New carpet

A few posts ago, I mentioned that we were getting new carpet. I had seen three commercials for carpet sales while at the gym a few weeks ago, and I decided that with the sale prices, the least we could do was look in to getting new carpet and find out how much it would cost. Our carpet was worn and I have no idea how old it was, but with the baby coming, family coming to visit more because of said baby and the fact that I'll be at home for 10-12 weeks on maternity leave, I thought it might be nice to have nicer carpet to walk on/sit on/look at. We don't see the condo as our forever home, but even if we move in the next year or two and rent it out, it would be nice to start with a cleaner slate on the flooring front and enjoy it ourselves while we're here. And with the cats and a young child on the way, having some new stain-resistant carpet would be good, and financially, it worked to look in to it now.

So I contacted two of the companies mentioned in the commercials, and after a small series of scheduling issues, one of them showed up a few Saturdays ago. We had gone in to the meeting with the mentality that we weren't going to buy that day or make up our minds - just get an idea of how much we'd be looking at to carpet at least the nursery, bathroom, hallway, living room and dining room.

And - yay! - the price was a lot lower than I expected. I was excited that it was something we could at least think about.

But THEN the salesperson told us that it was a shame we weren't ready to buy, because the sale that I had seen on TV had been running for six weeks, and while it was the lowest price of the year, it ended the next day. We could get a reduced price on the carpet later this year, but it wouldn't be nearly this low again until next spring. AND the higher quality carpet was actually cheaper than the other carpet we were considering because they had a warehouse surplus.

I'm a sucker for sales. SOLD.

We had him give us quotes for the rooms mentioned above as well as the master bedroom and closet. We decided to wait on carpeting the master bedroom and closet because the area doesn't see much traffic, it is almost entirely covered by furniture and it is the area seen least in the condo.

But we decided that with the sale about to end and the timing pretty much right, we *would* go ahead with the carpet on the rest of the condo. We scheduled installation for pretty much the only day we had free in the next two weeks (which also happened to be the day before we went out of town AND happened to be two days after our year-and-a-half wedding anniversary, so happy anniversary to us!). We spent a few days clearing out bookshelves, packing up the desk, etc. to prepare for the carpet people to be able to move furniture and replace the carpet.

It was quite a disaster area, but luckily the installers showed up early on Monday morning, moved furniture, removed old carpet, installed new carpet and moved things back in less than three hours. We then spent part of the rest of the day putting things away (i.e. dumping all baby stuff in the nursery and moving our big, heavy desk from the nursery to the dining room) and reconnecting our electronics.

Tim, who had been a hard sell on new carpet, agreed that it looked great. It really does brighten up the rooms, and it feels really springy. The reorganizing of furniture that was necessary to clear out the nursery makes the place look cozy, and I'm excited to see the nursery come together with the new carpet, too. We aren't swimming in space, but things are fairly organized, and Tim likes the fact that the computer is now in the living room, so we can be in the same room whether we're blogging (moi) or watching TV (him).

So now, for some before and after shots of the carpet ... (as the rooms come together more, I'll post before and after shots of the decor as well).

OLD:

High traffic area from kitchen to doorway.

The spare bedroom/nursery, looking in to the bathroom.

That black spot is dust left over in the spare bedroom
from when the police investigated the condo break-in.

It had been covered by the couch in that room.

NEW:

With the bookshelves empty, Sidney did a lot of "hiding."
He seriously thought we couldn't see him.

New carpet in the nursery!

Mario explores the doorway.

High-traffic area from kitchen to doorway.

Sid escapes the bookshelf
and checks stuff out.