The Carpet is in...FINALLY!!

Since Mother's Day weekend our house has been a disaster and not very safe for a toddler. That weekend Rich removed the last of our popcorn ceiling and put up texture. We also painted the room and removed the old carpet. I was so happy and looked forward to getting carpet put in that room (the office) and our spare bedroom. We have been planning this for a while and thought the time was right. The following week we picked out carpet and set up a day for it to be installed. We made sure both rooms were completely empty and ready to go. I was excited to have our house put back together and our office finally organized.

When the weekend came for the carpet to be put in we ran into some problems. Our carpet installer is one of Rich's patients and gave us a very good deal because Rich helps him out. We get our carpet for a discounted rate and then he installs it for free. I know this sounds too good to be true, but it is. It has been a blessing, but this time it turned into disaster. The installer couldn't get our carpet because where it was stored was locked and the owner was out of town. I was a little disappointed, but figured I could deal with the mess one more week.

The next weekend the installer went to pick up the carpet there was more trouble. The carpet that was going in our spare room and the carpet pads smelled like cat urine...gross!! That is definitely not a scent we want in our house, so it wasn't installed again. We picked out some new carpet and figured everything was a go, but no I was wrong again.

We had a wedding the next Saturday,so I reluctantly agreed to have it done on Sunday. He called that morning and said he couldn't do it because the store didn't open early enough for him to pick up the carpet and have it done before our church time. By this point my disappointment was turning into frustration with a little bit of anger. I was tired of my house being a crazy mess for a month with limited (safe) places for Ava to play. We were confined to the family room and her bedroom. During this time the backyard has been a true blessing and has made life tolerable.

I decided to wait one more week and figured nothing else could possible happen. Well I was wrong yet again. This time I felt bad because there was a tragedy in the installers family and a very good reason for not being available. This week his mother suffered a stroke and shortly passed away. We thought about hiring someone, but since we didn't know until Friday it was too late to find an available installer. So again I decided to wait to give him time to grieve and make arrangements. Also throughout this entire ordeal he kept assuring us it was going to be done and soon.

By this time we were into the end of June and over a month of chaos. I was beginning to feel it all weigh me down and I was feeling a lot of stress. I know I'm not a neat freak, but I do like some kind of order. It also was wearing on me to keep Ava contained in such a small area and not allow her to roam around more freely. The end of the month Rich went on the Trek and I visited my parents, so I looked forward to 4th of July weekend and having carpet.

The morning of Saturday the 3rd Rich called to make sure everything was okay and our carpet was going in. His installer said he was planning on coming and would be at the store at 9am to get our carpet. That meant he should be to our house by 10am. Well, 10am came and went and I started to feel nervous again. Rich said he mentioned something about his adult daughter going to the ER the night before and I thought, "great he is not coming again." Around 11am Rich tried to call again with no answer. My parents came to visit around noon but we still didn't have carpet or a phone call. I went to lunch with my parents, Ava napped, and Rich waited. By the time we got back there was still no carpet and no word of what was going on. By this point I definitely lost all hope and my patience was gone. I know things happen and we have to be flexible, but this was ridiculous. I was most frustrated by the lack of communication...Just let us know so we don't waste endless weekends waiting around for nothing to happen.

Okay, now to the good news. After all this craziness Rich called the store and asked for one of their installers. He called several people and got one response. We were grateful and fortunate that someone was willing to install the carpet on the holiday weekend for a very reasonable price. On Monday the 5th our carpet was installed. The installer showed up on time, was professional, and did a great job. It was such a relief that I went a little crazy and did a happy dance. I ran around and rolled all over the carpet (check out the reenactment video below). That day we also put together our spare bed and moved some furniture back into the spare bedroom. We also started putting together our IKEA office furniture. We are pretty much redoing the whole office so we have to put everything together before we can put everything away. I'm just happy the carpet is in and we can now move on to the next phase of assembly and organization...YEAH!!

This is Rich priming and painting the office after he removed the popcorn ceiling.

This is part of the mess we had in our house for 2 months. This is our frontroom...isn't it so inviting?
This is our very green office before carpet. The color is very bright, but I love it. It is cheerful and like springtime.

This is Ava helping daddy put together some of our new IKEA furniture. They are sitting on our new carpet.