Stairway to Heaven

Chicago and carpet do not go well together. Six months out of the year we are wearing snow boots; 2 or 3 months out of the year we are wearing rain boots. Boots plus carpeting DOES NOT equal clean. So imagine our disdain when we looked at our stairway, not to mention the, ahem...bright, yellow color.

It's hard to see in the pictures, but there was a lot of grime in this high-traffic area. Even though the previous owners were diligent about removing their shoes before going upstairs and even though we rented two carpet cleaners and shampooed the entire upstairs, we knew the carpet just had to go.

After lining up a few estimates, I decided to go with a contractor recommended to me by our previous owners. He was AMAZING. Two hours after I called him, he came out (on a Friday afternoon, no less) and provided an estimate. He started at 9am the next morning and worked until 9pm at night, finishing in one day! Because we loved working with him we were very tempted to put wood throughout the entire second floor, but we decided to reign in the intensity for now.

After moving in all the funiture, we also had painters come in (another great price negotiated - thank you Recession) and coated the walls with a less intense shade of yellow. Because the existing color was so dark, I used the new Behr primer/paint-in-one product in a shade called "Pale Honey". We are very happy with the results.