Monday morning and two carpet fitters from Ray Randerson Carpets arrive to finish off the attic and fit the carpet in Cat’s old bedroom.
These two hadn’t seen the attic before and so were quite surprised by the scale of the challenge. They have to manoeuvre a roll of carpet 5m x 8m, unroll it somehow around the staircase balustrade and posts and work out exactly where to make the cuts in the carpet for all the posts going through the floor. An added complication is that the carpet we have chosen can only be cut (and invisibly joined back together) along the length, not the width, due to the pattern in the carpet. This makes them have to take 5 minutes to think about the best approach.
A roll of Cloud 9 Cirrus 9mm Thick Carpet Underlay ready to be fitted.
Our underlay is made of recycled materials and is supposed to be very soft and durable.
The (relatively) easy bit, fitting the rolls of underlay.
I have stressed to them that they are not allowed to put a single mark on this blue wall… They are being super careful!
Gripper rods are fitted around every detail in the floor and there are many details.
The cuts have to be down the length of the carpet so they have cut long strips (essentially) to fit around all the posts and details. Once the carpet is fitted you won’t be able to see the joins.
The carpet is a Manx Tomkinson ‘Designer Berber’ 100% wool carpet in Weave Dove. We had to wait several weeks for it to arrive as our chosen colour was the only one out of stock, but it was worth the wait.
There are over 20 cuts to make in the carpet, one of the guys said this is the most complicated carpet he has fitted and he has been fitting carpets for over 20 years! I apologised and explained about our challenging cottage…
A very tidy job. These guys do not cut corners (apart from these ones, of which they have had to cut a great deal).
So far not a single mark on the blue wall…
The carpet is being stretched and fitted.
Can you see the join?
On this side of the room the carpet is actually cut into long strips to run the length of the room behind the balustrade.
They had planned to get this finished in a day but that wasn’t to be! They will return tomorrow to finish.
Tragically, it looks like we have lost our old grape vine. We are gutted about this and had really hoped it would survive the winter. It should have leaves on it now but there is no sign of life. We will replace it with another vine, it loved this sunny location.
Tuesday morning and a skip is being delivered but there is a pile of boards in the way that didn’t get moved at the weekend. Luckily our good friend Charlotte was passing with the horses just at the right time and helped me shift them all out of the way. Thank you 🙂
We think this is skip number 11 but this is smaller than the others, a 4 yard skip (the others were all 8 yards). We still have quite a bit of rubbish around the house and garden, but we are also going to have a good clear out when we move back in.
Aquilegia in our back garden (camouflaging the piles of roof tiles), a sure sign that the cold weather is over.
Our Ceanothus (California Lilac) has just started to flower.
By Tuesday lunchtime the attic carpet was finished and looks utterly perfect. We are so pleased, it now feels like a finished room.
Last summer seems a long time ago now when torrential rain was pouring in through the tin scaffold roof and flooding this floor…
Not a single mark!
Now that the carpet is down, the attic cupboards can have the doors and skirting fitted, something Glynn will return to fit at a later date.
Finishing touches! 💕🏚➡️🏠💕
I can’t believe you chose that carpet instead of this one!
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/05/28/arts/27ain-moma-6/27ain-moma-6-superJumbo.jpg
Seriously, though, your carpet looks terrific!
Wow. Just wow.