂 It’s always fun when my language skills come in handy. Before they left I learned one is from Acapulco, the others from Guanajuato. Both places we’ve been, both gorgeous cities.
I sat and worked in the kitchen while they worked from 8:30-noon or so. I texted Ivan at work: “Mexican people are so funny. These guys have their ranchera music playing (loudly) and are singing along and whistling as they walk in and out, right past me here on my computer….” He responded, “hahahaha, yep!!”
I would have personally been a) embarrassed to be singing along to music in front of a strange lady and b) worried that I would be disturbing the person on the computer. (It was fine! Didn’t bother me at all. But I know I would never have done that, myself.)
It just made me laugh, because it’s just a cultural thing, I think. They like their vibrant music!! (I do, too. It’s very…cheery? Upbeat? Catchy? I don’t know the word, but I like it. Also a fan of the trumpets.) Ivan does NOT really embrace Mexico’s musical culture too much or often at our house, which sometimes makes me a little sad, because I think it’s fun.
We spent the WHOLE night getting our room, at least, put back together, and made some progress on the boys’ rooms. Still have more to do, and my house still feels all cluttered which is annoying me!! But that’s okay. 🙂
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful that people know how to install carpet, because, we do not.
More carpet photos coming! Once things are more done. Here’s a random fall scene from the walk home from the bus on Tuesday:
GRATEFUL KAE 
Our renos got delayed to next week and it’s such a mix. I feel awful for complaining (because, hello privilege to have a home and afford renos)…but it is STRESSFUL!
I think all the extra clutter and trickle down jobs (like having to get closet doors resized to accommodate thicker carpets) are what stress me out the most. I KNOW things are going to take longer and cost more than I’m expecting, but I’m never quite sure where/when these issues will crop up.
Wishing you a speedy return to normal, and I’m enjoying my quiet work space today, knowing next week life it getting turned upside down for a while.
LikeLike
Very exciting, but I really understand the frustration about the clutter! I feel like my clutter tolerance is reducing year by year… 😉
Can’t wait to see pics when it’s all back to normal!
PS: Here’s a funny story… the first time I ever ordered new carpet, I did nothing to prepare. I didn’t clear the space, I didn’t take up the old carpet. The carpet fitter, to his credit and maybe in his amazement, said nothing and just did it all for me. So I thought that was the normal way of getting carpet fitted, until my sister asked me how hard I had found it doing all the prep work, and I was like, “What prep work?!” LOL!!
LikeLike
That is hilarious!!!! Hahahaha!! I did wonder if they ever encounter that, showing up and a room is FULL of personal stuff that would all need to get moved… lol!
LikeLike
Hahah well I can tell you yes, yes they do… 🤣🤣🤣 I’m better now I know the proper protocol!
LikeLike
Hearing about your carpet guys playing music/singing puts a smile on my face. It would probably annoy some people (like my husband probably!) but I think it’s fun how different cultures have different tendencies. I like the vibrancy of Latin cultures. I was talking about it on a run with my neighbor recently. I went to the Dominican Republic to visit a friend in the peace corp years ago and the culture is just SO different. Hospitality is SO HUGE and I loved seeing the older guys sitting outside playing dominos. That said, I felt a lot of sadness when I visited, like when I was finished eating and the kids at the table ate off the chicken bones I had eaten off of, etc. (I did not want to eat first or even eat at all but my peace corp friend said they would be super offended – I had bought the chicken (live at the time of purchase!!) for the meal and would have been happy to go without and had I dished up my meal, I would have taken much less so it was good the kids were willing to eat it but I still felt really awful?) But even though they had challenging socio-economic conditions, they still found joy. Hopefully the tone of this comment is coming across right… I was just really impressed by their ability to work w/ what they had/appreciate what they had.
We had new carpet installed on the stairs and upper level before we moved into our current house. Phil wanted to do it ‘later’ (like in several years) and I said NO WAY JOSE! Because all that shuffling of stuff is such a pain and the clutter part of the process is sooo annoying! I am really trying to cut down on our clutter but it’s tough with little kids. But we got a cubed organizational thing for our downstairs so that will help somewhat. There is just so much stuff when you have little ones.
LikeLike