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| Looking into the hall; the floor could use some sanding, for sure |
It wasn't easy, but we did it ourselves, and on a pretty hot day. We pulled up the carpeting in the dining room, the hall, and front bedrooms. We cut it and the pad into pieces, and trucked them all to the dump. No more stinky carpet harboring dust and germs and heaven knows what-all!
Underneath? All hardwood floors. You will see that the hall, above, needs some refinishing, but I think that the guest room, shown below, is in pretty good shape.
The house really feels a lot more Old West-like to me now. These old wood floors kind of creak when you walk across them, reminding me that this house is pretty old, as western places go. Oh, it's nothing like the "oldest house in the U.S. built by a European" (Santa Fe, c.1646); or the really ancient Acoma Pueblo of New Mexico, continuously inhabited since the 12th century; or even our former old colonial home in New Hampshire (Candia, 1770). But this old adobe has been sitting right here since 1950 in the Mesilla Valley, surrounded by chile fields and pecan orchards and looking up at the mountains. At 61 years old, it's catching up with me!
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| The guest room; you can see that Little Pete was bustling around and giving us plenty of help |
I'd take hardwoods in any condition in an older home over any newly carpeted new construction any day! We've taken out all carpet and replaced with hardwoods every floor in our home except one...the last bedroom. LT is planning the carpet demo this week, and we have boxes of hardwood in the garage. It takes awhile to do a room...2 1/4" at a time! And LT is so particular about every plank he places, but when it's done...soooooo much better than carpet! I love the look of your old home; character and charm. Maybe I should mention here that your "old home" is the same age as....uhhhh...ME!
ReplyDeleteWell, Deb, I happen to know that you are overflowing with character and charm, lol.
ReplyDeleteWe took up our carpet in the dining room and hall and put down teak colored laminate. The only thing underneath is cement. We did put down underlayment.
ReplyDeleteIt is much easier to keep clean with just a swifter dust mopping every couple of days.
I love the way your floors look. My parents built this house in 1960 and immediately put down carpet over the maple floors. Hubby and I took up all the carpet 7 years ago. Immediately the house felt cleaner, fresher, bigger and had more character. Yay for your de carpeting adventure.
ReplyDeleteThe Olde Bagg
Wow, to think that they covered those up. You can do a lot to make them look better. Redoing them might cost you a bit. I have 15 year old wooden floors that I have to redo .. not until I put my house up for sell though. You know how dogs can age a floor. So, I just wash and polish and put rugs over the older areas.
ReplyDeleteOhhh, pretty. My floors are all hardwood, and all need some work, but I love them. Gracie, I notice, prefers the hardwood to nap on.
ReplyDeleteHow long have you been living in your house? It seems you are the adventurous time, moving to wherever the wind calls your name. I like that adventurous spirit ;-) I do love hardwood floors myself and can see why you wanted to pull up the carpets. Your home looks very lovely. Get the iced tea ready, lol.
ReplyDeleteJoyful, we've been here about a year and a half. We had the carpets taken out of the back half of the house and tile put in about a year ago. Tile is perfect for hot weather! The wood floors are relatively cool as well.
ReplyDeleteIced tea, indeed. It's hot just now, as we wait for the monsoon rains to begin.
oh that carpet would have been gone on the first day had I been in charge! can't tolerate it AT ALL. don't know why people covered up beautiful wood floors with that stuff. it gives me the sneezes, no matter how new it is. and the new stuff out-gases formaldehyde, according to some in-the-know persons I've spoken with. you are way better off with tile and wood. and the place looks like it has so much charm and character. oh my, it's so beautiful. good job.
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