{"id":4916,"date":"2016-04-03T04:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=4916"},"modified":"2016-04-09T14:17:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T21:17:52","slug":"hiding-under-my-carpet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/home\/hiding-under-my-carpet\/","title":{"rendered":"What Was Hiding under My Carpet."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"by<\/a>

photo by Matthew Lupoli<\/p><\/div>\n

I noticed the spot more than a year ago. A soft area near the bathroom door. It was most obvious when I was barefoot, the floor a little lower, a little softer.<\/p>\n

Still, everything was fine on the surface. So I put it out of my mind. I had other things to think about.<\/p>\n

Not totally out of my mind, of course. Every so often I’d step on the soft spot, and for a second or two I’d entertain the thought of doing something about it. But the soft spot wasn’t hurting anything, was it?<\/p>\n

Attempting to keep a house in perfect running order is akin to trying to maintain perfect health. Only hypochondriacs think it’s possible to avoid every pain and pimple and gurgle in the stomach.<\/p>\n

(Is there a word for a hypochondriac of the perfectly maintained house?)<\/p>\n

The time comes, however, when you have to look under the rug and face the problem.<\/p>\n

For me, it was a couple of events.<\/p>\n

#1. My asthma medicine wasn’t doing the trick. My doctor strongly advised that I should get rid of my carpet and the dust mites that lived therein.<\/p>\n

#2. The soft spot under the carpet started getting more noticeable.<\/p>\n

So … I called the contractor who remodeled my kitchen. And on the Thursday before Easter, they showed up, ready to work.<\/p>\n

\"garage\"<\/a>

the garage<\/p><\/div>\n

First they pried off some of the baseboards and moved my furniture into the living room and garage. Then they tore up the carpet and the carpet pad, and we had our first look at the problem below.<\/p>\n

\"floor<\/a>It turned out, I had a double problem. Some time in the past there must have been water damage near the bathroom door. The result: de-laminated plywood.<\/p>\n

\"floor<\/a>The second problem had something to do with the furnace exhaust spewing warm, moist air someplace it didn’t belong.<\/p>\n

The contractor promised to fix it. In the meantime, I moved downstairs to sleep in the guest room.<\/p>\n

Although some problems can be ignored, it turned out that this was not one of them. When the work is all done, I’m sure I’m going to be glad we ripped off the carpet and exposed an ugly problem that needed to be fixed. \"my<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noticed the spot more than a year ago. A soft area near the bathroom door. It was most obvious when I was barefoot, the floor a little lower, a little softer. Still, everything was fine on the surface. So I put it out of my mind. I had other things to think about. Not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[156,1040,1168],"tags":[1207,1209,1206,1204,1205,1203,1210,1208],"class_list":["post-4916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-life","category-remodeling","tag-asthma","tag-carpet-removal","tag-dust-mites-in-carpets","tag-hardwood-floors","tag-hidden-problems","tag-home-improvement","tag-remodeling","tag-water-damage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-1hi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4968,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/home\/you-could-always-remodel\/","url_meta":{"origin":4916,"position":0},"title":"You Could Always Remodel.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"April 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0My younger sister was the one who liked to play house. She spent hours inside the playhouse our dad built for us, decorating and redecorating and having tea parties with her dolls. I preferred reading, drawing, painting, and bike riding. 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