Free carpet

In our quest for greater knowledge of what furniture is in a display home scheduled to be shut down, we headed out to Aspect in Greenvale one sunny Saturday morning.

It’s a display village that has recently been shut down and the residents are moving into their new houses. However, this is the only Somerville Porter Davis currently has on display and so have extended their lease with the owners until the end of the year.

After spending quite a bit of time at the house taking lots of photos and with Daves free coffee in hand, we headed out to the car.

On the side of the road was a (very) large pile of folded carpet, ‘FREE 6m x 7m’, the sign read…. It had obviously come out of the neighbouring ex-display home when the house was converted back from a sales office into a standard garage.

Now, Dave and I have had carpet in our garage before, our Porsche use to be put to bed on Royal Blue carpet. (Something that was bought for a one-off event at the Hilton and then repurposed) so we know how lovely it can be having carpet it the garage.

‘Do you want it”? I asked Dave, He eyed the carpet, then me, then the carpet again… ‘maybe’.

I walked over to the substantial pile of carpet and gave it a tug to pull it over to the car – it didnt budge… and was slightly damp.

“Back the car up hun” I yelled out, “and give us a hand loading it in the back”

Well, the carpet was more then a little damp – it was wet. If people had been watching us trying to man handle this poorly folded, 6m x 7m huge pile of carpet into the boot and back seat of my jeep, they would have cracked a rib laughting at us. In true hillbilly fashion, I was on a mission, we tugged and pushed and heaved the carpet.  It had been folded and the folds were slightly wider than the boot opening. I think that we made for some great, free entertainment to all the new residents, watching some mad couple try and manhandle a roll of carpet into their car.

But we did it, we got the boot shut and collapsed into the front seat. “Does it smell to you”?
“Ummm a bit”

I’m not sure how long it had been sitting outside, but at some point it had rained.

Thinking that if it was crap and the whole thing was a mistake, we could just leave it outside our house, with the same sign on it for some other naive bastard to load into their car and drive away with. With this thought in mind, we tosted the FREE 6m x 7m sign in the back as well – waste not, want not.

Whether out of selected forgetfulness or sheer laziness, we didn’t pull it out of the car when we got home. Instead, the next day when needing to go out in the car, I was knocked backwards by the smell of wet sheep when I opened the car door. Oh, shit the carpet.

Getting it out was a lot easier than getting it in, gravity helped a lot.

I pulled the car out on to the road and unfolded the carpet on the driveway, across the garden bed, up over the side wall and left if flapping on the laneway wall. Basking in the lovely hot sun.

Surprisingly when it was unfolded, only a very small part was wet (and slightly green) but that seems to be a part outside the 6m x 7m main area, it must have gone between the garage and the main house and the way it was folded, that part was on the bottom and had been the part to get wet as it sat outside.

The rest was all clean and looked in great condition! It just needed some fresh air and to dry out completely. Having been in a sales office, it was hardly worn and looked mint. I was stoked. The only downside was two small round holes in the centre, I assume these were for power points under desks. No matter, I can patch them up with the offcuts.

That afternoon was Easter Sunday and we had organised a BBQ at our place with all of the surrounding neighbours.

As we stood out on the 2nd story balcony the conversation turned to the carpet.

Realising all the potential manpower I had at my disposal, I rallied up 6-7 guys and asked them to help me roll it up for storage.

Our next door neighbour got out his leaf blower and cleared the debris from on top of it, then proceeded to leaf blower the road, pushing out all the leaf litter, the 7 of us all grabed one side and draged it out in to the center of the street, a nice big surface we could roll it on. These are the perks of living in a quiet street – we are not hampered by cars driving past much.

After a few false starts and much cheering and verbal encouragement by the ladies on the balcony, watching the spectacle with cocktails in hand, we managed to roll up our new dark blue/charcoal carpet into a tidy 6m long roll, taped up tight and looking like a centipede, we walked it into the garage, ready for when the new house is built and it can be cut and laid in place.

I gave a few people a lot of laughs and I got some free carpet!