We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends

When Dear Husband and I purchased our house eight years ago, we knew we would have to replace the carpet before we sold it again. It came with a dated, bluish-gray diamond pattern in the front room and hallway, thin brown shag in the two corner bedrooms, and a thin, dirty blue carpet in the middle bedroom that had been the dog's room. We pulled up the blue carpet ourselves and installed a locking hardwood floor for my study and left the rest. This was just as well, because our dearly departed cat Erasmus had a bad habit of retching his orange-colored food (always on the carpet, never on the hard floor). Well, now that we're preparing to sell and move, we went ahead and got the carpet replaced in the front room, hallway, and master bedroom. The carpet place doesn't want to take the responsibility of moving a grand piano, so we had to leave the music room as is.

Very kind friends P.S., B.B., and R.W. helped us pack up and move all the "belongings" from the furniture: the china in the cabinet; the DVDs, VHS tapes, and records; the TV and lamps; the drawers out of the bureaus; and no fewer than 25 books from our bedroom (natch).

Although our realtor had recommended a variegated shag named "Snow Peak" that we thought looked like "wild rice mix" and my mother proclaimed "dirty snow," we opted for a soft, solid shag called "Tassel." It's the middle of three tans that the carpet shop owner dubbed "renting" (darkest), "selling," and "owning" (lightest). We love it--and the new pad underneath--and wish we could have done this sooner.

It hasn't been without its aggravations, however, as it took Dear Husband half an hour to fix the furniture after the subcontracted carpet layers had finished; they forgot to cut the vent in the bedroom (left); and we are still in negotiations with them about putting down the loose threshold from the hallway into the study.