When I married the king of DIY home maintenance, I didn’t realize that I would gain so much valuable experience and knowledge over the years.
During our 20+ years together, I’ve seen E tackle home improvement and maintenance projects that would intimidate a team of pros.
E is not afraid of a big – or tall – DIY project. He once rented a crane and single-handedly rebuilt the chimney on our three-story house. A few years ago, he rented a Bobcat, put down thousands of pounds of dirt and resurfaced our entire backyard.
He’s torn down walls and put in sliding glass doors. He’s built kitchens and decks, demolitioned bathrooms and finished basements. He’s done electrical work, plumbing, drywalling, carpentry and so much more. Heck, he built our daughter a literal castle! But there are some projects that even E will call in pros for – and getting new carpets is one of them.
We got new carpets at my old house in Dayton and also in our Beavercreek home. Both times, it was just for a room or two so it wasn’t a huge job.
This time around, however, we needed to recarpet two whole floors of our home. We’ve wanted new carpets since we first moved here in 2012, but never wanted to take on the expense. Since that time, our carpets have gotten even worse thanks to multiple pet accidents, food spills and the like. It was high time we ripped out these original, stained, 25-year-old carpets and put in something more contemporary.
But oy, what a pain it is to get new carpet put in! It’s the worst.
Getting new carpeting for your whole house is basically like moving without going anywhere. You have to pack up EVERYTHING you own and take all art and pictures off the walls. All of the furniture has to get moved out of the rooms so there can be nothing on top of tables, shelves, nightstands, dressers, etc.
We had to get moving boxes, pack as if we were moving, and then put all the boxes and furniture into non-carpeted areas like bathrooms, kitchen and dining room. It was way more than a hassle – it was days of hard, back-breaking work and I do not recommend it unless your carpets are in terrible shape like ours were!
Here was my desperate cry on Instagram in the middle of our preparations for carpet installation. This caption accompanied the photos you’re seeing here in this post:
Tell me you’re getting new carpeting without telling me you’re getting new carpeting. This is hell, 0/10 do not recommend. It’s like moving without going anywhere. The new carpet is nice, but the back pain is brutal. Also, THERE’s A DOLLHOUSE IN MY KITCHEN. Also couches. Can someone pls come move it all back, k thx🙏 😱🥲📦🪆🛋️
If you are planning to get new carpets, my biggest tip is just to get rid of all your stuff. It’s a great time to declutter, donate a bunch of items and give yourself some nice empty surfaces all throughout your home. That way there’s less to move when the installers come!
This is also a great time to deep clean and paint – when else will you have the opportunity to get behind big pieces of furniture that are way too heavy to move? Our walls all got wiped down and we also took the opportunity to repaint most of our rooms. Hubby did all that, of course – he’s amazing!
One tough call is whether to paint before the new carpets go in or afterward. If you paint before the new carpet comes, there’s always a chance that the carpet installers will wreck your new paint job while installing the carpets. But then again, who wants to take the chance of painting with brand new carpets and risk spilling a drop on them!?
We did our painting after moving all the stuff out and before getting the new carpets, and it worked out great. Our installers were extremely careful and the walls didn’t get scuffed or messed up at all.
I went into my office downtown on carpet install day so I didn’t have to be around for all the craziness. I will say that if you have pets, you’ll want to secure them well as the installers propped our front door open and left it that way all day so they could easily come in and out with big rolls of carpet and padding.
Another tip for those planning to get new carpets is to splurge on thick under-padding. It makes such a difference and we all love walking around barefoot now to feel the plushy carpets and padding!
After the new carpets are put in, it’s time for moving everything back and unpacking all those boxes. We are giving ourselves some grace and taking our time putting everything back where it belongs. We’re also continuing to get rid of a lot, either through donations or selling on Facebook Marketplace. We have way too much stuff!
All in all, I’m super happy with the new carpets and I’m glad we went through this exercise, but it was one of the biggest home improvement projects we have ever undertaken – even bigger than getting a new kitchen or replacing our roof.
Through the course of this carpeting project, every single item in our home has been touched, moved, cleaned and/or renewed in some way. It’s like having an entirely new house!
So, in summary, if you want to do all the work of moving without the heartbreak of leaving the home you love, then maybe getting new carpeting is for you.
I’m glad we have our new carpets – but I certainly hope we won’t have to ever do that again!
