We moved into our house in December of 1998. When we bought the house, we thought the carpet should probably be replaced at some point because it was little old. And...fast forward 22 years. Maybe we should replace it now? That's what Troy said when I told him we were thinking of taking all the furniture out of Chase's room and rearranging it. His room is the biggest bedroom in the house - we made it that way because it was also the playroom. And because of that it was pretty darn stuffed with stuff. Lots of toys that only come out when little cousins or friends are over, lots of old puzzles we don't do anymore, lots of stuff stuff stuff. I just had the idea to rearrange a bit, clear out some stuff, and hopefully tidy it a bit. That's how it always goes, right? That you get an idea for one small change and then the creeping begins. You decide to just a little tiny bit more than you planned on. Then a tiny bit more after that. And suddenly your little idea for a simple project becomes a massive undertaking. That's how it goes for me, anyway! And Troy was totally right. If we were going to the trouble of removing all the furniture, why not rip out that nasty old carpet and pick some new stuff?
I was very lucky in that my interior-designing friend Mary told me where to get carpet remnants. I spent some time digging through tons of icky oatmeal-colored carpet before finding what I instantly knew was perfect. At first I was really unsure of what I was looking for. (I'm really bad at interior designing.) But when I touched this silky soft, brownish-grayish stuff, I knew I had found the right thing.
We were between our trip to Yellowstone and our upcoming trip to the Green River, which was basically going to be a backpacking trip with canoes. It was a major undertaking to get ready for that, but we were so excited for the carpet that when they had an opening for putting it in the week before we were leaving we accepted. We spent a Monday night emptying out Chase's room, not bothering to start the process of sorting through what he wanted to keep yet. Tuesday morning, the 20-somethingth of July, our carpet man showed up right on time and single-handedly removed the N.A.S.T.Y. old stuff and got the new carpet put in.
I was very curious to see what was under that carpet. I was half hoping and half afraid that we would find some sort of cool wood floor that we would suddenly be tempted to clean up and use instead of laying carpet, but luckily and also hilariously, there was no wood. There was super ugly linoleum that was made to LOOK like a Victorian carpet. So ugly! I wonder what that room looked like when it was first put in....
We then spent the rest of the day painstakingly choosing what furniture was going back in, where to put it, and what we would get rid of. Thank you Facebook, by the way, for being the easiest way EVER to find takers for all the furniture we didn't want, all the toys we were ready to let go of, all on the same day we were still cleaning! It was awesome! I was a little sad to let go of a couple of things - especially the playmobile toys, but the kids never really loved those like they loved other things which we now have saved in our official "grandparent toy" collection.
Chase's room now looks amazing. It still has red walls and a weird sloped ceiling. I can be blamed for the red walls which we painted like 20 years ago. I told you I was bad at interior design. The sloping ceiling is someone else's fault, and we will rip it out and fix it someday. But not yet. The room cleaning crept as far as new carpet but not as far as new paint, walls, or ceiling. Chase ordered some very funky remote-control lights that he attached around the top of the walls. They kind of give me seizures, but he loves them. We also caved and got him a giant LoveSac bean bag that he adores. We really owe the girls a re-do on their room, but their room really will require the ceiling and walls to be torn apart. So....maybe next time we are getting ready for a big trip I'll tear into their room.
Chase's room is a pleasure to visit now. With the reduction in storage furniture and buckets and buckets of toys, plus the amazing carpet, it's pretty great. He gets a lot more visit from family members than he used to.
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