Why Stop There?

No sooner had we finished installing the new swamp cooler, showered, and had a bite to eat when I realized that it was "Brush and Bulky" trash pick-up week in our neighborhood. Ib and I have been toying with the idea of removing the carpet for years.

Every time I vacuum, and parts of the seams get sucked up and grow larger and more unsightly, I rant and rave about getting rid of it. A few months back we considered tiling the house, but don't really want to put that kind of money into a place that's for sale anyway.

Then we started talking about and researching painting or staining the concrete which is pretty trendy these days, especially in the desert. So at 10 o'clock on a Tuesday night, after deciding "YEP, let's do this!" we started ripping out carpet in the hopes of catching the bulky trash pick-up and saving ourselves a costly trip to the dump.

Ib was making fun of me for wanting to wear the respirator. He says he's going to use it for changing diapers. I told him that I didn't want to be breathing in whatever nastiness lurked under the carpet, for Knox's sake.

UGH...GROSS! What's under YOUR carpet?

We left carpet in the 3 bedrooms, since it didn't have near the amount of wear as the living room and hallway did. Ib pulled up tack strips and all and hauled it out to the street. I mostly followed around sweeping up. We found 2 layers of old vinyl tile under the carpet that we weren't expecting. So using a transparent stain on the concrete was ruled out, because of all the old glue. That would require some serious labor to remove. We finally finished around midnight. The next day, it (and the old swamp cooler) was all hauled away by the time we got home...totally worth it!

Friday night, Ib started chiseling away at the tiles. They were so old and dry, that most of them came up easily. I picked up the pieces and swept the floor. After only an hour or so, he (and his poor back) remembered why he quit doing flooring to begin with.

Saturday morning I was off to Home Depot to get paint while Ib skim-coated the floor with a concrete filler, then scraped and swept again. 3/4 of the way through rolling the floor, we realized that I'd brought home a flat-finish opaque concrete stain, rather than regular floor paint. So it was back to Home Depot to get a gloss sealer. Hey--at least the color was right!

Luckily, we had all water-based products, rather than the typical acid-stain. So it didn't turn out to be quite as big an ordeal. We were hoping to just paint, wax and be done. But it all worked out in the end.

We put the first coat of sealer on last night before bed and will do coat #2 today. It is pretty volatile stuff, and contains anti-freeze, so we crated the dogs until it was dry and will probably take them for a nice long ride today after applying the second coat.

The Chocolate Brown stained floor looks a million times better than that ratty old carpet (even with a few dusty dog prints under the sealer). I just have to touch up the baseboards that used to be hidden behind carpet.

And now I get to go shopping for a sweet area rug. Lucky for me, there is a giant sale at the furniture store just down the street. Hmmm...new couches might be nice, too...