Sunroom

This is the first in a series home improvement posts. First we'll start with the Sunroom! This was one of our first projects.

The previous owners did a great job assembling this room. The entire room is lined with beautiful stained wood. They furnished it with offwhite coaches and green blinds. It was a country feel.

One common and reoccurring theme was the previous owners had dogs! Hair everywhere! Our allergies to dogs, we decided to rip up this carpet and start new. Who knew how hard that'd be!

Ripping up the old carpet wasn't hard. We found a nice solid sub-floor atop the concrete subfloor.
Anna and I went shopping at a local carpet seller/installer not far from the house. Since the subfloor is concrete we decided to go all out and buy some super thick (aka warm) carpet. The carpet was so long, we were a little nervous we wouldn't be able to clean it (allergies). We made a point to ask if there were any special care instructions , we were assured there weren't.

We got the carpet installed and it was amazing! You could lose your whole hand in it! We loved it! Eventually the time came to vacuum it. We have 3x vacuums (that seems like a lot for 2 people 'eh?). We tried the first 2 with nothing too exciting happening, except the long carpet bogged down the motors. When we tried the 3rd, thats the charm! We frayed our new carpet. D'oh, what a bummer!

Our installer was really understanding and offered to replace the carpet. We decided not to go with the same carpet (maybe we'd end up fraying it again). We went into the store and selected some new carpet and went home. The next day an apologetic sales associate called us and explained that we selected a different brand of carpet and we had to go select again to select the same brand. I was frustrated that we needed to select again. We went back in and selected some new samples to take home and try out. While we still had the new samples, we got a call and found out we could select any brand. Yippee, we really liked our initial re-selection and placed an order.

Not too long afterward the new carpet was installed, awesome! The new stuff was less thick but great. After that fresh new carpet feeling went away we noticed a distinct line parallel to a wall about 4 feet away. I gave the installer a call and they asked how we liked the carpet. To their credit they mentioned the line on the carpet and wanted to see if it was a problem for us. We decided it was a little to distinct for us. Turns out its rare, it usually only happens in large office installations, etc, but as the carpet is rolled out the color sometimes changes. Our rool is wider than a roll of carpet so they unroll one strip and then fill in the remainder with then next section off of the roll.

We eventually got the correct carpet installed, it fantastic! We also installed new outlets installed and new blinds installed. Voila, our new sun room!