The Carpet Saga Continues

I would like to show you finished photos of our house with the new carpet but
I STILL do not have resolution in the case of

"The Great Carpet Mishap".

Reminder how EXCITED I was when the

day came for our new carpet?  I had started ripping out the old carpet
in late June.  In July, as we moved things out of the first rooms to be carpeted,
our house was a mess.

It was ok, though, as I

knew it would be that way for only a few days.

Then, remember my horrifying discovery

that our new carpet was already developing holes

where fibers were just falling out?

At that time most of it was laid with the exception

of our bedroom, the bottom half of our stairs

and two small closets.  I paid our carpet installer that morning but told him

not to bother finishing the installation.  He agreed that

something was very wrong with the carpet.

The lady at the carpet store came out right away and

also agreed that something was very wrong.

She ordered replacement carpet, assuring me it would

be from a different dye lot.  It appears that this

carpet has a problem with the glue or latex or whatever

holds the two parts of the backing together so

I didn't want another piece from that same run.

WELL,

the new carpet made it to town last week!  Yippee!!

I decided to run into the local warehouse to

check it out before they brought it out to our home.

It looked nice.

They unrolled a large part of the roll and we all

got down on our hands and knees to "pluck" it.

Rest assured, I am not talking about abusing a carpet.

By "plucking" I simply mean gently pinching and tugging one fiber at a time.

This new carpet was also faulty!

The owner of the store immediately called the distributer.

They did not hesitate to offer a new roll to me.

I am trying to not think the worst but doesn't it

seem likely the distributer wasn't surprised by the call since they
knew they'd just sent a roll from

the same run/dye lot as the last?

I told the shop owner they could send a new roll but that

I wanted to pick out an entirely new carpet.
I'm not stupid.
Well, I'm not THAT stupid.

I enlisted her help, along with my carpet layer guy who was there, as well

as an employee who'd been helping.  They gave advice on other carpets
in my price range.  As it turned out, the 4 of us agreed so

in about 5 minutes time I had chosen another style.
If the color doesn't turn out to be right, I will simply paint to match.
Just so you know, Mike didn't really care about the style
so he didn't mind me making the call.

So, now we wait again.

We are learning to avoid stepping on the tack strips in our bedroom

and on the stairs.  We did move our bed back but just put it on the floor, not making the effort to set up the frame or the headboard and footboard.

I'm getting used to going to the guestroom to get stuff from
my dresser where it is up against the bed facing backwards.  I can't get into all the drawers so I just throw everything on top of it.  Remember, when we put it in there it was supposed to be for just one night.  Even when we found the problem with the carpet I thought it would be just a couple weeks until everything
was back to normal.  I'm the one who suggested we just leave things,
likely not my best plan.

But, I'm not whining.

Ha!  That's not one bit true!

I'm whining.

But, I will admit that I've seen the humor in this.
I also am still aware that there are many, many situations
so very much worse than carpet problems.

AND, originally I said I just wanted a carpet that
didn't smell like cat urine (that had been a parting gift from our 2 old cats).
I now know that I require more from a carpet than
just that new carpet smell.
I require a carpet that is not going bald.

Dora Has Left the Building!

I've been BUSY working on the room where I do my projects for Wyoming Rose Boutique.  (See here... http://onlythemanager.blogspot.com/2011/04/good-bye-dora.html)  I still haven't settled on the name for that room but I am considering some of the suggestions I've already received.  Any more ideas? 

Every smidge of Dora and the castle is off the walls and they are now painted a soothing color called "Timothy Tan".  That's kind of a weird name but I really enjoy the calming effect of "just enough" color. 

I ripped out the lavender carpet and plucked a lot of staples out of the floor.  New carpet soon!

Yesterday I was ready to finish it all up.  I drug all my supplies and junk out into the hallway.  It looked like the hallway of a hoarder! 

Sam got up and made a comment that he hoped DFS (Dept. of Family Services) didn't come and take him away.  That puts a funny mental image in my head.  Sam, at 17, is probably 6'3' or more and I pictured a little petite social worker coming to his rescue.

My plan was to arrange the furniture and then move everything back in.  The new carpet is probably a month or so from happening so I wasn't going to wait for that.  I have sewing to do!  So, I started to move things around to see how I wanted it to be.

One of the pieces of furniture there is an old dresser of Sam's.  We'd got it when he was a baby but somewhere in his younger years he'd started putting stickers on it.  He was so pleased with himself, I left them there.   

It then became kind of a joke.  He'd add stickers on it all the time.  By the time he was a teen-ager he was adding things like the long sticky strip that comes on a new t-shirt that says

medium

medium

medium

medium.

I looked over all the stickers and it was kind of like a little tour of Sam's childhood.

     

My favorite was the "Hello My Name Is" sticker from a church event.  He'd written his name and below it in paranthesis he'd written (catman).  That made me smile because for years he referred to himself as Catman.  He still really enjoys our cats but I'd not thought of that nickname in awhile.

After that nostalgic moment I decided that instead of just putting the dresser in with plans to clean  it up later, maybe I'd better follow Nike's advice and "Just Do It".  So, I got out my little bottle of Goof Off The Miracle Remover and started scraping.  I felt like I was being watched... 

... but I kept at it.  It took a long time to get them all off.  I was pleased when I stood back and looked at it.  But, there was another problem.  The drawers didn't all close properly.  So, I took out all the drawers and identified the screws that were prohibiting closures.  I got that problem fixed but one drawer didn't close right still.  So, I played musical drawers until I found that there was just one drawer that fit in one of the spaces.  This was not ever a top quality piece of furniture but at least it was now usable.  I'd used most of my morning just scraping stickers!

THEN, I got a brainstorm!  I remember a can of green spray paint I'd purchased for another project.  I opened the window for fresh air and started spraying.  I was so excited!  Unfortunately, I ran out.  By now it was early afternoon so I jumped in the car and went in search of matching spray paint.  It took 3 stores until I found the match, across town of course.  I finished up the dresser and liked the result.  What do you think?

THEN, I glanced at the old Christmas Popcorn Tin I'd been using for my trash.  I know, I know, classy.

So I just kept spraying...

FINALLY, I was ready to move into the room.  That seems like a simple thing until you know that I had FOUR big tubs of things such as quilt squares, jewelry parts, patterns, old clothes that may become quilts, and lots of things difficult to identify.  Much of this was from my Grandma Rose's home and I needed to sort and organize.

Grandma Rose died just before Christmas.  She was the original Wyoming Rose.  She did everything crafty and saved left-over bits and parts for potential future use.  She also seemed to have the same problem as me, starting a new project before finishing the previous one.  This results in a lot of half-completed treasures!  When her house was cleaned out and things were being taken to thrift stores, craft things were saved for me and my cousin, Diahann, to add to our own craft supplies.  I was a bit overwhelmed by the bulk of all this but it is so precious to me.  I opened one tub and the smell of Grandma's house come poofing up to my face.  I just stood there weeping.  I miss her so much!

I never did completely clean out our hallway before I crashed into bed.  Luckily, DFS hasn't shown up but rather than risk it, I'd better finish up the job.

I'll show the final pictures of the room soon!