Remodeling and redoing the carpet
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Redoing your house… and carpeting.
A few months ago some of our staff members were doing renovation.
This involved moving and also redoing the floors and painting and mowing and sweeping.
So the first thing that had to happen was that all the furniture had to be moved. We were thinking of putting stuff in storage either by renting storage like a Uhaul or PODS storage which costs about XXXX for so many days. Instead we took a lot of the furniture and things in the living room and moved it to the garage and when we ran out of space we moved it to the basement. Anything else we either trashed and got rid of it or donated. There were stray cups and shoes we found we didn’t need and decluttered. Then we also had the idea of doing a garage sale. Now if you are motivated and willing to put in the time you could probably make a few dollars from doing so and spending a day outside having people come pick it up. We actually didn’t. (Although we have picked up some decent deals of a rice cooker for about $2 or $3 from a garage sale).
Once we moved all the items we took a picture of the area and it was really nice and clean. We were going to remove the carpet and replace it all with hardwood or laminate.
The first step was taking off the carpet and it had to be scored and cut and divided into pieces and carried to the curb. Next there was some yellow insulation there that was between the carpet and the baseboard floor. We took that and then we had to vacuum, clean and sweep the bits still stuck to the floor and then we removed the side paneling baseboards that were there before. After everything was cleaned then it was time to measure and put together the laminates. It required a big saw blade and cutting and piecing them together and all this was able to be done within about three days. Then we had to put all the base board sides back down, vacuum, get new carpet. Move furniture and computers and items back and tables. When it was done it was a few weeks before we were at a livable condition. We also put a TV back in.
In the kitchhen we put stone countertops and removed the old sink and put in a new sink. In the hallways and kitchen we put a plastic laminate. But the room before that was the fireplace which took about three days also to do. It required saws and was done quite fast. Curtains were put up.
The laminate took about two to three days also and might have taken faster but one of our contractors had a family emergency so it took longer. The middle strip in the hallway also was a bit sticky and we were helping the contractors to do a lot of this stuff.
Finally the last thing that was done was getting bathfitters to redo the whole bathroom. There was a part of the tiles that had water damage near the bathroom and tiles had fallen off before. What they did was put larger tiles on the bathroom and then replace the bathtub with a plastic overlay on the tub and wall of the bathroom. Then they had to caulk around the toilet and the wall and add some tiles along the bottom of the toilet. The original shower also got replaced and is supposed to have a lifetime warranty. Whereas before you had three knobs. A hot, a cold and a shower intake valve, this is just a hotel style knob. The other bathroom took a little longer because the toilet had been subjected to a previous heavy load from someone stepstooling it as if it were a ladder (shame) but then the window ledge in the bathroom also got broken in half and that had to be replaced. The previous window shower curtain rods were replaced by 4 extender rods so that they could hold up the curtains.
Here you can see the finished products.
In the kitchen we also put up a new shelf to stack cans and supplies and groceries. Before we simply had it laid in the middle of the kitchen. Not very good for vacuuming.
Things I have noticed since the renovation is that there is less dust and sneezing around the house. There is still dust of course but it accumulates at a much slower rate due to the removal of a lot of carpet. The Bath Fitters have hidden the old tiles and that may one day cause issues. But for right now it is safely hidden under the plastic. Not sure if any kind of water vapor shows up on the opposite side though.
A lot more hair and fur is visible because there is less carpet so members of the house that have longer hair that sheds tend to leave more visibility when it does come off.
We replaced the drain with some metal meshes but they weren’t stainless steel so can rust easily. The hairs also occasionally get stuck.
The curtains were also completely replaced and the shower head is powerful and turned away from the window to keep it from getting wet and moldy. There are some grooves in the basin of one shower and a shower handle and the groove could collect occasional dust. Also the shower rods have a slightly fatter portion and thinner portion that can make it hitch onto the shower curtain hangers if you aren’t careful and slow in pulling the curtain open. There was a shower accessory also added to the wall to hold shampoos. The top and bottom rack are a bit wider for shampoos and the middle is a bit smaller for other items.
