Carpet trash

When we first moved into our house, I felt pretty excited about it. As a regular remote working person, I couldn't wait to have more room. Diana was pretty avidly quilting, and having a room big enough for that was awesome. And we had a ton of room for entertaining. We probably don't have people over enough, but when we do, it doesn't feel crowded. For the first time, I felt good about where I lived, like we could be there for a good while.

Nine years later, I'm frustrated with how cheap the builder, Pulte, was. We had to paint the exterior after just four years (looks good as new in the five years since). The primary shower started leaking after three years. We had to replace one of the HVAC systems at seven years, and that's after repairing it periodically since the start. I imagine the roof will be a problem next year.

But the daily reminder of the cheapness is the carpet. They didn't even have an option to upgrade it. So by the third year, it looked like a dozen people lived here for 20 years. It wrinkles up in every room, and no amount of vacuuming ever made it look fresh. It just looks and feels terrible. So as soon as I started working again, I wanted to pull the trigger to at least replace the carpet in the two downstairs rooms, my office and the front room. And I went with the thickest possible pad and the highest pile. If I'm gonna spend 40 hours a week in that room, it's gonna be the best. And when it's just two rooms, at least it's not the worst expense.

So tonight, everything is disturbed. We had to empty those two rooms. My office in particular is challenging because my desk weighs like 200 pounds (it's a large, L-shaped standing desk). That's also where the pinball machine is, a heavy ass file cabinet (full of stuff I need to toss) and my big chair and love seat. Like I said, I spend 40 hours in there, I want it to be comfortable. Everything is out now, and there's so much room for activities.

Tomorrow, it'll feel like new again.