Carpet & other stuff

After talking with some friends and family that had recently purchased carpet we ended up going to Home Depot based on their experience. They have a $199 install fee and a wide selection to choose from. We knew we would be spending a lot of time on the floor, so we were strongly considering the polyester for the softer feel even though it would "shed" for the life of the carpet. Then we found a Shaw branded Nylon product called EverTouch R2X. Basically a Nylon carpet that doesn't shed, but it feels like a softer polyester. We were sold... and it was a rapid install selection as well, so we could have it installed quickly. We ordered it on Friday 12/5, a service came and measured on the 9th, and it was installed on the 18th. The color of the carpet is Sugar Cookie... how can you not love that?

The walls got a little scuffed in spots where the installers were un-rolling the carpet. They warned us that would happen. It really isn't that bad though.... all surface marks I can either wash or paint over. I ran around last night and marked the spots with tape so I can touch them up later.








We went with a waterfall install style on the stairway.

I pre-wired for surround sound speakers, and installed screw terminal wall plates for the speaker hook ups. I used the Leviton "quick port" system. Basically they have open ports in the wall plates and you purchase clip in features depending on what you want to do.

I installed a new Kiddie AC/DC smoke detector where the old smoke detector was in the room. It's hardwired and linked in with the rest of the system. When any one detector is activated, all the other detectors sound the alarm.

Paint & Lights

The painting is done save for some touch up spots. For the wall surfaces, we chose a neutral color "distant tan" PWL-83 from the Behr White & Light collection at Home Depot. I was very happy with the paint coverage over the Kilz primer as only one finish coat was required. I used an interior eggshell finish as it hides marks much better than a flat and isn't as "shiny" as a semi-gloss. I'm going to put a short crown molding on the ceiling interface in the front side of the room, so you can see in the pics below that I just rollered up to the ceiling and didn't bother with trim work.

The previous homeowner had left a can of Duron brand paint they used on the walls and ceilings in the rest of the house. I wanted to try and match that for the ceiling, so I painted a piece of scrap drywall and when I was at home-depot picking up the wall paint, asked them to match it. They tried to match it with an eggshell and failed miserably. I'll give them the credit that they didn't require that I purchase it. I asked them to try with a flat finish, and they got close enough that I almost couldn't see the difference. I ended up using this also for the stairwell. I've always been a fan of Behr paint and after this experience, I still am.

For the trim paint, the previous homeowner had left a can of that as well, but this one had a full label. Rather that take a gamble matching at home depot again, I looked up Duron and was suprised to see they had a store right in Lancaster. I stopped in over lunch with the info and they were able to look it up and mix up an exact match on the spot. Sticking with tradition, I'm using a semigloss finish.

Here's some pictures after cleanup....

The main room has 10 6" recessed fixtures and I have one 4" fixture at the bottom of the stairs. I decided to finish these out with a standard black baffle and white trim rings. The fixtures were Halo brand, but I used Commercial Electric brand baffles as they were a few dollars cheaper each. They installed fairly easily with two extension springs engaged in slots in the recessed housing. I put in 65Watt BR30 interior floodlights to replace the standard incandescent bulbs I put in for the rough in inspection. The floodlights are great because they have a softer light and don't buzz. The 4" fixture got a 45W R20 bulb.

Primer

Arrggh.. so I found the bad primer and the good primer for this project. I was at Lowes using up a gift card and bought 2 gallons of the Valspar premium primer to put on the drywall.

It was noted to be "tintable", but most of the other brands said that as well. Maybe that was my mistake, but anyhow.. 2 gallons later, it looked like I hadn't done anything. You might not believe it, but the right side actually has a coat of this stuff on it.

I gave up at that point and went back to the Kilz primer, which was the same cost and worked great. Easy application and good coverage.