The Final Flooring Flourish

Whew! We had one busy weekend! On Friday night, Dan and I worked on more painting, including finishing up painting the stairwell in preparation for our carpet installation. We finally have the nice white we were looking for in the stairwell and have said goodbye to more horrible yellowy paint!

On Saturday morning, Dan and I went to work on our somewhat neglected yard. We raked up a ton of leaves, got the hedges trimmed, mowed the lawn, pulled apart a rotting planter, and got most of the ivy out from under our back deck. And, thanks to the benefits of having a small yard, we got it all done in an hour and a half, which was nice. It was also a beautiful day to be outside, so no complaints here!

While we were hard at work outside on Saturday morning, the carpet installers were hard at work inside replacing the carpet! We've really been looking forward to this, not only so we can get rid of the last of the green flooring but also so my germophobic self can start walking around the house without shoes or socks on! Here's a before photo of our carpet stairs (we let the paint drip freely on them, but they were looking pretty wretched and dingy even before that):


And here's the after!
With the new carpet, we finally feel like we have crossed a threshold, making the house really feel like ours. . . the old carpet felt like the last big remnant of the previous owners, and it is now gone forever. Now, when we look around, we see more and more of ourselves in the place where we live, which feels awesome. And it also means that, for now, we are done with all major flooring projects. Whew!

In a final effort to get the living room finished, we spent a ton of time this weekend painting. There are a lot of edges and trim in this room, so we had to do a lot of work with the paintbrush. Please pardon me while I take a moment to brag and mention that I did all of the edge work in this room cutting in the with the brush--no tape, no tools. Not too shabby considering that, about three months ago, I'd never painted at all!

With the new carpet and the painting completed, the living room and dining room are basically done for now. This means that we can start completely unpacking these rooms, get settled in, and hopefully have a nice space for Thanksgiving dining and relaxation!