New Carpet 'n Stuff

Here's what my room looks like with new carpet and some of the stuff out of the way.



Here's the old (top) and new (bottom). If you notice something that looks like a patched hole in the old carpet, that's because it's a patched hole.



They're not terrifically different, but I'm very pleased with the new carpet. The difference is that the old carpet was in really bad shape. It was dingy, matted, patched, and from the view of the bottom, stained from numerous incidents. The new carpet is more orangey dunn than mossy grey. Just for kicks, here's the sample on the old stuff.


Now for the technical details. Here's ripping out the old carpet. The image is dark, but does show several patches on the door side, probably where a previous owners dog liked to dig. They told me the carpet was not the original. I don't know how old it was but it was pretty gross. I'd always planned to replace it, but after putting all my stuff on it, the idea got overwhelming. But there are good sales in these trying times.


This is how the installers bundled the carpet remains for removal. They created a knot by slicing a 2-3" strip of half the width, slicing 2 parallel lines in the roll, and twisting the strip through the resulting loop. Pretty handy. They kept their knives sharp.


The carpet pad is an upgrade partly because I requested it and partly because this particular short-nap carpet seems to call for it. It's much cushier.


Then the carpet gets laid out and rough cut to size. They replaced the threshold tack strips but reused the remainder. They lay out the carpet like this, bang it onto the tack strips on one side, then put the spreader in. They stretch the carpet across the room and bang the opposite side onto the tacks. Then they do the other direction. Finally, they do a final trim on the edge and tuck the ends downward.


I highly recommend having professionals do this task. It took them longer than I rather thought it would but they did a nice job including sweeping up before and vacuuming afterward. And moving all my stuff...


Starting here, ALL of this stuff got taken out. And all the stuff under the bed, which is designed to allow a lot of storage.


Some got put in the in-progress kitchen


and the rest on the patio.


Someone walking up the staircase to the upper 2 units would have this view of my patio totally packed with stuff. It's mostly cleared back out again, but not entirely. And I took 4 purses and my old mauve suitcases out to the recycling and left them with another box labeled "free purses". If no one picks it up I'll go grab it and donate it somewhere. It still works, but I haven't used it more than once in the last 10 years. Very little other stuff left though. Yikes.


I'm making a standing offer of temporary SoCal accommodations for anyone who is good at organizing and editing stuff.