My animal spirit guide had been decomposing under the green carpet the whole time
September 25th, 2006
I did not cough up the $150 to attend the paranormal conference. I thought about volunteering like you suggested, but then I realized I wanted to be able to escape if necessary.
But it was our anniversary weekend (seventh), and we celebrated by having friends over to help us tear up the remaining ancient green carpeting in the house—in the entry area, and on the stairs. As my husband pointed out, we were bidding farewell to several decades of toe juice.
I managed not to throw up when he said that. But then I saw the decomposing horsehair again, and nearly tossed my cookies.
BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
At the very least I knew you would enjoy another glimpse of the wallpaper.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, Not right now. (Money), Boo! (Our resident ghosts)
29 Comments
1. Simon | September 25th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Now your toe juice can help create unique stains and marks on the stairs! That’s a LOT purdier than the carpet.
2. Jen | September 25th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Why on earth would anyone want to cover up those stairs!?
Very pretty!
3. Bethany | September 25th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Very pretty. Your lungs are thanking you for getting 100 years of dust (and toe juice) out of your house.
Who needs a paranormal conference anyway? You’ve got plenty of that kind of thing right in your own bathroom!
4. Meg | September 25th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Oh, but it’s lovely. And what a special way to spend your 7th
Meg
Career Mom Radio
5. Deb | September 25th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
I agree they are so beautiful now!! The wallpaper would be alright if there just wasn’t so MUCH of it……It is everywhere, isn’t it???
I could think of a different way to celebrate your anniversary that could be classified as working……and hard if you did it right
6. sogalitno | September 25th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
GORGEOUS! I love houseporn!
What a great way to start your EIGHTH year!
7. mom on a wire | September 25th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
We just had our 6th anniversary, and we celebrated it by painting the kitchen!
Your stairs look beautiful.
And I am going to be pondering that wallpaper for a looooong time.
8. Jennifer | September 25th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Oh wow, good riddance to the green, toe juice infested carpet eh? Those floors are beautiful!
9. Margaret | September 25th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
It looks so pretty! Looks like those stairs are in decent shape underneath.
10. Momish | September 25th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Those stairs are amazing! I bet they make a world of difference everytime you go up and down them. Enjoy! Happy anniversary too!
11. J | September 25th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
The floors are gorgeous! It gives me hope for our entry hall. Happy Anniversary.
12. the Mater | September 25th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
And they hung the beautiful blue mailbox and the hex sign too!
Bare floors and fertility signs for Anniversary #7 :>) There’s no room for a totem animal right now. Just wonder if Mr. Pipe and Mrs. Kitchen’s footsteps will be louder now with no carpeting under their ghostly feet.
13. Paul | September 25th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Is that a ghost dog?
14. dänika | September 25th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
your stairs are GORGOUS!! my parents covered up their (old, wooden, curved) stairs with a ferociously ugly light purple pile carpet when I was young, so that the frequent falls up and down the stairs wouldn’t leave bruises.
lately, whenever I’m at their house, I pick at the edge of the carpet, longing to rip it up. good lord, their youngest is 18 now (truth be told, he still falls up and down the stairs more than I ever did…)!
I think I need my own place. I have this burning desire to rip up carpet and slather paint on the walls. !!
15. birchsprite | September 26th, 2006 at 4:51 am
I think it looks lovely! Having the bare stairs even makes the wallpaper look better!
16. bee | September 26th, 2006 at 9:18 am
UH-oohhhhh. That wallpaper looks AWfully familiar. But ours is a bit more grey. Good job on the stairs, though! Your house looks awfully cute!
17. You can call me, 'Sir' | September 26th, 2006 at 9:18 am
Yeah. That looks so much better, I could spit. I used to live in a ~700 year old house in England and one of many remodeling ordeals involved ripping up the carpet someone had put down over the original (!) hardwood. No horsehair, but still….icky. The stairs looked so much better, as did the rest of the floor. It makes such a huge difference.
18. Vikki | September 26th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Beautiful!
19. Rina | September 26th, 2006 at 10:03 am
I too, can think of no better way to spend an anniversary. Sad, isn’t it?
I recommend just painting right over that wallpaper. Then people will come in and say, oooh, textured painting! So hard to do and beautiful!
Then when you have more time and an earnest desire to tear down 100 years of wall paper, you can bring it all down to the plaster!
Can you please send a bit of your home improvement energy our way? It’s possible we’ll get the lawn mowed today . . . .
20. Christine | September 26th, 2006 at 10:33 am
I’m so jealous. Some previous occupant of my house PAINTED the freaking hall floor and stairs green. I’m too afraid of hard work to even consider how to get back to the original wood.
21. Spot the Wonder Dog | September 26th, 2006 at 11:13 am
I wouldn’t worry about the toe juice so much as I would worry about all the molds and fungus. I know I wouldn’t want to be inhaling all those spores or touching them with my bare hands and fingernails. Oh, and the larvae. All the microscopic insect larvae. Can’t forget about them. Mites, fleas, parasites, little wormy things.
All these wonderous living things just waiting for you to touch them. Nuzzling into your fingers. Waiting for your to touch any of your many bodily orifices in order to find a nice warm place to spawn and reproduce. Living off your warm, moist flesh, spreading out just as far as they can. Maybe leaving a slimy black splotch as a calling card.
Yeah see, that’s what I’d be worried about handling old carpet which had had many years of bare feet, dogs, rodents and bugs all sludging over it. You were really brave to do that without wearing gloves or anything.
Oh, you didn’t touch the kids afterwards, did you?
22. tina | September 26th, 2006 at 11:17 am
what’s wrong with the wall paper? it’s very willy wonka. the kids licked the wall paper in that flick, which inspired years of me desperately searching for the same candy flavored wall-paper. maybe don’t show that flick to the girls so they don’t start down a similar path.
23. geogirl | September 26th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Yowza!! Those are some gorgeous stairs!!
24. kerewin | September 27th, 2006 at 1:19 am
Those stairs are just gorgeous!
Hmph! I thought you were one of those people who kept their cool old house looking, um, like it was. Now I might have to finish scraping those 14 layers of paint off that doorway between my kitchen and living room!
25. sweetney | September 27th, 2006 at 11:28 am
that AFTER picture is stunning.
and your animal spirit guide must’ve been guiding you away from attending the conference then, right? perhaps your animal spirit is shy?
26. Lou | September 28th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Those stairs are BEAUTIFUL! lucky you!
27. CrankMama | September 28th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Those stairs are gorgeous.. no juices of any kind.
28. Psychobabble | October 1st, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Spot the Wonder Dog just made me throw up a little.
Those were some beautiful floors under there!
29. kirsty | October 4th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
No one who has pulled up carpet and seen what is UNDER it will ever have carpet again as long as they live!!
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