Home Improvement, Part 6

Whenever you take on a project like this, you have to expect to hit a snag at some point. Things have been going remarkably smooth with our basement renovation. But late last week, we hit our snag.

When it came time for choosing a carpet for the room we shopped around. The first store we went to gave us a rough estimate based on my approximate measurements that was about double what we figured we’d spend on carpeting. So we went to another store. Their carpet was nicer and overall we got a better vibe from the store. Plus, it was less expensive – still more than we hoped to spend, but not as much as the first place.

We thought we were all set, but then we saw an ad in the paper for another store promising great sale prices. With a name like “Carpet King” you would think we would have known better.

At first we figured the price would be a lot lower. However, after talking to the Carpet King we realized that in the end it would still be pretty close to the store we were going to use. What sold us, besides the slightly lower price, was the fancy-shmancy mat to go under the rug. It’s supposed to be water-resistant and do all sorts of other great things. In a pinch, I think they can use it to line the bottom of the space shuttle to protect it on re-entry.

So the King of Carpets sent one of his minions over to take measurements in our basement and give us the final price. I kid you not, his name was George Bush. The King uses subcontractors to install the carpet. So we would have to pay him upfront for the rug and then pay the installer separately.

The first sign of trouble came when were told the carpet wouldn’t be ready on time. It was supposed to go in on Thursday. Actually, the rug was ready, but the space-age mat wasn’t in yet. So we had to put things off until Friday.

After re-arranging our schedules some to accommodate the installers came our second sign of trouble. The installers showed up an hour late Friday morning. They seemed a little gruffer than most of the other guys who have been in and out of our basement over the past few weeks. One of them was clearly the guy in charge while the other was the Teller to his Penn and barely said a word.

Now, our carpenter recommended to us that on the stairs we have carpet go up over the stringers (the sides of the stairs). This was mentioned to George Bush when he was here. However, it was news to the installers who informed us it would cost an extra $80 for them to do it that way. I insisted this wasn’t the price we agreed to, but the boss installer stood his ground. When I said I’d like to call the King and see if I could work something out, he politely said fine and left. He told me that it wasn’t worth his time to do the job for any lower price. He said the King had someone who could install it for less, but he insinuated that the quality wouldn’t be as good.

Before long I was on the phone with the King and we managed to haggle out a new price. The only other option was to have George Bush, the guy being blamed for giving us the wrong price in the first place, be the one who would come install the carpet for a lower price. The King confided in me that George wasn’t very good, which had me wondering why he was working for the King in the first place. Anyway, we settled on a new price and within an hour after leaving our house the installers were back and began putting the carpet in.


Cushy brown carpet now covers our basement floor.

They finished the floor and then set to work on the stairs, beginning with the stringers. However, what our carpenter didn’t realize when he suggested carpeting the stringers was that it wouldn’t work well with the commercial grade carpeting we picked out. The boss installer brought it to our attention after they started working on it, and sure enough, it looked like crap. So after all that drama over the extra charge for carpeting the stringers, we told them to forget about it.

However, this would mean having to spackle and paint the stringers and installing some trim on the top. The installers wouldn’t finish the job until Tuesday, pointing out that we were better off doing our painting first.

So Kris painted the stringers over the weekend. Our carpenter came back today to install the trim and I painted that tonight. The carpet installers should be back tomorrow to finish the job.


These stairs were the cause of some carpet controversy.

But it doesn’t end there. I don’t know if George Bush took lousy measurements or what, but we have a ton of excess carpet left over that we seem to be stuck with. The agreement we signed with the King says “no returns.” So if you would like a big piece of commercial grade carpeting, I can hook you up.


The toys and books that have been overtaking our house have a new home.


Meanwhile, Kris went out over the weekend and bought some of the shelving units we wanted and put them up. Now most of the kids’ toys as well as all of our books and photo albums have been moved downstairs.

We have a chest that we use as a coffee table in our living room. Before we had kids, we used to keep blankets in it. But for the last four and a half years it’s served as a toy box. Kris emptied it out, brought all those toys downstairs last night and returned the blankets. I did not think this would go over well with Nolan.

This morning, while watching TV, Nolan hopped down from the couch and opened up the chest, probably looking for a Rescue Hero to play with. He was surprised to find the blankets and his toys gone. I explained to him that his toys were in the new room now. Much to my surprise he seemed to think that made sense and had no problem with it all.