Prep Time for .... CARPETING!

Guess what? After 1.75 years of living in this house, we are FINALLY getting some carpet laid down in 2 of the bedrooms (excluding the Master Bedroom) and the upper and lower hallway and on the stairs. Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?!?!

We actually went carpet hunting on Monday night, found what we liked (and could afford)by the 2nd store, bought it, and it's being installed this coming Monday. More to come on the actual carpet selection. After all, this will likely be a multi-blog-post-event. Don't you love how you can create a new, big word by just combining a bunch of little words with hyphens? Anyhoo...

For today's post, I just want to start showing you the spaces as they are today. I'm including some "before" shots from when we first bought the house... Warning: they're kinda scary. I'll also be showing the most recent paint jobs that we completed (with the help of my parents) at the end of January.

So, here's the upstairs and downstairs hallways and the stairwell in all their "before" glory (these pics were likely taken with my phone as we toured the house)...




Dark, Dated, and Dingy is what immediately came to my mind.

So, after purchasing the house, we immediately began the heave-ho process of ripping it all out. Here's what it looked like after the horrific process of removing the 30 year old wallpaper...




Why were the walls underneath that wallpaper painted Pepto Bismol pink? Who knows! But I do know that covering them up in the awful wallpaper that existed was not the answer.

That's why we went to town and back painting. So, after much, much, much painting - we're talking 3-4 coats of white paint on the trim, cabinets, stair spindles (horrible) and part of the stair treads (and the final coat went on at the end of January) plus all the wall paint - we finally have a bright, lovely space with only the 2-toned stained disaster of of floor space left to finish...






The new carpet will fix that final problem. It will be such a change that I'm not even sure I'm ready for it. We've had ZERO carpet (other than area rugs) since we ripped out that brown/orange shag carpet when we moved into the house in 2010. But I'm looking forward to a little comfort under the feet and some texture to add interest. Plus, it will be a quieter space - believe it or not, going up and down wooden stairs in a wide open stairwell is loud.

Next up will be some photos of the 2 bedrooms that we'll be carpeting. The first floor bedroom (aka Bedroom #3) has been locked up with a key for most of the time we've lived here. In fact, I don't think I've EVER showed you the room on this blog. *GASP*



You'll soon find out why...