The domino effect

Recently hubby decided that it was time for new carpet for the bedrooms and hallway.  Honestly, we should have done it when we moved in.  Our house was a rental for awhile before we bought it and the previous owners/tenants had pets.  The carpet in the whole place is pretty nasty. But instead of replacing, we opted to spend a fortune to have everything deep cleaned.  That didn't really work but we have lived with the ugly, stained, worn, stinky carpet for two years since then.

No more.  It is going to be replaced and soon.
However...
If I'm going to replace the carpet, I really should paint the rooms first.  I've been meaning to paint all the bedrooms and have only actually completed one.
And I have been wanting to build a window seat in the bay window area of the first bedroom.  I definitely have to do that before the carpet gets put in!
And, well, the baseboards.  I really want different baseboard to match the bathroom baseboard.
And if I put in new baseboards I might as well paint them white which means that I have to paint ALL of my trim and doors white.

See how this goes?  It just becomes a bigger and bigger project.

And so, we are in the middle of a huge mess over here because of this domino effect.

After I decided to rip out the baseboards (should be easy enough, right?) we discovered that our baseboards were put in first.  So they put the baseboard, then the carpet tack, then the carpet. So the carpet tack is holding the baseboards in.  The only way for me to take off the baseboard is to rip back the carpet, tear off the pad, remove the carpet tack strips and THEN pull off the baseboard. It's been quite a job.

This is what I've been doing for a few days now.  Only one more room to go!
My hands are trashed and bruised and sore but I am not stopping because I have a deadline...all must be accomplished before the new carpet!

Then as we were discussing carpet colors, hubby mentioned how awful the family room carpet is. He's right, it's awful, but I always swore that I would not replace that carpet with anything but hard wood.  I will admit that I'm starting to cave on that one.  It will be a long time before I can get hard wood floors and the hard wood floors will cause a different domino effect leading to the kitchen and laundry room.  So, I might have to find a way to live with the house mostly as-is. Mostly.

And so, as we discussed carpet in the living room, which is attached to the stairway leading to the basement.  I mentioned that I had always disliked how they carpeted the stairs.  They carpeted up onto the wall and on each side of the stairs.  So ugly.

I said that I would rather rip that off and just paint whatever wood is underneath there.
Frank agreed.

And I started ripping out the carpet.

Wait, you might be thinking, wasn't she in the middle of 3 or 4 other projects already?
Yes indeed.
But, the stairs look better already.

And luckily the stairs do not cause any other domino effects into the basement. Whew!