28.2.10

Yesterday.

Wow yesterday was a busy day! Instead of continuing to pack & ferry boxes from here to The Cottage, like perhaps a normal person would, I took Punk ‘sailing, went to an auction & ripped up carpet….

The garage sales yesterday were nothing to write home about, but, the auction… my FIRST auction… oh. Yeah.

It was SO FUN. And interesting as far as people watching goes. And CHEAP. Punky was awesome for ageeeeeeeeeees, but when she had finally had had enough I had purchased a whole bunch of goodness for $25.

We were a tad late so things had already commenced by the time we got there. I went & registered & bid on the first thing up when I got back – a box of ‘knitting’ stuff, for $1. I hadn’t looked in the box but I thought I could give the wool to Gran… imagine my delight when I got it back to the cottage later & found a ye olde kiddie’s craft book, some more copies of Golden Hands and a super cute sweater someone had made on their knitting machine that was a PERFECT FIT. It was such a weird yet marvellous coincidence.

I also got some more enamel ware, a pretty old sifter, cookie cutters, this gorgeous old lamp:

Lamp

…and a PRISTINE portable record player… yum.

Portable Record Player

After lunch I decided to see what was under the carpet. There was happinessjoysurprise & disappointment! I tell you… this house has it all.

Happiness – that the boards in the first room look fine & solid. Not very pretty but better than carpet…!

Room One

Joy – that the hall & Punky’s room had different, BEAUTIFUL, wide plank floorboards. I held my breath, hoping that it was only the first room that was different….

Punk's Room - Bye Bye Stinky Carpet...

Surprise – that not only was the ‘lounge’ different… it is painted… black.

Lounge

Disappointment – That our room has most of the sticky black rubber backing from the carpet underlay adhered to it….

Our Room.

The good news is that it comes off easily with some paint stripper, which is today’s job, after I rip up the rest of the tacking.

The Boy wonders why I have more enthusiasm for ripping up carpet & pulling out nails than I had for painting pickets (which he had to do because I kept ignoring it…)… or for packing even… He doesn’t understand that I’m actually making a difference over there. That the smell has diminished. That it already feels so much more open. That this, is my thing.

15 comments:

  1. Oh the surprises underneath carpet! I guess I'm not surprised by yours due to the age of the house. We had black on one of our floors too. It came off with the floor sanding thankfully.

    Wow, you're moving right along. :)

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  2. You are so lucky, you got off lightly with your floors. We ripped up our carpet, the bedrooms, hallway and lounge were pristine. Not so great was our dining and kitchen area. Some bright spark had stuck down lino with this black tar stuff that we tried to remove but gave up fairly quickly. We now have tiles LOL

    Can't believe how much you have got done so far, so exciting :)

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  3. Yes, those bits are what I like too, you see serious results and it feels so satisfying to have it done.
    Interesting that you have so many different floors.
    We are in talks at the moment regarding our lounge, lengthy discussion has gone into our now agreed upon re-make, re-model. I think we will only have to buy some paint and it will do wonders. We shall see.
    Good luck with all you have to do, make sure you get a good rest in too!

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  4. Oh, nice surprises on the floors.
    Busy busy bee!
    One day I'll go to an auction!!!
    Great buys hon,... I need to go opping,(you make me crave it!) but 1st I need a box or 3 to leave this house ;)

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  5. Oh my ~ You are very very lucky Vic. Those wooden boards will mop up sensationally - SO much better than carpet, which is probably where the smells were eloping from??

    We too have boards of 2 different types of wood in the lounge, dining, kichen and two main bedrooms. But meh, I like it that way.

    Have fun today!!!

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  6. That looks really really promising Vic!!

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  7. and SCORE! on thr portable record player-yipee!!!

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  8. Wonderful! already more cozy! and I'll take ripping out carpet to painting any day!

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  9. Ah. the joys of old houses. When we lifted carpets, we found the black as well as as some chipboard where our old Baltic boards should have been before the termites ate them! But there is some satisfaction in restoring it all. You go girl!

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  10. Ripping out carpet sounds satisfying :)

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  11. sounds like fun overall. and im sure the end result is going to be amazing. this is an improvement on the carpeted shots alread : ) keep up the super work!! im going to enjoy following you along this journey x

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  12. Go you guys handy andys. And what treasure and potential treasure under that carpet. I'm glad the black won't be too hard to get off.
    The whole ripping the carpet sounds like a lot of fun, and I imagine quite satisfying?
    x

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  13. what delicious floors they will be perfect once they are finished...make sure you r not doing too much girlie...i remember being 12wks pregnant with Tom and sanding the floor with one of those giant machine things...had a slight bleed but everything was okay, so you take care hugs n stuff rxxx

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  14. Your place is going to look great.

    Our first nightmare was glue too and the carpets came up in shreds for about half the floor. It took 3 days to get them up. Eventually we discovered that that wasnt the only problem. The foam from the carpet base was stuck to the glue that was stuck to the cement!
    My girlfriend came to rescue me and by the end of the day we had sucessfully filed it off (the only way) with one of those big old fashioned file thingys.
    Our knees were bruised for ages! Each time we saw ech other we would compare tones of blue, black and yellow.

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Let's have a chat. And a biscuit. And some tea. And another biscuit.

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