That was intense, but it's done!

The guys finished putting down the vinyl and trim (baseboards in three bedrooms, shoe moulding throughout most of the house) at 5 PM Friday afternoon. The stairs were prepped Friday morning, and carpeted Sunday morning. 

I'd rather have nice oak stairs and a stair runner than outdated-looking
carpet on the stringers, but these stairs are in too bad shape to do that.

I think they must have had to use up their entire supply of floor screws, screwing down the subfloor and stairs as much as possible. The fellow who did the stairs even put construction-type glue between the treads and risers.

 

They all did their best, IMO, to lessen the squeaks. A few were simple and easily remedied, most not--just a function of poor construction when the unit was built. I appreciated that they tried, though. (And it was what I was paying for too!)

I had taken Friday off as a "vacation" day, which I desperately needed, as it took me all afternoon and into the evening to get the downstairs mostly back to rights, along with the upper hallway and my bedroom.

I did more cleaning Saturday afternoon, and again for a good chunk of Sunday.

By 1:45 PM yesterday (Sunday), I packed it in and cabbed it to our nearest grocery store for a few things, #1 on the list being a bottle of white wine. I figure anyone who survives a week like that deserves a glass...or three...of their favourite drink, alcoholic or non.

 

I was so exhausted last night that I had my light off at 7:16 PM and didn't get up (except once) until almost 6 AM. And then only because I had to get up. I feel like I could use a couple of days to do nothing but sleep. 

I've still got some cleaning to do, and the office only is half arranged; ditto for the spare room. I have more stuff for donation and will arrange a pick up soon.

Above: Figuring I might as well go for broke, I ordered these dining chairs from Wayfair a few days ago. I'd been wanting to get rid of my hard wooden ones for a long time, so splurged. I consider it all part of the reno budget. LOL. 

They actually were delivered this morning, a number of days in advance of the expected date. Always nice when that happens! I put them together over lunch and they look good. (BTW, until today, I've never had any flat pack furniture come with white gloves included, presumably to spare one's hands from getting dirty while putting on the legs.)

So it's done. It's been a whirlwind of chaos and cleaning and sheer hard work, and while I'm pleased with the outcome, I hope to never need another large reno again. (There is upstairs painting left to do, but that won't be this year, and it's not "big" in the same sense.)

I'll leave you with this gorgeous girl, whose name I have forgotten. I popped into HomeSense after my acupuncture appointment on Saturday and came across her with her humans; she was chilling on the floor. She quickly got up to say hi, and also quickly garnered an admiring audience of several humans, all of us wanting to snap pics. 

She did start to howl (just a few times), perhaps to let us know how delighted she was at the attention.

 

 

 

Take care, everyone!