New Carpet!

I told you earlier this week (in my 27-week pregnancy post) how we were getting new carpet. Well, here we are at the end of the week, and we do, in fact, have new carpet.

And we are EXHAUSTED.

It was SO.MUCH.WORK. I've come to the conclusion that the carpet guys have the EASY job. It's the preparation that is a complete and total bitch. From the minute we've gotten home from work to the minute we've gone to bed, every night this week, we've been subjected to hours of manual labor.

Moving every item we own off of the carpet was no small feat. Then there was ripping up all the old carpet, the padding, and staples in every room. And then there was massive cleaning. Then there was putting things back together. It was insane.

I worked from home yesterday and today so that we could get the carpet installed. Yesterday, they came and did the majority of the house, but they couldn't do our master bedroom because we just didn't have enough room to move the furniture out of there, too. So last night, we put the living room back together, then tore apart our bedroom. And then tonight, we got to move everything back into the bedroom.

The good news is that it is done, and it looks (and feels, AND smells) fabulous in here. The house is the cleanest it has been since we moved in, since we made sure to give everything a good scrubbing and/or vacuuming, including baseboards, all of the blinds, and all of the little things--books, DVDs, knick knacks, picture frames, etc.--have been dusted. For a nesting pregnant lady, it feels WONDERFUL.

So, before we officially crash... here are some photos! The living room is the only place I was consistent with taking photos, so they are the ones I'll share. Photos don't really do the project justice, but trust me when I say that new carpet is TOTALLY WORTH IT. If you've been thinking about it, DO IT.

Before:

The old carpet. It was really light in color, which made it difficult to keep clean. Throughout the past five years, it has started to show more dirt. It also felt really "worn" under your feet. Most frustrating were the really bad ripples that started popping up all over. You can see a few of them in these pictures, but here's one pic from the bedroom where you can see a bad one, too:

(Don't mind the random stuff in our room--this was after we had started to move things in there to get them out of the other areas of the house.)

During:

This is in the morning, before the guys came to install the first round of carpet. We ripped everything up down to the subfloors. (Don't you love the spray painting marks from where the owners before us painted the kitchen cabinet doors yellow?)

It wasn't long before the guys had the new padding down:

Then, they brought in the new carpet, which is more beige than white, so it's several shades darker than the old stuff (might be hard to tell in pics):

After:

It is so nice to have our house back. Actually, it's like it's a whole new house... so it's nice to have an even BETTER house back! Life can be normal again; YAY!