I'm fairly confident I didn't do it. Josh was out of town. And the only other being in our house to blame?
This guy.
Now that he's all old (4) and lazy, he's almost completely trustworthy. And he has been so for years. The most mischief he gets into is a bi-monthly exploration of the trash can - and that's only after we've recently thrown away an empty bag that held shredded cheese. We were totally surprised that this happened.
However, we're still left with a very obvious carpet hole smack in the middle of our steps. Visible from the front door. Impossible to miss.
Thanks, Riley. Replacing carpet was not exactly what we had in mind for this fall, with, you know, a baby on the way.
So now... what do we do about it?
I feel we have a few options - and please weigh in!
1. NOTHING. Leave it. Since we'll soon be in the "small children at home" phase of our life, is there any point to replacing carpet now, knowing that we may well need to do it again in a few years?
2. Re-carpet the stairs only. They are whitish (not my favorite) - and dingy - and worn, anyway.
3. Re-carpet the stairs and hallway. The hallway sports the same white carpeting, which has also seen better days. Plus the hallway upstairs connects very obviously to the stairs and so doing both at once would give us some cohesion.
4. Re-carpet the entire 2nd floor. All four bedrooms + the hallway + the stairs share the same carpet, and we like the seamless look from room to room. However, a re-do of carpeting on the entire second story wasn't exactly an expenditure we'd had in mind for this year.
11 comments:
OK, so here's my take:
1. I'd recarpet sometime either before the baby or after you're settled with the baby. Having a house with small kids does not necessarily mean carpet gets torn up -- especially infants. Not to mention, one that is a slightly darker shade with stain protection will help your sanity a lot when they get to the messy stage.
2. I'm for the seamless look also, if you feel comfortable spending the money. I think it helps retain the value of a house, especially if the current carpet is "light dingy-ish."
3. If you're not comfortable spending the money for the whole second floor, I'd at least do the stairs and hallway together. I think it's be really hard to transition the two. At least bedrooms have doorways, so it's not as obvious when the carpet changes (unless you're going from something like red to green).
4. They make this really great, all-natural spray that you can put on carpet, fabric, etc that deters dogs from doing that. It's basically water and bitter herbs. We used it for Lucy when we had her -- she was a very enthusiastic carpet-licker and we were worried the same thing might happen. It worked really well for her.
I just want to know how you could blame that face for anything. Are you sure you didn't do it? Maybe you just don't remember?
Ok, I don't have any recommendations for what to do about the carpet, but I gotta tell you I laughed so hard reading this story! And the picture of so-innocent-looking Riley was perfect! Thanks for giving me a feel-good laugh this afternoon.
Did the previous owners leave any extra carpet? You could just do a patch. If you decide to recarpet, I think you could definitely just do the stairs and hallway for now and save up to do the bedrooms later. I agree with Jenni that I think it would be strange to just do the stairs and not the hallway too.
Oh, also the spray that she mentioned is called Bitter Apple. We totally had to buy some because of all the stuff that Polo started chewing. It's like he turned one year and decided to enter this rebellious teenage phase or something, but it doesn't seem like this is normal Riley behavior.
How about running your wood flooring up the stairs and down the hall thus eliminating the possibility of a repeat performance......with new carpet? It would also eliminate the need to recarpetthe bedrooms at this time.
Don't forget that baby turns into a toddler before you know it, and you'll be wanting to replace carpet again. Unless you have berber like us. It just hides all the crap.
Anyway, who cares what I think?
I'm so, so, so thankful that you dropped by my blog! I get all giddy when I meet new bloggy friends. Yay! And y'all are going to be in our LG?! Oh that makes me so darn happy. I cannot wait to better get to know you and your man and your BABY!!! Joy, joy, joy. God is so, so, so good.
Agree with Janine! It's really a funny story!
what about a runner on the stairs? maybe that would help but honestly, I don't think anyone will notice, especially when you have an adorable little one soon.
oh yea love your blog by the way :)
Kelly
www.whentimeisright.blogspot.com
I say nothing. :) I wouldn't notice/care if I came to your house. And I do think that you're just courtin' trouble getting new flooring right before a new baby. Projectile spit-up is amazing! Gets all over the carpet. :)
@Janine: Yes! And the best part was scrolling down after reading "This guy," and seeing that puppy-dog eyes staring back innocently at you!
Anyway, which option did you choose?
Kathy Carbone
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