Carpet Envy
One of the things we knew we had to do if we wanted to sell this townhouse was to replace the carpet that ran up our stairs and into the master bedroom. We had it installed when we first moved here, a long eight years ago. At the time, we were more focused on putting a good wood floor in the main living areas than we were buying half-decent carpet for those areas, so to say it was crap carpet might be an understatement. It was Serious Crap Carpet. Really Cheap Crap Carpet.
Eight years of pets and general It Was Already Crap had it looking worse than the stuff you would find in the basement of a college frat house. It was AWFUL. So, we decided we would get it replaced before putting the place up for sale. Only thing was it turns out that getting someone to come right out to your house and install carpet isn't quite as easy as it sounds, especially since we were all about The Cheap. There was NO way we were installing anything other than the cheapest carpet we could find since we weren't staying to enjoy it.
Somehow we ended up not getting the carpet installation scheduled until a week after the house went on the market. If you've been keeping score at home then you know that the house wasn't on the market for a week. Nope, not at all. Instead, we had the extreme pleasure of spending $800 on carpet for a house that somebody else was already committed to buying.
It kinda sucked sitting at home all day waiting to spend money for someone else's carpet. I mean, it still had to be done, but as I trudged through the "we'll be there between 8am and 6pm, but don't even think about so much as going to the bathroom because we WILL show up the very second you can't answer the door and we'll leave and you'll have to repeat this whole production all over again" all I could think about was how it wasn't fair that I was buying carpet for somebody else.
A total stranger, no less.
Once Mr. I No-a Speak-a English and his sidekick showed up to install the carpet, it was insult added to injury. Not only did I get my ass kicked by a 4-pound (very scared) cat, but with every single loud noise, and there were thousands, it was like they were saying, "BAM! Lot's of money! Not your carpet! BAM!" Stupid jerks. Especially the cat. Who drew blood. Because I was BEING NICE and freeing him from the confines of the room with the Scary Strangers. Stupid poopyhead cat.
Anyhooooo, once the carpet was finally installed, I trudged upstairs. As I gleefully squished my toes through the soft chemical-laden man-made fibers, I wondered why we hadn't done it sooner. You know, like at a time when we could have actually enjoyed the new carpet. Completely ignoring the part about how there was a 55 gallon aquarium in the bedroom that was absolute hell moving out of there, I was super-annoyed that we hadn't done the carpet for ourselves.
I have an answer to this carpet envy thing, though. All those little scraps that shed from new carpet? I'm collecting them. By the time we actually move in mid-July, I should have enough to make a decent-sized rug for the family room. Good thing, too, since the last time Mr. Husband was over at The (New) House, it was raining in there. Not to worry, it only rains in the family room if someone tries to use water in the master bath.
We'll probably fix that right around the time it's time to sell again.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Reader Comments (15)
That's how we do projects at my house, too. Ed thinks that talking about it counts as dooing it, and 9 years later, it's still not done. Love it.
Hubby removed a leaking/rusted pipe from the sink in the laundry room/half bath several years ago. He couldn't find the right type to fit on, and the original one broke, so it's still detached. We try not to use that sink, and have a bowl under where the pipe should be. I rush upstairs to use the other sink on the rare occasions that I use the facilities in there. Good times.
Ah, isn't home ownership great? I think everyone has projects that just sit and never get done until some critical moment (oftentimes like yours, where the owners won't even get to enjoy the results!) We just finally patched and painted a room for a pending second child that has needed it since we moved in six years ago.
Love that hair on Alexis!
I'm of the opinion there is no such thing as "good carpet".
5 years ago we bough BEAUTIFUL, expensive, carpet. The we researched. We found what would last.
And...
It looks like poo.
Our next floors will be stone. If I'm spending hundreds on something like floor, it's going to last, darn it.
I refuse to put new flooring in our new house. Not that I don't want it. Not that what we currently have doesn't look like crap (it was a rental and a foreclosure when we bought it). No, every time we put new flooring in a place, the first thing we say is "It's never going to look this good again, we need to sell!" and I am not moving again for a long time. So I will live with the worn down and stained carpet that looks like someone changed the oil in their Harley on for at least a little while longer. Because I don't want to move.
Buying new carpet for someone else = weaksauce.
Raining in the living room = possible blessing in disguise? Put a big enough container in the middle of the room, and you can call it an indoor pool! Sweet!
I am just now putting up shelving in a 10-foot high, 4-foot wide unfinsihed tv nook/shelf thingy that came with the house. That I bought 7 years go. Yeah. I became immune to the tackiness of stacking my tv/stereo electronics ages ago.
And I would probably vote for fixing the rainy living room before you move in. Eh. Maybe? I don't know. :) But be sure to get pics of Alexis with her umbrella and galoshes on, in the rain, in the house, before you fix it. She will think it is awesome.
Personally, I can't wait to start ripping out the carpet I have downstairs in my living room. All it seems to do is absorb dirt. Figure any clean up will be easier without it.
We moved in two years ago ... our old house was all done ... WHEN WE MOVED.
Now everything needs done. EVERYTHING...and I sometimes wonder ... will we need to move before it is all complete?
Home improvements suck -
You couldn't cancel the carpet people once the house was under contract? That sucks. But we also had to buy carpet to get our last house sold. We had people who were interested, but not sure. But when the realitor told them we were getting the place re-carpeted (we had already moved out), they put in a contract! So in the end I guess it was worth it. We'd only have messed up the carpet anyway.
I had the exact same thing happen to me when I sold my place. Like you, I wondered why I hadn't done it sooner when I would have enjoyed it. I also remember that it smelled all weird and that a billion little fibers came off of it for weeks after installation. Well, and they broke lots of my furniture. Good times.
Will it let me comment? Can I? I'm using Google Chrome as my browser now, so we'll see.
HOORAH!!!!!!!
Oh, and that's normal, making the nice upgrades as you're moving, then wishing you'd done it years earlier.
I'm SO sorry....but that was SO funny! I was thinking about your fish tank the other day when I cleaned out my little Betta tank (which I can carry myself) and wondered how you guys would manage the transport!
Ouch on the carpet...You could kind of lie to yourself and say that they wouldn't have bought the house at all had you not offered to pay for new carpet but that would only work if you told them new carpet came with the house. Did you mention it was getting new carpet? Otherwise yeah, that would hurt :P
Hope lots of sunny skies are in your immediate future too!
That's just about how it always works...Sigh. Probably if you hadn't already bought the carpet they would have asked for a carpet allowance.