Going out and coming in!

For those of you who don't know, we retained the services of a guy who holds estate auctions (known here as Auction Guy) to dispose of the stuff that dad left behind in the house. In order to make things easier for him, we moved everything into the living room. The following two pictures show (almost) everything that we wanted to get rid of -- please bear in mind that there was more furniture, books, and about twenty years worth of collectible tins downstairs that we also needed to dispose of.




This is what the living room looked like after Auction Guy took away most of our stuff -- I really like Auction Guy (Note: In the interest of fair reportting, he didn't take everything, I moved a good amount of stuff into our attic, but he took most of it!).





Once Auction Guy had come and gone, it was time to call in the Carpet People (I call them that in honor of a book written by Terry Pratchett, an obscure reference that probably only Stephanie and my father will get). This is what the downstairs looked like before they came in.



I estimate that this carpet has to have been at least 40 years old. Photos can't really do it justice. In order to get the full experience, sweep all the dust in your house into a big pile. Shove your face into the pile and inhale deeply -- that's what the carpet was like.



So anyway, the Carpet People came and tore up the carpet, revealing the REALLY scary tiles underneath.



You may have noticed that there is a pillar in the center of the room. The carpet bulged strangely around the pillar, we didn't know why. Once the carpet was out of the way, we saw that the pillar looked like it had been shoved upwards about an inch above the rest of the floor. Since I now own this house, I try not to think about little details like this.



So, here's the downstairs with the new carpet. Yay new carpet!!!





We also got them to take up the carpetting in the bedroom and the living room/dining room area, revealing the virtually untouched oak floor underneath. Here's what the living room looks like:





Here's a photograph that Stephanie took of the bedroom, I saved it for last, because I really think this picture looks amazing. It doesn't quite look this good in real life, but its close.