Sugar is Important

Going to make your Grandmas a lovely Chocolate Cake??  Try to make sure you actually follow ALL the directions and add ALL the ingredients.

Because when you've poured your slightly smaller amount of batter than you remember having last time into your perfectly prepared pans, and then you decide you perhaps better taste that batter (just because), that taste of bitter bitter chocolate won't leave your mouth for quite a while. Thankfully I decided to test that batter, for quality control of course, before I baked the cakes!!

Perhaps I should just drink the rest of this and call it a day!

Forget baking and all its' stupid direction following!

Taking care of Number One

On the list that is.

Yesterday was the first day of install. These guys were super fast and within a couple of hours I was looking at this sight:

The carpet had all been removed and hauled away. The floor had been vacuumed and sprayed down. I was a little surprised how nice looking the stringers were. It made me wish I had attempted to hardwood them myself like I thought about doing a few years ago. I was just afraid of what kind of builder mess I would find under the carpet, and didn't want to pull the carpet up myself just to say "Ah, crap."

By lunch, they had the upstairs mostly done. Enough for me to take this dizzying photo of the difference between the old carpet and the new.

Huge, huge difference.

I'm so glad we went with the darker choice. It all looks amazing.

By the end of their work day even the downstairs looked like this:

They came back this morning and within three hours they had the downstairs totally completed as well.

It's still very strange to me. Darker. Plusher. Still catches me by surprise when I look at it.

If you have eagle eyes, you can see our sectional in pieces in the basement still. I couldn't wait to take some pictures!

Ryan came home and we moved all the computers and furniture back up to this level.  If I never have to move that freaking heavy awkward sectional again, I'll be a happy camper.

Wait, I have my computer and my internet back. I'm already happy!

Deconstruction

The part of the whole carpet process I've been dreading has happened.

We agreed to move our furniture out of the rooms. Mostly because I don't like other people touching my stuff, but also to save money. Let me tell you, I would have been mortified if anyone had seen the mess under my sectional!! Wowzsa. A pack of rats must have went under there and shed all the hair they had! So not nice.

Anyways, early this morning my sitting and dining room looked like this.

And in a surprisingly short amount of time, it now looks like this:

Ninety percent of the stuff from four bedrooms and a hall closet, including doors.

Not so bad really. It took way less time than I thought it would and took up way less space than I thought. We arranged to have the carpet installed in two separate visits, as I really didn't think we had room to put all the furniture from two levels into the other two levels but we did it. We even had time and space to empty Clayton's room, which we weren't going to do until the upstairs carpet was totally installed. The sectional is moved and downstairs. I hope to not move it again until we sell it! Wow, what a heavy awkward piece of furniture.

It will all be worth it though. The carpet we have now is nasty. I don't know as people actually notice the stains, but downstairs they are the most visible.

Even in this picture it's hard to see, but all those dark shaded spots are really stains. Stains that never go away. Having rolling office chairs has not helped this poor carpet either.

I can't wait.

The chairs have been sold. The furniture has been moved. The nasty hair has been vacuumed.

Bring on my new carpet!