Judging by the deafening silence over here at Fixer-Upper, you probably think we’re whiling away the summer hours making s’mores and drinking cold beers out on the porch. I won’t lie – we’ve had a few s’mores. But we’ve been working HARD on the house lately. Harder than we’ve ever worked, perhaps…. or at least more consistently. The lack of posting isn’t due to lack of progress. I just don’t have the brain cells left to type these days.

Some of you might recall the floors throughout most of our upstairs are, well, unsightly. They are wide pieces of pine (I think) with various holes, gouges, paint spatters, etc covering them. Some were painted, some were not. None (save for the master bedroom, which has parquet flooring in it) were worthy of any Herculean efforts to bring them back to life.

Here’s the craft room floor, one of the better ones:

It doesn’t look so bad – but there are a few holes drilled for some old heating system or piping, lots and lots of nail holes and glue, and other various smudges that won’t disappear with a quick sanding. After refinishing all of the downstairs hardwoods, we know what a project that can be. And those weren’t painted. So…. despite my general aversion to the stuff (because we have dogs, and dogs and soft fibers don’t mix) we decided to carpet the floors. Everything other than the master bedroom, which as I mentioned before has parquet in it.

I shopped around for carpet, everywhere from Home Depot to Bill’s Carpet Ranch. Home Depot gave me a ridiculously expensive quote for $8k. And that was during some big sale where installation was $100 for the entire upstairs. So that $8k was for the carpet alone, and not even a high-end one! That was my first inquiry, and I nearly lost my mind when I heard the price tag. I thought we’d have to live with cruddy floors for the rest of our lives, or sell off a few vital organs to get Berber. But then I discovered that the small-town carpet stores (like Bill’s) have remnants for great prices (like $150-$300 for a 12×15) and they understand that you’d like to keep your liver, at least for a little while.

If money were no object, I would go with one single nice-and-fluffy carpet throughout the entire upstairs. Well actually, if money were no object I’d go with some gorgeous dark hardwoods and antique persian area rugs. But I digress. Money IS an object for us, as it is with most people, so we have different variations on beige in each room. And I’m ok with that. It adds texture and depth, and gives each room it’s own personality. In fact, one single giant piece of carpet really wouldn’t fit our decor. We’re pretty eclectic, yes?

So we’ve been diligently carpeting for the past week or so. 3 rooms are now soft and squishy under my feet. It makes the rooms look really nice and comfy-cozy.

You have to wait for photos, though. We’ve had to clear out every room one by one, moving EVERYTHING multiple times like musical chairs. The upstairs looks like a refugee camp at the moment. Clothing, bedding, and mattresses are strewn willy-nilly. We’re close to putting it all back together, so we’ll have some Afters soon.