Friday Foto Friends and a Dirty Little Secret

Good Friday Morning Everyone!  I skipped yesterday as I had some business to take care of, which I will explain as we move along here today.

When I last wrote you on Tuesday HERE, I was anticipating that this week I would begin to exchange my October decorations for the November and Thanksgiving decorations of Pilgrims and turkeys and such.  But we've had a little change of plans.

You may think I am planning a Tea Party, by the looks of all those teacups and teapots stacked up on the counter.  That would certainly be lovely, but that is not what's happening.  

No, instead, we are taking care of a "dirty little secret" that has been bugging me for quite sometime. I usually make sure to crop this ugly thing out of the pictures that I share with you so you won't see it, but I can't hide it anymore! I've had enough!!!  See the photo below and I am sure you will "get the picture".

Yes, we have awful, wrinkled, terrible carpet in this house, and it is driving me crazy!

It goes throughout the great room (living & dining), the little den that is "My Room with a view", 

And even into our master bedroom, which is visible from the great room.

When we bought this house a little over 3 years ago, the carpet was new, so we opted to leave it in place even though we would have preferred hard floors, but we had so many other necessities that needed to be repaired or upgraded in the house at that time and we just didn't have the money to go ahead and change the floors then. What we didn't know was that the carpet, although new, was very cheap, and that also it was not properly installed so that in time it began to stretch and wrinkle and show wear patterns much too soon.  Of course, once the furniture is in place, it is very difficult to do anything about that.

So anyway, to make a long story short, we have been discussing this situation for some time. I was at the point of wanting to just rip up the carpet and pull it out from under the furniture and live with bare plywood floors until something could be done. The carpet was becoming hazardous to my mental health as well as my physical health, because I have a tendency to trip over the ripples in my path if I don't consciously remember to pick up my feet.  And so, my hubby finally got tired of hearing me complain about this ugly carpet and the fact that I don't even want to invite people over because of it, blah, blah blah...and he, being the frugal one, was finally convinced that sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do and find a way to make it work.

And so we called a person who advertised that he installed flooring and invited him over to discuss this subject.  After being in sticker shock over his initial quote for the labor and me proclaiming that would be impossible for us...we never dreamed it would be so much and me practically starting to break down into tears in front of this fellow...he pulled out his calculator and started reworking his figures and finally after a lot of calculations he came up with a much better figure. But then we had to also find out the cost of the flooring itself...much to my chagrin, the one I had picked out some time ago had practically doubled in price...and also this man said he didn't particularly like that product and preferred another from a different store, blah blah blah...So here we go again...Anyway, to try and make this long story short (I'm not doing a very good job of that, am I?) we ended up going to the other big box home improvement store and actually found a different product at a lower price and yes they had enough of it in stock and it could be picked up on the selected date, which happens to be this coming Monday...and this man and his crew happen to be available next week to do this...and SO, guess what I am doing?

Yes, that is why all the teapots and teacups, etc. were stacked up on the kitchen counter...we have to pack up all of the "stuff" in all these rooms so they can move the furniture around to install the new flooring beginning on Tuesday morning! 

So here we go!  This is as far as I've gotten so far...

I still have all of this...

and this...

And Pamela's Victorian Cottage and friends...

And this...

and this...

 

and this...

Not to mention all of the stuff in our bedroom on top of the dressers and vanity, etc....

Yeah, we might as well be moving! LOL. But no, thank you. That would be MUCH more!

And so, if you don't hear from me for a week, you will know why...we will be packing up all this stuff and then as they complete the flooring in one room we can begin to put things back in place, but we will be camping out in our son's old bedroom ; no change that...we will be camping out in the "Guest Room", and storing boxes of stuff in our son's old bedroom for a few days until the dust settles and we can move back into our own room. And speaking of dust settling...I am counting on there being a lot less dust in the house once that nasty carpet is out of here.  Carpet holds dust and sand and dirt that no vacuum cleaner can ever get out...and so I am hoping for a much more dust free environment once this is all said and done!

Oh, one more thing...I wanted to mention God's perfect timing in all of this.  Several weeks ago our kids had decided to take a few days off from Dixie Cottage and have a little "vacation". They have a friend who fills in for them occasionally at the store and she was willing to work for a few more days so they could get away.  We had originally talked about taking a little trip together for a few days, but then decided not to do that due to cost, etc., and so the kids are just going to do some little day trips and also celebrate their 5th anniversary, which is next week, and we don't have to work at the store since the other lady is taking care of it, and therefore we are free to take on this project next week!  The man doing the work also had a break in his other projects and next week was perfect for him...

And there you have it!

  

Romans 8:28 

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

I truly believe that when it is time to take care of something, God helps all the pieces fall into place to work it all out for our best.  He knows our needs...and even though this may seem frivolous to some, I can assure you it isn't...it needs to be done, and it is going to take a lot of work to make it happen, but I thank God for giving us the strength and the means to go ahead and get it done...even before the holidays! That was an added bonus!  I had to pack away my extra fall decorations to make room for the other things, but that doesn't mean we are packing away our gratitude and thankfulness!

We give thanks to God for all blessings that He so kindly provides.

Amen.

Hopefully the next time I write I can show you pictures of the finished product. Until then, I'll be busy packing and unpacking...and my computer will have to be disconnected at some point as well!  Have a blessed and wonderful week everyone!!!