Construction or Destruction?

When we built our house, we chose flooring based on the fact that we have three boys and a dog. Almost one third of the flooring in our home is tile. The other parts are carpet. I have grown to loathe carpet over the last 12 years! The family room carpet is the worst. But that is probably due to it being the most used room in the house. I have wanted to rip it out for years. Most of you may remember that it is what started the whole basement/theater thing. I love what came of it but I still had gross carpet in the family room.

We have been slowly emptying the family room of it's contents. A few months ago we sold our big sectional couch to some friends that just finished building their cabin. We gave our big screen TV to Jim's parents. We have also sold other furniture pieces on KSL.com to some of the most random people I have ever met. We were down to the boys little video game TV, a few miscellaneous chairs and the dog bed.

Then, Jim had a five day weekend. July 4th fell on a Sunday this year so he got Friday and Monday off. One morning that weekend he woke up and said, "Let's rip up the family room carpet." I was confused, bewildered, dazed and above all, ecstatic! The boys love destruction days. They had fun removing the baseboard, pulling up the carpet and ripping up the tack strip out of the cement foundation. It was noisy and dusty. There were a couple times I had to step in and help them work together without fighting, but in a couple hours the family was carpet free! Jim helped them rip out the little platform we had in the corner that the TV was on. I wish I had thought to get a before picture. I'm sure if I dug around the millions of pictures we have I could find a good family room picture but I'm too lazy. I did, however, get pictures of them taking the rock off the wall around the fireplace:

Kyle helped Jim with that part of the demolition. They removed the mantle and covered the glass over the fireplace.

When that was done, Josh and Kyle loaded the rock into the trailer that also held the old carpet. Then they tackled the drywall. One of these days it will all go to the dump.

The dust has settled. The room was swept and vacuumed. The tools that will be used later are neatly stacked in the corner ready for the building back up of this well used room. It has been a little hard for the boys lately. The only place to play Xbox and Wii is down in the theater and that room is mostly off limits. The only place to watch TV is in our bedroom and it is DEFINITELY NOT the family room. But Jim has already drawn up plans for built in book cases that he will build on both sides of the fireplace. There will be a new layout to the room that we both agree on. We'd like to replace the french doors that are on the back of the house. Most of the decisions will impact Kyle's room because it is on the same level as the family room. But as much as we agree on everything else, we are still debating on what type of flooring to put down.

I am voting strongly against carpet!