Ok, the carpet in the lounge and hall to the laundry is driving me nuts. It is so stained, crusty and just blah. It was not too bad when we moved in, it was oldish, vacuumed but you could tell never steam cleaned. Well in about 6 months it is just so foul now with 2 kids and dog, I was keeping up with cleaning the stains, but at some stage they just got out of control, I don't even now how and when most of them happened. They just appeared overnight, like they had been hiding away waiting for the right moment.

So here is the problem. We have decided to rebuild, so any work we do on the house is only to keep it functional, but this carpet is driving me nuts. We were origanally going to reno and have polished boards put in with underfloor insulation. Here are our choices:

  • We could rip up the carpet and see how the floor boards are, but then we would have draft issues unless we got under put in insulation ourselves (not cheap and a hassle).
  • Rip up the carpet and put down vinyl. I know not nice in a lounge, but it would keep me sane, especially if I put down a nice rug with a pattern to hide any stains. We will be putting vinyl in the hall to the laundry as it seems to be a mud magnet, the plastic carpet protectors left by the previous owners should have been a warning to that.
  • Clean the carpet and get 2 large patterned rugs to cover up any stains that don't come out.