Immediately after becoming the new owners of the someday house, we got right to work removing the previous owner’s carpet. I don’t know about you – but carpet holds on to too many bad things for me to ever feel comfortable keeping it around for longer than a few years – especially not in high traffic areas. With that being said, we had it on good word that this carpet was over 15 years old and it SMELLED like it. It just had years of wear and life settled in and under it. We had hoped that the floor we would find underneath would hold us over until after our major construction plans were completed. I can tell you more about those in another post. For now, we ripped big red up, and we ended up with a floor that we’d be able to work with. It took several days of cleaning and sweeping, scrubbing and using my wet floor cleaner.
What you can’t see in these photos is that this living room was painted with sand textured paint – something they used to do on plaster walls to stop “imperfections” from being so noticeable. Well, the painters who had sprayed this texturized paint onto the walls hadn’t been careful around the edges and we had a 1 to 1.5ft radius of overspray on the hardwood. It was so gritty that it would catch your feet if you tried to glide over it. Great for holding down a carpet – terrible for socks.
You’ll notice the paint didn’t change! That’s right. Because of the “disaster” that would likely be sanding off the sandy texture of the paint to repaint onto a smooth surface – we have decided to keep the paint for now, as we have HUGE plans for the living room that’s basically going to cause us to re-drywall the entire room. Therefore, it would be wasted time, money and energy to paint this particular room.
WHAT DID WE DO?
LOOK WHAT LIVES UNDER 16-YEAR-OLD CARPET!
- We removed the transition strips from both entryways. As you can see in some pictures – the floor under the rug was the original oak “red” stain. The hall was sanded down and clear coated so it’s might “lighter” – we plan to make the best of this because we’ve picked out the PERFECT floating floor for after we’re done our living room construction project.
- We pulled up all of the padding and rug in 2ft wide strips, using a razor knife & rolled it and taped it to be hauled away. (Shout out: Garner & Son Services)
- We pulled up and popped out all of the tack strips and staples that were in the wood floor.
- Cleaned using the Tineco Floor ONE S3 . I took the most repulsive video of my magnificent floor cleaner pulling out CHUNKY amounts of dust, dander and dirt. And this was after we proactively swept SEVERAL times.
- I had scrub the walls with a bit more force that I would have liked, and then I wiped the floor down with a protectant – not that we’re keeping these floors, but that I want them to at least last until we drop the ceiling.
- We removed the old and outdated ceiling fan and due to its condition – it was recycled through metal scrapping.
- We installed a beautiful 62′ large room indoor/outdoor fan. Now, “why install a fan if you’re going to cathedral your ceiling?” – this fan is large enough and moves SO MUCH AIR – that when we do the final cathedral, we can actually buy an extended mounting rod and this fan can be reinstalled in the new ceiling.
- We installed two separate telescoping, wrap around curtain rods (after removing the LOADS of hardware for the current window treatment system) – and we were able to use those rods in another area of the house.
- I hung Amazon basics, room darkening curtains – this rooms gets SO MUCH natural light, it’s amazing. But there are going to be times where we just want to snuggle in and watch a movie without glare. These curtains are AMAZING – They’re what’s hung in my rental condo.
LINKS FOR THE PRODUCTS FEATURED:
Anchor Area Rug – Unique Loom (Amazon) – We bought this rug and the matching running in June after getting our puppy because he was *so loud* dropping antlers on our vinyl. It’s great quality for the price.
Celene 62 Inch LED Ceiling Fan – Home Decorators Collection (Home Depot) – We have this same fan installed in our bedroom too. We LOVE it. The light is not enough by itself to light a larger room – so plan to supplement it with some recessed lights or lamps.
Room Darkening Black Our Curtains – Amazon Basics (Amazon) – I bought 6 panels of these for my condo two years ago and they are FABULOUS. They’re room darkening, though – which means washing them is an entire task since they can’t be washed in hot water and shouldn’t be dried. They will melt into a rubbery black mess. I got the set for the living room entirely on open box prices and the only downside was two tiebacks were missing.
Wrap Around Indoor/Outdoor Curtain Rod – Sun Zero (Amazon) – These are everywhere, but I loved these ones specifically because despite being telescoping, they were sturdy enough to hold up these 96″ curtains without any sign of distress. We did have to lock a middle panel over the center brace for symmetry, but I love the look.
Coffee Table – This was a Habitat for Humanity Restore find – I think it’s actually from IKEA – but it was in perfect condition. When we moved, we remembered that our coffee table was on loan to us and that it belonged in the house we were leaving. We didn’t want to commit to anything “expensive” since we weren’t sure what the end game was from a furniture perspective was. This flexible little guy can be reused in any one of the 7 bedrooms/dens when we’re done with it here.
