so long, crappy carpet.

Paige and I have lived in our cozy house on Inwood Court for almost four years. And it took me that long to finally get the garage into the condition we desire.

Here's the deal. Campbell houses are small and Californians don't have basements (we call them "garages"). The result is that owners often either finish their garages and use them as bonus rooms or use the space as extended (or primary) storage. Park your cars in the garage? Blasphemy! That's what the driveway is for!



Our garage fit the mold, as you can see in the image above. Over the past four years, our spoiled cars have enjoyed the comfort of carpeting while we have wrinkled our nose at the associated smell. After suffering through this, it was time to take action.

First, I tore out the carpet. This sucked. I'd estimate the carpet had been glued to the floor for at least a decade. So pulling up the carpet was the least of my problems. Removing the glue was the big headache. After two full days of scraping, the carpet is up. And we've hired a garage floor company to come out tomorrow to finish the job.

Second, we like to park our cars in our garage. (What a novel concept!) So Dad, Reed, and I installed a fancy attic ladder to give us access to the crawlspace above the garage. I laid down about 100 square feet of plywood and have spent several hours moving items into it. Thank goodness I'm related to engineers. Especially engineers with a lot of power tools and elbow grease.

Finally, the walls. They were nasty. Since Sanders, my UMich buddy, was in town the last few days, I put him to work. We painted the walls a nice neutral shade. Just in time for the flooring company to show up tomorrow to mess them up.

I'll post the "after" picture later this week. Keep your fingers crossed.