Indoor Mountain Climbing and Past/Possible Future Painted Carpeting

My love|hate relationship with Pinterest continues! I encountered a "pin" regarding yet another DIY project.

Let me back up a bit...the stairs to our family room (and more importantly the path to My Fiber Bubble) were, long ago, decreed to be, by daughter Amy, "the stairs of death". She hates them, my husband hates them, no one really likes them. I wasn't bothered by them but then, again in the words of daughter Amy, I have "freakishly small feet". So the fact that the carpet layer installed big-fat-foam-padding making each step very short and SQUISHY. Let's just say people-in-the-know have years of experience putting the hand rail to good use!

Back to Pinterest... I read a DIY on how to spruce up previously carpeted stairs. So...with ample enthusiasm and a head filled with "know-how" I began this "do-it-myself" endeavor! I started ripping up the carpet. Something NOT mentioned in the tutorial but understood by this "quick learner" was where to actually START pulling up a continuous piece of carpet.

Note to self: always start at the TOP! Regretfully, I began at the bottom. (A novice and doltish decision). I ended up "spelunking' up the now flat and steeply angled carpet. I found myself wishing for a pickax and a repelling gear! And thanking whoever the contractor was who installed the 'strong-enough-to-hold-all-my-weight' hand rail!

Had my sister been here to help me this would have ended up being a what we call "another Lucy and Ethel moment". Since I was alone...I will claim this as my "Lucy moment".

I eventually made it to the top of this indoor "Mount Kilimanjaro" and removed all the carpet and 2 inch padding. Imagine my dismay to discover that UNDER the layers of indestructible carpet and fatty foam that the original layer of carpet remained! Seriously carpet dude!...Really?!?  I didn't know that there was yet another layer of carpet. Carpet that is GLUED down...

This wouldn't be SO bad but when I painted the stairwell years ago I knew that new carpeting was soon to be installed so...did I BOTHER with drop cloths? NO! Was I careful NOT to spill or splatter sunny yellow paint on the 'old' blue carpet? NO!!! So now my Pinterest project of a LITTLE pulling, puttying, painting, and varnishing has turned into a TIME SUCK VORTEX!!!! This may have to wait until AFTER the holidays. And for now...I'm sticking to cruising only CARD boards on Pinterest. No. More. DIY. Pins!

Wait...I wonder if there is a DIY project on Pinterest on PAINTING old carpet....????

Merry Wreathness
~Base card - red card stock Pure Poppy PaperTrey Ink
~Layer of white confetti card stock
~Silver card stock (actually re-purposed from a received-long-ago Christmas card) die cut and embossed using Spellbinder's Circle Scallop and Cuttlebug
~Green card stock cut using Taylored Expressions Seasonal Wreath for the base of the greenery
~Shades of green card punched using Martha Stewart Fern Branch punch
~Red rhinestones
~Fine silver glitter
~"Snow" on fern branches created with Marvy Liquid Applique
~Green satin bow (OLD stash item!)
~Merry die cut - using  My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas
Challenges | Inspirations
Freshly Made Sketch - sketch
City Crafter - wreath for this season
Clear it Out - theme: circles; stash: glittery/sparkly
Dazzling Diva - photo inspiration/snow


Thanks for clicking by.

Here's to never starting another Pinterest DIY project this close to the holidays, wondering if I should FOREVER stay away from Pinterest, and a fond farewell to "the stairs of death"!

Nancy in Iowa