My Downstairs is COVERED

Covered in dust that is.  Over the weekend Jason, Tony and I ripped out the carpet and chipped out the tile.  Removing carpet is EASY, just cut and roll, the only advice I can give is make sure you cut it so the rolled up sections will fit in whatever you are hauling it to the dump in.  Jason was wise enough to think of this and it saved our butts!  Go hubby!

It is amazing how much stuff you accumulate in one room.

See all the spots on our light beige carpet?  Who puts light beige carpet in high traffic areas and under the kitchen table!? Ugg, it was always dirty and that drove me crazy.  The bottom of Kate's socks at the end of the day were grey.  Not just a little grey, I mean it looked like a grey foot print on the bottom of her socks, dirty!  Take a look at the underside of the carpet that was in a high traffic area.  See the swath of dirt?  ::Shudder::

I'm so glad the stuff is gone.

For all of you crazy people out there like us, who said "Sure! We can take out the old tile ourselves, no problem," well let me tell you something.  Be prepared for a day or three of back breaking hard work.  Oh, and please get the power tools, trust me you will want them.

Saturday we started busting up the tile.  Jason and Tony went at it with hammers and chisels.  Yes, that way works, but you will be at it for weeks!  After about two hours of this, and several outbursts from Tony (he kept hitting his finger with the hammer, poor guy!) I got on the computer and looked up HomeDepot's number.  I rang-up the Tool Rental department, told them my project and with in 5 minuets I had the right power tool on hold for Jason and Tony to go pick up.  It was a chipping hammer with a flex chisel.  

Well, this thing worked all right, it powderized  the thin set (the stuff that holds the tile to the concert floor).  Dust billowed up where ever they used this tool.  It totally looked like one of those scenes with construction works using a big manly power tool and dusting billowing up and around them and ruble flying everywhere, accenting their manliness.  =)

So, that is how my downstairs got covered in dust.  

They blasted that thin set into oblivion.   Here is what the thin set looked like under the tile:

These are some shots of my downstairs.  See our new flooring in the corner there!? (And our toilet, he he he.) 

See the broom we broke trying to sweep up the broken tile mess.

Tomorrow Earl comes over to start installing the new flooring.  He said he will put up our new base boards when he is finished.  So now, off to Lowe's to look at new base boards and we need to paint them too.  Sigh, by this time next week by downstairs will be B-E-A-UUU-TE-FULL!