maire cate, I'm sorry that I missed your question, as I was writing my reply when you asked. I think have most of it out. After the primal scream, I got water and towels right away and scrubbed as hard as I could quickly. That craft paint dries so quickly that I thought I was going to lose three great rugs. There may be a bit left in them, as it's still streaked on the wooden floors, but I hope that 99% of it is gone. Today I caught him chewing something in here and opened his mouth. It was the cap from the paint that he chewed up Sunday. I don't know where he had stashed it, but he can't get it any more.

If you are at all physically able to, tear up your carpeting yourself. It is easy and will save you money that can be put toward a better quality carpet, as much as $2/sf. You need some comfortable utility knives (Stanley's FatMax line has a soft rubber grip that's a dream to use) with a LOT of heavy-duty blades, comfy work gloves, a roll of heavy twine, a few big trash bags, pliers, an old flat-end screwdriver, and a hammer. If you can get a Shop-Vac somewhere so much the better, otherwise a broom and dustpan AND your regular vacuum. Eye protection is a must and I also strongly recommend dustmasks, the kind with one-way exhalation valves so you don't get a sweaty, glasses-fogging mess under the mask. (They're about $7 each and well worth it.) Assuming you don't have beautiful hardwood underneath that carpeting, use a pair of pliers to yank the carpet off the tack strips along one wall, then every 3 feet cut a line with the utility knife to form a strip going all the way to the other side of the room. Roll it up tightly, tie it with twine, and set it aside. Continue with the next strip until you're all done. If you do have hardwood under there, have one person peel back the carpet and another do all the cutting from the back in midair so as not to risk the blade damaging the floor even further. We found 3 feet to be the most manageable size to deal with for lifting and carrying. Now you're down to padding, which is usually stuck to the floor with 237 million staples. So, just rip the padding up in hunks as best you can (thus the gloves) and throw it in the trash bag. (The padding under our carpet was basically shredded and there was so much sand underneath that we used a shovel!) Use the pliers to pull out the staples you can grab onto, use the screwdriver to pry up staples far enough to grab onto them. If you really cannot get a staple up, use the hammer to pound it into the subfloor until it is flat. If you can get your hands (or behind LOL) on a skateboard from a neighborhood kid or Freecycle, it is SO convenient to sit on to scoot around the room to get all those dang staples. Otherwise, scoot around on your bum on a piece of cardboard. Use the claw end of the hammer to pry up the tack strips and wrap those in one hunk of carpet to discard them in a trash bag. If you have a ShopVac, vacuum the floor; if you don't, sweep thoroughly with a broom before vacuuming the newly bare floor with a regular vacuum. If you are really unlucky, the padding was glued down to the floor rather than tacked. You'll need to scrape it off with wide-bladed putty knives/scrapers - you can get ones that are threaded for a broomstick to be screwed on so you can do this standing up - and dust masks are no longer optional. We drafted a friend to help and we were done taking out about 600sf of carpet between lunch and supper. While DH cut the carpet up into strips, our friend rolled and tied, and I followed behind (scooting on my bum LOL) pulling off padding and staples. If you have had pets in the past that had accidents in those rooms, you'll want to seal the subfloors in those areas with an odor-blocking primer like Kilz Odorless (which isn't by a longshot, open the windows because it is like taking the top of your head off and stirring your brains with a spoon). Flooring installers often rip you off big time to move furniture and more importantly are rarely careful doing so, so minimize the amount of furniture moving they must do. They'll also hit you up if they have to make extra trips - unless the rooms are very large or weirdly laid-out thus requiring complex cutting or piecing, they should be able to do two bedrooms and a hallway in one day. It's shocking how fast they can move when they want to get a job done! Try to get the installation scheduled for a Monday that you can take off from work, and try to call in whatever karma points/favors you may have accumulated to get as much help as you can. Since you say the kids are almost grown, if they're still living at home they ought to be helping if they are physically able. The week before the carpet is to be installed, box up all the books and small items, the clothes and stuff from the closets, etc. and put them in the living room, dining room, wherever you can stash it, along with any small furniture like nightstands, small tables, etc. Yes, your house will look like a disaster, just remember it's temporary. :-) Disassemble beds and any other furniture that can be taken apart and remove as much as you can. Early Saturday morning, move one room's remaining furniture into another room (furniture sliders and furniture lifting straps are miraculous inventions - can't tell you how many times we have used and lent out that "shoulder dolly" I linked, well worth the quite-small price), strip the carpet from that room, and do your ceiling paint. When buying the paint, consider the recoat time - some paints can be recoated in as little as 2 hours. Sunday morning, move both rooms' furniture into the newly carpet-less room and strip out the carpeting in the second room, then paint. Fit the hallway carpet removal in wherever there is time. :-) Monday morning the carpet installers can begin with that empty room and they will blow through the job quickly if there are no obstructions. Move all the furniture into the newly carpeted room so the second room and hallway can be carpeted, then return the second bedroom's furniture to its place, leaving it in the middle of the room. THEN do the touch-ups on the walls in both rooms and hallway - our flooring installers put all kinds of dings and nicks and grubby spots on our walls! When the touch-ups dry, then you can start reassembling the rooms. The kids may have to camp out on the floor in another room for a few days, or stay at friends' houses, but they will survive it. :-) I can't really help you on where to buy the carpet, since I used carpet tile I purchased online! I do know that the installers at the big box stores are subcontracted and can range from excellent to nightmarishly bad; personally I'd be inclined to go with a flooring-only store that had their own full-time installation crew, as I did when I had hardwoods installed at my last house.

Oldhousegal, I understand what you mean about getting more done! My DH was a GC & carpenter by trade. He was exhausted & often worked 18 hours a day, 7 a week. He had lots of house dreams, but everything was "good enough for now." I amost made a sign and put it over the door that said, "Welcome to the House of Good Enough For Now." I couldn't hire anyone because of $$, and of course, because he could always do it better, right-er, safer, cheaper. So NOTHING got done. But me being patient and understanding got me a kick in the bummy. I lived for 3 years with no plumbing. I still dream of finishing the tile in the MBR and putting in a shower in the front/guest bath. Just this last summer I've been paying someone by the hour & beer to put electricity in. I have only 2 rooms to go and it's done, but with everything I've done, I've had to re-do a major part of what was done. The electrician had to check EVERY wire DH ran (that he never hooked into the fuse box) because they were loose, not grounded, or in 2 cases, hooked in, unmarked & scorched up the wall behind my storage boxes. I've had to have the plumbing redone in the crawl space and all the sinks he did put in (but didn't plumb into the system) leaked so I have mold and floor warping issues. The electrician killed the ants nests in the attic, removed the snake skins, & chased out the racoons. (I miss the snakes, but they still come up thru the holes in the floor.) The siding man, bless him, screened the vents in the attic so the birds don't come in and thru the pot light holes in the ceiling. Cats go nuts. The roof had no drip edge, so when he enclosed the soffits 2 years ago, the water tension ran rain under and into the front house walls. He had to remove 4 courses of shingles, put the drip edging on and replace the shingles. If you name something in this house done, and to date, there isn't a single thing that is COMepletely done, I will tell you what had to be REdone due to "good enough for now." Even my floors, which are beautiful, need 3 boards in the closet and aren't nailed in place in 2 rooms. I think it was a completion phobia. Not only in his own home, but with every client I remember in 18 years. So I am doing it alone & often feel I'm fighting the tide. DH has cost me so much heartache, but he's cost me $1000s in re-do-dollars. If he'd have done NOTHING, it would have cost me less. I'm sorry. I really seem to be letting off steam this last day. Sprayer: I don't, but I don't mind the painting. It gives me the opportunity to patch holes or damages I didn't see. I am in love with this STIX primer and Cabinet Coat. The whiskey bottles I laughed at. Those were DH's. I sent those with him when he bailed. Don't miss them or him. I'm a single wino, myself. :) I wish you all were closer just for advice & encouragement. No one even needs to help!! Just talk to me while I'm working. I'll trade yoga for someone making me laugh. Sound like a deal?

This weekend I moved several of them down here in hot Oklahoma along with volunteers of little bluestem, sideaoats grama & blue grama . I've done this three times now because I'm massing in areas and need grass plugs. The small plants move very easily. Water first. Then carefully dig the plant keeping some soil intact around the roots, the roots are not real deep, only about 3 inches or so and you want a little root ball with soil. Then, replant and water well. I never trim back foliage on blue fescue, just the seed heads when they dry which I pull out rather than cut. Blue fescue goes dormant & resents too much water in summer so don't over do it.