Painting Our Craft Room, Part Two

Saturday's plan never came to fruition.  I couldn't go to sleep on Friday night, and that meant I overslept on Saturday, which set the tone for the entire day. 

This painting job is going from tolerable to intolerable.  Here's the next installment in the story.

We got our dog, Kelly, four or five months after we moved into our home.  Shortly thereafter, she scared Callie, one of our cats, who ran into the craft room.  The poor kitty was so frightened that she - how do I say this delicately? - used the carpet as a litter box.  We thought we cleaned it up well, although at certain times of the year, some of the smell would resurface.  So, now that the time to paint has come, we knew we had to deal with the situation once and for all.  We discovered that the bottom of the bookcase has a residual smell, so we will handle that, but more importantly, we started working on removing the rest of the odor from the carpet.  But it didn't work.  On to Plan B.  Pry off one of the baseboards so we can pull back the carpet and check the pad.  Oops.  The pad smells, too.  And it's stapled to the subfloor.  (Is that common?)  I start pulling staples . . . and the verdict is that the stain goes through to the subfloor.  So into the car we go, heading off to Lowe's.  On the way, Phil and I are discussing the pros and cons of wood laminate and carpet.  Can you guess which one we settled on?

---> Insert Jeopardy Theme Song here. <---   

Yup, the carpet.  It made more sense for the craft room, mainly to deaden the sound, since we often work late into the night, and sewing machines and sergers can make a lot of noise.  Because Lowe's is running a special on installation of Stainmaster carpet - $39 for the entire house (not that we need the whole house carpeted!) - we went with that brand, and chose a warm medium brown color.  I will miss the lovely burgundy carpet that we have now, but it made sense to choose something that is more neutral.  I keep resale in mind these days; we're not thinking of moving any time soon, but one never knows.

The salesman at the store was very helpful; I had spoken with him earlier in the week about wood laminate, which we would like to put in our powder room, back entry, kitchen, and dining area.  He is going to try to get someone out to the house to measure on Monday or Tuesday, and then order the carpet.  He is thinking installation could take place around October 21, which, unfortunately, is the day I'm having my knee injected again, so that's not an option.  Sarah and I will talk and try to figure out the best time frame, but I'm thinking the following week would be good.  We are going to end up putting a lot of things in the garage, since the entire room has to be emptied.  That was not in the original plan!

The good news is that I don't have to worry about getting paint on the carpet when I paint the baseboards, or the walls for that matter.  That's always a good thing.