Let’s change the carpet he said ,mmm ok I murmured. This conversation was two years ago, life moves slowly chez nous !
Anyway we eventually chose the carpet to replace one that was slightly moth eaten. Those little critters are a complete nuisance and over the 20 years we have lived in this house , they have chomped their way through large areas of the afore mentioned carpet. We have tried every method to remove them known to mankind, from 'bombs', sprays and even moth traps (think mouse traps but much much smaller and filled with a chemical that makes the male moth think a female is about) . Nothing really rid us of the problem even thoughts year one of the traps revealed 40 moths !
So a new carpet it was ! Mr P decided if there was to be a new carpet then the entire room needed redecorating. It didn’t look too bad, a nasty crack down one wall that had been filled etc but had revisited us.
Two weeks it took us to empty the room ! The glasses were wrapped and carefully boxed up, china also boxed and layered with tissue, the drinks cabinet was emptied (NO silly you, not drunk !!) then the paintings were taken down , lighting removed, plug sockets taped, curtains dry cleaned . All the alcohol was stored in the cloakroom, woe betide anyone who lingered too long in there as they were breathalysed on the way out !! Furniture was gently carried upstairs to a spare bedroom, the dining table 'broken' in two and the chairs all popped in the garage.
We sat on the sofa but ate at a folding picnic table on picnic chairs whilst the preparation and painting was carried out by Mr P. He made an excellent job BUT so many more coats of paint were required that we had another trip to the local DIY store. The nasty crack was identical under some thick lining paper and painted over, it’s the small results that bring the most joy !
The carpet shop gave us a date for fitting the new carpet , the two chaps dutifully arrived at 9.30 and expressed their gratitude that we had virtually emptied the room for them. They helped carry the remaining furniture into the garden, yes we had arranged for a dry day 😉🤞
Now our house is a townhouse, so the sitting room is on the first floor, the chaos were incredibly strong and carried the carpet into the room. It’s a long room so the carpet was very heavy as you can imagine. The cut up the old carpet and removed it, then up came the underlay and they even vacuumed the mess. By 1pm the carpet had been laid, the furniture from the garden returned to its rightful places and we started to put things back where they belonged.
It has taken us a further week to put things back in place and I have used the time to weed out things that are no longer needed. We have a FB group here in Winchester that you can list things for free, called 'I need a whisk' it’s brilliant you list your items with a picture, say where you are and then wait. I had lots of messages requesting the bits and bobs I was listing and all are now happily at their new homes. I have also tackled all the dust and carpet fluff so am feeling fairly virtuous.
As you can see this was taken as we were still putting things back , it’s now all completed perfectly timed for me to sit and watch Wimbledon ! Apparently the carpet should last for at least 30 years - hurray !
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