New Carpet!!!! (but at some expense)

The day is finally here! As I type Ben, not my husband but an installer from Liddiards (and a guy that I used to know from the bank but doesn't remember me) is downstairs installing my new floor. I've been waiting so long for this. We've really been saving up for new carpet since we moved in. Unfortunately, as soon as we get to that point, something disastrous happens requiring the carpet money. The first year, my car died literally the day before measuring. Then, we had a baby. That can get expensive. A little further down the road, Ben got laid off, and replacing carpet probably isn't the best idea when you really have no income. And, of course, we had that whole heart surgery thing last year.....among every other problem you could think of. This time we were determined, and it worked. No turning back now. It's already paid for, although at some expense.

We actually got a really great deal on the carpet and install, so that wasn't really the problem. It was all the preparation required before it could be put in and the bad things (although some hilarious) that resulted from it. The biggest issue was simply finding someplace to put all of our "stuff" that we had been storing in the unfinished rooms downstairs since we moved here 3 1/2 years ago. Where did we get all this crap?! And why did we keep it all? I tried to get rid of as much as possible, but I only had so much time to sort everything. I kind of figured that if something was still in a box from when we first moved in, I probably didn't need it. In all (so far) d.i., m.s., and/or the cabin will be receiving two sofas, a grill, a chair, four huge boxes of clothes plus a trash bag full, a box of vhs movies, a box of cds, several pictures, two computers, a printer, a total gym, and a couple of old cameras. That doesn't include the toilet, media shelf, broken lawn mower, and four boxes of stuff that no one would want that are waiting for bulk pickup (not to mention all the old carpet and pad). I suppose that everyone has to deal with that type of thing when getting new flooring though, so I can't complain too much about that. I just needed about an extra week. It was actually really great to be forced to go through that stuff. It was also pretty convenient that the "scouting for food" drive fell on the weekend before the install because that's a whole bunch of unused food storage that I won't have to re-store.

Here is one of the real problems we had, and definitely the most hilarious. On Friday, I frantically trying to get the basement cleaned out. I'd pretty much finished the food storage room, and most of the family room was done, so I decided before taking laundry upstairs, I would actually iron what needed to be. I was busy ironing and watching Judge Alex when I heard some weird noises coming from the basically empty food storage room where Miles was playing. I found a small mess when I went in. I had left one of those plastic storage drawers in the window sill that had some craft supplies in it. Apparently, at some point, I bought metal grommets for something. Well, Miles thought that they looked perfect to put up his nose. I discovered this when he sneezed, and metal came out. I checked his nose and could see two more in the left nostril that I quickly removed. There was one in the right as well, but it was so far up that there was no way I could get it on my own. I ran to grab some tweezers, but by the time I got back, I couldn't see it anymore. I didn't know if it was up too high or if he'd somehow gotten it out, so I called the doctor to be safe. Plus, who knows if there were more up there that I couldn't see?

We went in to Dr. Ditty's office a little later. He shined his light up Miles' nose, and sure enough, he could see the reflection of the metal. He couldn't get it with his tweezers either though, so he went to find something to open his nostril more. Same problem. By the time he got back, he couldn't see the grommet anymore. He didn't know if it had gone into his throat and been swallowed or if it was just up to high to be seen, so we got sent to x-ray. The x-ray was a little vague too. You could see swelling where it had been, but it didn't look like it was still there. We got sent home with instructions to watch for infection or fever, but the thought was that the grommet was no longer in the nose.

Here's the problem. Last night and today, Miles has had what appears to be a terrible cold and sore throat. No fever, but who knows if this could have anything to do with the nose incident? I called Dr. Ditty, but he's gone for the week. Dr. Haroutunian is supposed to call me back, but he wasn't there for the original problem, so it's a little confusing. I'm sure that it's just a cold or tonsillitis, but I'd hate to ignore something that needed attention.

That was number one. number two happened last night. We were just doing some last minute demo. We shouldn't have agreed to remove the carpet on our own, but we were saving quite a bit, so that's what we did. We were just cutting the old carpet up, so we could get it out when Ben yanked on the razor a little too hard. It went through the carpet okay but continued into his knee. It was actually a very small cut, less than a half inch probably, but it was deep, and the tip of the blade was missing when he pulled the razor out. Grug! Ben typically doesn't even pay mind to things like this, but it bled and bled and bled, and it must have really hurt because he decided that we needed to go to Urgent Care. Good idea because that carpet was pretty nasty, so I'm sure the blade was less than sanitary. An x-ray didn't show any razor tips in Ben's knee, so it must have broken on the carpet, which is good. They got him cleaned up and bandaged and gave him a tetanus shot, so hopefully, he's all good. I know that he was still super sore all night and this morning, but at least no metal had to be dug out.

Last, but not least, we ran into a little snag when pulling up the carpet. We just may have jumped into the sale of this house a little quickly. That's not to say that we wouldn't have bought it if we didn't investigate more. We probably just would have asked a little more of the sellers. The previous owners did a lot of the basement finishing on their own....and not in a good way. To give you an idea, we had to texture all the walls in the family room because the drywall seaming was so terrible. Well, apparently, additional shortcuts were taken. At the end of the hall, they put up a wall, so a closet could be included in the little room on the end. Super, only they built the wall on top of the carpet. What!? How do you even do that? Can there be actual framing if the carpet is still there? Or is my closet wall just drywall? Regardless, we were pretty pissed off about it. Ben was literally ready to call the previous owner to tell him to come and fix it. I'll be honest though, I do not want him doing anything in my house. The really sad thing, he's in construction. That's his job, and he couldn't drywall his own house. Pretty pathetic.

Oh well. Despite all of our chaos, this is still pretty much the best day ever. I can't even express my joy in the idea of having decent carpet and being able to finish the playroom and bedroom downstairs.