Its My Day Off and I am Working.........Go Figure

I may be working but its doing something I enjoy and something that has long needed to be done but before I get into that I want to say once again that I have wonderful friends. They are, really, and I cannot say it enough. Casual mention of some things I was going to buy before my trip and BANG!! I have had the loan of a bag to use on the plane, I have a lovely camera loaned to me so I can save on buying a new one. Not trip related but I got a surprise supper last night, pizza, wine, home grown salad, oh my word, so yummy and so unexpected. I have someone coming to clean my eaves to save me from paying to have it done. I have had ever so many offers to come and help remove carpet from my bedroom. I am blessed. I know I deserve my enemies but I do not know why I deserve such friends. Love them, each and every one!!

OK now back to work. My bedroom is the second last final frontier in this house to be redone to my taste. It still carries the Ethel stamp and I am just now getting around to changing that. The budget it tight as always but that is neither here nor there, I started with what I can do at the moment. Carpet removal. This is what I have lived with for the last 7 years.

Seriously ugly 1970's carpet that I cannot even begin to imagine what is living in it. You can almost see it moving. Blech. Long past time for it to be gone. So I grabbed my trusty razor knife and went to work. This carpet is so old the backing has crumbled to powder. Happily this is underneath it

I think we now know what happened to Barney the Dinosaur after he died. Somebody used him to carpet my upstairs. The entire upper floor of my house was this colour at one point in its history. This room has matching purple wall paper with white swirls all over it , Snazzy!! Thankfully it has been covered up with the most boring wall paper ever made. Right now this purple beauty sandwiches the orange powder that was foam backing at one time and makes removal a tad cleaner.

This morning I got up, went and ran a couple of errands, got coffee then came home and got to work. I did this room like I did the other carpet removal I undertook myself. Cut carpet in manageable pieces,  stuff into a tote box and haul down the stairs and out to the dumpster. Lather, rinse repeat until the dumpster is full. It did not take a really long time but I have to take rest breaks and then paused for lunch. Before I knew it my floor looked like this:

Yeah, yeah, I know, its not much of an improvement in the pretty department but its preferable to the greebly carpet. This lino is all over the house, in this colour except for the entry way where its the same pattern only green. When I look at it I wonder who picked it out? Some new bride decorating her house for the first time? A middle class couple, first time buying a house big enough for them and their children? I would love to know who lived here before me. 113 years, there has to be some stories in these walls. I wonder who lived here first and what the house looked like when it was all new? What character features have been removed over the years? I know I will never be able to find this out but I love to imagine it. Where was I ?? Oh yes, I removed more than half the room's carpet today, I got to the end of the bed and then dumpster space made me stop until after garbage day. Those little dumpsters hold a lot but not enough for a full room's worth of dead carpet.

So next on the reno plan is painting and wall paper. I have the wall paper but not the paint. Paint will happen on payday and the flooring will happen after the money fairy comes to visit. (I wish) In reality the flooring will probably wait until after I get back from Ireland. I am going with a vinyl that I can install myself and then a nice are rug. Originally I wanted carpet again but that means paying for the install and totally emptying the room. Practical thinking says nope, diy flooring makes more sense. I will keep you up to date with pictures and the room progresses.

Right now I am for the shower and getting organized for No Cook Friday with the ladies!!

Toodles,
Linda.