Tracy, and whoever else is curious, this hideous carpet is all over the "first" or ground floor of our multi-level house (basement, ground floor/garage, kitchen/living/dining room floor, 3rd level with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms). So it's in the hallway, in the back kitchen stairs, the family room, and the 4th bedroom that's currently our home office. My MIL called it "Joseph's carpet" because it's striped and colorful (like Joseph's coat in the Bible). She also named a "tower light" that we have in the hallway, "Babel Tower" (it's featured in the first photo below).
So here you can see it from various angles (photos taken when we did the home inspection back on August 28, 07):
Doesn't the carpet "complement" real well the ugly pink wall and wall paper? YUCKY YUCK!!These are the stairs leading to the kitchen, by the back door. I HATE that border in the dining room! Someone's peeking in! (note the horrible torn carpet in the bottom of the photo)
This is how the fourth bedroom was before we moved in (I'll have before and after photos of the office in the other blog sometime):
The family room, its wood paneled walls and carpet (furniture from previous owners):
Now... this carpet does complement well the wood paneling. However, the paneling makes the room too dark and we also would like to remove it if possible...The worst part about this carpet? The floor is all concrete in this level, BUT it has synthetic tiles underneath the carpet and we suspect they're asbestos-laced tiles (as well as the tiles in the upstairs bathrooms). NASTY stuff, extremely hazardous to remove! So we don't even know what to do since we cannot just remove the carpet and put other flooring, we have to deal with the stuff underneath. My dream was to put light colored laminate flooring, but I guess we'll have to put another carpet on top of this one and ceramic tiles by the front (and back?) door. It'll be cheaper, less time consuming and more practical. :( If I knew we were going to keep the house we'd go ahead and try to get the laminate, but we don't know. Is it going to be weird to have carpets in the 1st and second levels and hardwood floors in the bedrooms? (Tracy, all upstairs bedrooms have those great floors underneath).
5 comments:
Oh, wow.
Hmm. I wouldn't know what to recommend for the carpet/tile/asbestos thing. My gut says it might be best to hire someone to come and get it out of there, for the health of your family and any other family would might live there in the future. It would be expensive, but... at least you know it would be done, and then you could get the laminate that you want.
That definitely is a conundrum. Maybe think of it like this: the money you saved by not having to re-carpet the bedrooms (due to the amazing hardwood you uncovered) could be used to rip out the poisonous Technicolor Dreamcoat you have on the lower level.
(And why, oh why did they pair PINK with that carpet?!)
This is really fun, Lilian, looking at another home that is undergoing a vast "beautification" process. I think we both have diamonds in the rough! (Remind me: what year was your house built? Ours is 1985; yours seems slightly older -- 1970s?)
Also: you could paint that paneling in the family room to lighten it up a bit. Not a perfect solution, but it's cheaper than ripping it out and perhaps having to repair/replace drywall.
Just a thought!
You should probably get professional advice about the asbestos...if it is as well...what we were told is that it is best to cover it up an leave it alone...could you lay ply over the carpet and then a 'floating' laminate floor? We put installed one in our house and it looks pretty good, and wears well, plus wasn't very expensive...look into your options closely...hope that helps.
I know you previously warned readers not to say that they liked the carpet, and while I would never choose to put this in my house, there is something rather warm and retro about it.
The pink wallpaper, however, is absolutely hideous.
I can't wait to see the rest of your improvements; the boys' room is already looking really good!
That carpet is making me dizzy. Blech!
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