That New Formaldehyde Smell

Luckily for us, the hardwood flooring throughout most of the house is in pretty good shape.  We knew immediately though, that we would be replacing the two carpeted areas because they were old, worn, blue, and because carpet cooties give me the creeps.

Stairs - BEFORE

That is unfortunately the only picture I have of the original stair & landing carpet.

AFTER 

It's not actually as pale as it looks here, but we did have to go lighter than we expected due to the color of the floor - a lot of the shades we liked were too similar.  So, now we have borderline impractically light stair carpet, and a fierce no shoes rule.

The night before the installation, Mum & I hurriedly repainted the trim around the doors on the upstairs landing, attempting to avoid any painting-over-new-carpet situations.  Imagine, then, my dismay to discover the difference in plushness/thickness between the old and new carpets...

Ugh, not the look we were going for.

Not only did I now have to paint in the vicinity of the carpet, but IMMEDIATELY NEXT TO IT.  Taping around the five doorways up there was brutal.

Then, after painting, the tape pulled up threads around the edge of the carpet.  It was tragic.  There was nothing I could do about it...so I just shoved them back down.  Don't go picking around my baseboards, ok?

Anyway, it looks much classier now:

The other space we had replaced was the den next to the kitchen.

 Den - BEFORE

The only things I can currently tolerate about this room are the blinds.  

AFTER

Walls painted, carpet replaced.  Slightly better in there, but still miles to go I think...

Recap:

Project: Replace carpet in den and on stairs

Cost: High

Payoff: Great - there's nothing like that new carpet smell...at least, there wasn't, until I was told it's actually formaldehyde.  Hooray for specimen-preserving chemicals!