home improvements - carpet, lights & more!

Richard has been wanting to get new carpet for YEARS now...he mentions it here & there and usually I just brush it off and think our carpet is fine. We've had professional cleaners come out a couple of times & Richard has rented the machine from Home Depot and done it himself several times...and there are still some areas that the stains won't come out from the previous owners. With a new baby on the way, Richard really wanted to start fresh and have fresh carpet in the house (especially the upstairs)! The downstairs will need it eventually but for right now - we're focusing on the main level. We went to Buddy's carpet in Florence (to see Wilson) who helped us tremendously! First - we didn't really know what we were looking for - we told him what we had, told him we didn't want to spend our life savings on carpet so he pointed us straight to what they had on sale because it's the majority of their business so they stock certain carpet. I think this stuff is called California berber carpet and it's got flecks of color in it...I asked if we could take the sample home with us and he said that sounded good to him. I'm glad we did because the color we had originally picked was a bit too dark for our rooms. We ended up going with the "Sand Drift" which is on the bottom row - third from the left. It looks the best with our furniture/walls/kitchen tile/is a bit darker than what we have in the house right now. 

 I was a bit hesitant to put the same carpet through the entire house but he explained that it's cheaper to usually do that because they can use bits & pieces in closets if they need to / you usually need less carpet. It should also make the house feel more open with the same carpet being throughout. Did you know there's different ways to do the stairs with carpet? A traditional "waterfall" effect (which is what we have now) costs no extra $$ but if you want it to "lip" or have some kind of effect, it's more $$ - who knew? I'm glad they explained all this to us because I have no clue (nor do I care to understand the details of carpet!) 

Richard replaced the lights in the kitchen because one fell completely out of the hole and they were starting to discolor and these brushed nickel lights look SO much better in the room than the cream/yellowish ones before. Now the only thing in the kitchen that doesn't match is the light above the table....it's still a stylish gold color but who knows what we want there so I'll ignore it (for now...) :)

Here's a view looking from our hallway and I have to say - the red wall is still one of my favorite things about the home! I just love it every time I see it!

Here's the baby's room (not quite finished - or barely started!) - and Sally still enjoying her bed. Richard did the trim around the middle - we still need to finish painting the trim on the bottom and the closet doors when the weather is nicer and we can set them up in the garage. The baby's crib has been ordered and should be in around 8-12 weeks...and the rest of the furniture we haven't ordered just yet!

The next project will be the bathroom - and here's why....

Do you see the mauve in the counter? The mauve is all that has survived (that and a lot of other stuff I don't like!) - it's my least favorite room in the house & we are waiting for our estimate to have it completely gutted and re-done! I can't wait to have a really nice master bath - we can't really make it much bigger than it is - but if the stuff was just nice/new and looked better than it does now - I'd be happy!! So would Richard - it finally annoyed him enough that he was like "We have to get this done" :) Can't wait to show you the before/after of this room - it's going to be awesome!!

Also, if anyone has any ideas for getting the rest of this off of this fan in our bedroom - I would love your suggestions - we thought maybe the lights were too bright in the lamp, but that wasn't it - it just started peeling and looks like this now...it would look ok probably if we could just get the rest of that stuff OFF...time will tell - but ideas are welcome!