The First Day

Dressed in my finest pair of high-waisted Gap jeans circa 1999, and an old sorority sweatshirt, I prepared myself for our first day of work. First thing to go - the dog piss carpet. Thinking of all the crap and pee that was embedded into the green shag carpet, I demanded gloves and face masks in order to start work. N obliged, as we headed to Home Depot to get supplies. Little did I realize that this was the first of many trips that were to be made to the Depot and Lowes. In fact, I am pretty sure that we spent so much money at these two places, that we purchased the front left tire on Joey Logano's NASCAR vehicle. (On a side note, since we did spend so much time in these two stores, I know that Joey Logano is sponsored by Home Depot, and Jimmie Johnson is sponsored by Lowes. Believe me, I am NO NASCAR fan, but apparently every other patron of these two stores are huge fans, and the respective drivers mentioned above have their faces plastered everywhere.)

Post Depot trip, armed with gloves, masks, crowbars and hammers, we tackled our first job. N's step dad is a carpet salesman and a general contractor, so N was exposed to a vast amount of knowledge of home improvement growing up. It was a HUGE asset for us in the long run. N instructed me to go to a corner and start pulling up the carpet. Not an easy feat.

"N, how the HELL do I get this started?" I exclaimed, as I was not fortunate to have a handyman as a father figure growing up. N comes over, takes the crowbar, and pops off the quarter round of trim surrounding the baseboards. He then proceeds to rip off the top layer of carpet. Up comes a huge layer of dust, and an AWFUL smell with it. N then looks over at me, smiles, and says "Good luck". GOOD LUCK??? Ok. I think to myself "Come on Liv! You were a hard core girl scout - you can do this!" (not that they ever had a "home improvement" badge that we could earn, but I felt like this was something I could accomplish!)

I proceed to cut and roll up the carpet, all while my eyes are watering and being grateful that I am wearing a face mask so N cannot see the grimace on my face. But, after a while, I find my groove, and am able to rip up the carpet with more ease. Once we get the carpet up, we had to tackle the padding underneath. This was hands down, one of the GROSSEST parts of the house. This padding was circa 1972, and since the previous owners had dogs, certain piss spots embedded themselves to the hardwood below. It took us about 4 hours of pulling up the carpet, the padding, and nailing down all the staples used to install the carpet to have finished one very small project.

The positive about the day - the removal of the carpet was a DRAMATIC improvement to the aesthetics of Foo, and also improved her smell!!! The negative - after pulling out all the carpet, we quickly realized that the baseboards would have to go as well. After another hour of pulling the baseboards away from the sides, and bringing most of the plaster off the walls, we somehow created another project for ourselves. This will become a re-occuring theme in the House of Foo. Start one project, create 3 more. Oh well!

Above is view from lodge. Closest part is living room

View from second bedroom. Closest room is dining

Cost of supplies (Hammer, Knife, Gloves, Masks, Etc.) - $40

Cost of Labor - Free

Feeling of first day complete - Priceless.