Dare I say "progress"?

All four walls are painted. I spent half an hour or so clearing the floor of everything that had washed up against the east wall over the past several months. My plan was to come home and start ripping up the carpet. Both Mellow and a brother in my ward cautioned me to be careful pulling up the tack strips, because apparently it's easy to crack the concrete or tear chunks out of it.

So I spent the evening perusing my copy of Renovating Woman, which I bought maybe a dozen years ago and have been lugging along from one temporary home to another until now. And which does not address the topic of carpet, except as a covering for squeaky floorboards that must be gotten out of the way in order to fix same. I also grabbed one of the home carpentry books which has survived the purge, to no avail. While not immediately helpful, both books stay.

I got more specific, immediately useful, information from YouTube videos. In which I saw just how easy it will be for me to float a vinyl plank floor without asking for help, except maybe in getting up from the floor. And that I will want to install the new baseboards first. I wonder if I have a nail gun out in that kluge of a garage? And I wonder where the miter box has gotten to? And the hand saw? I know where the clamps are for the miter box: in the small pile of miscellaneous articles on the cusp of dining room and entryway.

So my grand plans of getting the new floor in over Thanksgiving weekend might have been excessively optimistic. But I'm reasonably sure that I can make visible progress. I had hoped to have the carpet and padding ripped up and tied into small, manageable rolls to go out on the curb this morning. I know where the kitchen twine is, when I'm ready.

In knitting news, I started the heel flap on the second baby sock yesterday. And I am now ready to turn the heel, once I get to the office. I will probably finish at Knit Night. I might even be able to pop them in the mail on the way home.

And now I'm wondering if I should use that nice expanse of uncluttered carpet to block Knit Swirl before I get busy with the utility knife? Maybe that was what held me back last night?