EXTREME WHITE

Received a couple of interesting comments this week regarding renovations:

 "I hope your flooring install goes smoothly. I am so chicken to do some house renos. We have the money set aside, I just go frozen when I have to make decisions like what kind of tile and where it should go (replacing the carpet in the dining room over to tile = who puts carpet in their dining room!)"  Living Rich on the Cheap

"I can relate to your post so much, especially with using the word "frozen". For me, it's the intimidation factor and the fear of looking stupid. My carpet is trashed and was due to be replaced about 5 years ago. On more than one occasion I have walked into Home Depot, start looking at carpets, and within 10 minutes my pulse is racing and I just leave!! I have noticed that in a few places in my house the carpet has lifted away and I told myself to just start ripping it up, and having the bare floor would be motivation for me to just get over my fear and either figure it out or swallow my pride and ask for help.

Here's my question to those of you who are savvy about these things: My walls need painting too. Is there a particular order that these renovations should be done? Walls first or carpet first? I have baseboards, do the baseboards need to be removed for the carpet to be laid? I assume that walls should be painted first so pain doesn't drip onto new carpets, but is that the only consideration? It's the baseboards that have me confused about when to do what". Freckles

The intimidation factor is huge! So many choices and what do I know?? Not that much! There are times I wish that instead of spending several thousand dollars on new flooring for my basement that I had just painted the cement floors instead. But then I think "resale".  And that's part of what is driving me right now. People want to buy a house that they don't have to put any money into so when the time comes to sell (if I sell) then I either put the price of the house lower or install flooring. So I bit the bullet. 

I picked Home Depot because they are close to me and are Canadian. And also because I could do everything from the website. I never set foot in the store regarding this adventure. It was all online and by telephone (hi Sue!) When I printed off the contract (at home) I noticed that the baseboard on the order were not the size I wanted so again, went on line, perused the selection of baseboards and found what I wanted...made a phone call to Sue who then changed the order and refunded $34 to my credit card because the ones I wanted were on sale! This is how I like to do renos!! 

**Sue found another error, something to do with the underpad which saved me another $130 - again she just credited it to my credit card. Never did I have to enter the store til the deal was done!! The selection of flooring is all online and I filled in a request form to get my basement measured and to receive a quote. Easy peasy and no stress, except for the part where I had to pay :( Once all was arranged I did have to go to Home Depot and pay. 

Regarding Freckles query: yes, baseboards do have to be removed to install carpet. Depending on what shape they are in they can either be reinstalled or you can order new ones. All the choices are on the Home Depot website. Painting before or after installation? I've done both. I've been working like crazy getting the basement walls painted with EXTREME WHITE and just finished a couple hours ago. I'm sure that after the flooring is installed there will likely be some touchups needed. If you wait to paint after installation you'll need lots of drop cloths to protect your new floors. 

So...by the end of next Thursday I'll have new flooring, new baseboards and fresh white walls in the basement!  I'm thinking it'll be worth the $$ and pain. (My shoulder's killing me!) I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the installers don't have any problems - like cracks in the foundation or something....!!

Recent updates:

Flagstones in place of patio stones

This all had to be cleaned up to install new carpet - DONE!

Living with the subfloors during hardwood installation.

Mattresses etc in the living room - what fun!

I wonder where my tax forms are??

Those walls are now painted and the stairs
are covered in new carpet.

While painting today I had a deep thought. Yes, painting is one of those activities that puts me into my right brain - the creative side. I was thinking about my dad - he had a lot of anxiety and depression that he dealt with over several decades. What I came up with was this (and this has to do with the FROZEN problem.) A lot of the time the IDEA of something is more overwhelming than actually doing it. When I thought about getting the basement flooring done it was overwhelming - just thinking about all I would have to do-where to even start!! But the process wasn't that bad - definitely not as bad as THINKING about it. I'll let you know if that holds true after the installation is done!!

Next renos: foyer, bathrooms