Carpet Bagged

The Damnable Wooden Strips Piled up After Removal

I have a bad habit of continuing until I finish a task even though my body is trying to warn me that I have exceeded an appropriate level of effort (one of the many reasons middle age sucks).I ran afoul of that predilection again yesterday when I began the wall to wall carpet removal upstairs. We’re having hardwood installed and I agreed with Deckzilla Dude that I would have the carpet removed so he can begin work later this week. Since this was destroying instead of creating I was in my element or at least I thought I was.

Upstairs Hall and Bedroom 1

I got to work with the exacto blade and after an initial incision I simply pulled the rug up tearing it along the strip I cut. While this may sound simple apparently this requires the use of semi-dormant, seldom used muscles spread throughout the body. I have this on good authority because most, if not all, of those muscles are barking very seriously at me this morning. The carpet was the one thing about the house I didn’t like. I think it was original to the house and was really dingy along the borders.

Starting on Bedroom 2

It turns out a lot of dirt accumulates under carpets, who knew? The carpet part was fairly easy but removing all the staples from the padding and the wooden strips along the border that holds the carpet in place was a stone cold bitch. I had the Red Sox game on for most of the effort but this did nothing to minimize the dust and the aforementioned muscle strains. My goal was to finish two bedrooms and the upstairs hall but as evening fell I was left staring at the staircase which cried out for continued demolition. It wasn’t the kind of thing I could stop hallway down the staircase once I started either.

Mission Complete with Stairs

My Favorite Panamanian greeted me at the bottom of the stairs as I was finishing up and assessed my begrimed state. She agreed to a Man Cave movie only after I promised a long, very hot shower. It was about this point in the evening that we had our video calls with the respective granddaughters. The BRS was giving full voice to her frustration at not being able to pull down the stuffed toys that hung above her play mat for oral examination. It was not crying but a very determined young lady who did take kindly to being thwarted. She smiled immediately upon hearing her abuela’s distinctive voice. The FBR was in her usual frenzy of movement but she did stop when I was showing the carpet removal progress. She commented that I had bought a new floor for her and her bedroom. It was kind of cool that she thinks of it as “hers”.