Carpet cleaning capers.

When I worked for the window company we sold a lot to Japan and one of the oddest things I had ever seen was the use of knotty pine plywood for the walls as a finished product  , they called it the western look ? We also had a British neighbour who painted ( artist ) and the whole downstairs floor of there house was painted to resemble a cloudy sky ...........kinda freaky at first but wth time it was actually very nice . Distress it or paint lines to make it look like  plank hardwood flooring ? a sealer and a shellac coating and I bet t would be hard to tell the difference .......just a thought ?

I have been gradually ripping out old carpet and replacing it.

I have horror stories.

Like the indoor/outdoor carpeting GLUED to the basement floor, with another layer of carpet installed over top.

Or, in the living room, when they installed the newer, thicker carpeting at some point, rather than simply raising the baseboards up (and disturbing the paint lines?), they CUT THE BOTTOM OF THE BASEBOARD OFF. So on top of the expense and work of laying new laminate, I also had to buy, stain and varnish and install all-new baseboards for that room.

The baby's room is the most recent carpet replacement. There, we discovered that rather than ripping out the old carpet, they just laid the new carpet ON TOP. TWO layers of carpet. Why???

I suspect the other two bedrooms are the same - two layers of carpet.

I like carpet in bedrooms, but not anywhere else.

that's interesting PD.  I don't know if I'd enjoy a mural type effect (our house is seriously busy with boxes still stacked up from moving here  -  step by step) but could possibly manage something else that had a creative flair to it  -  I had thought a stain with layers of polyurethane.  It could always have something laid over the top later.  I am pretty open to many things so long as they are done well.  

I don't have an aversion to carpet per-say, just wouldn't suit downstairs traffic but upstairs there are two bedrooms and carpet works well there and acts as sound barrier on our rustic flooring. Like you Authentic, carpet in bedrooms works well. Yup, you do have some curious carpeting stories. What are people thinking when they lay things over the top like that? just makes more work later.

The cabin at the ranch had plywood floors, stained and treated in something that didn't have a high gloss. I didn't mind it at all and then you could put whatever you wanted over it when you were ready. I will see if I can find pictures of it.
I have to say I would much prefer it to what you have Magdelan.....sorry.   

We have neighbours with plywood floors - I think it looks really good - stained with something not too high gloss.

One of the old log cabins locally was lined with insulation and then plywood, the plywood had a pattern on it - they must have had some sort of stencil that put the pattern on the wall. I didn't think it looked too bad - quite wallpaper-ish in a nice way.

When we moved into this house many of the rooms were bare, unfinished plywood. We spent days tearing out carpet here and hauled trailer loads of heavy carpet to the landfill. The carpet had an unexpected location as it had been removed from the house and spread over part of the garden. Soil was spread over the carpet and strawberries planted in the soil. Our mistake was that we tried to clean that carpet with a rototiller rather than a carpet cleaner. The weeds grew well: the strawberries did not. We are still having trouble getting that area to be productive.

In the house we put down laminate and vinyl tile in the bathroom. The vinyl tile was not waterproof which coupled with some plumbing troubles allowed the floor to rot. We now have tile in the bathroom and plan to replace the laminate with wood planks in time.

I know an artsy gal who put medium density fibreboard on her floors. Routed shallow grooved lines in it. Painted the grooved lines. Stained. Sealed. It looks like cork tile. Just like tile. I was blown away!

Cooper, lets all laugh at the carpet and weep at the same time together!  I cannot be offended so no need to apologize   .  Heda I was thinking that if we put ply down we'd do a layer of styrofoam first for insulation (although think it is already insulated, more is better methinks)  -  and low gloss too.  Uno, I like the sound of your artsy friends way of making a nice floor. Sounds like what Prairiedog was talking about.

Rosewood that sounds like a frustrating journey you are having with that "carpet surprise".  I would be annoyed that the previous owners didn't tell me about that carpet, guess there are problems that come with buying property that is not untouched before.  This is our first place here. House needs work for sure - it's cosy but there are a few things need tending. Flooring is big on the list. Before the winter is out we will see me with the pickle jar and suds, on my hands and knees and cussing for days while I fix the state of it with out a doubt - temporary fix but needs must until funds make themselves apparent.

I don't think we'd be safe with laminate.  We are just too tough on things, I expect we'd have a rotten floor fairly quickly too.  I spill water all the time. I am a treat it mean keep it keen sort of gal when it comes to things like this. It has to be practical all the way, function before beauty. Oo. shame again smites me close to the quick. just realised this is hijack of monumental proportions.   for goodness sakes.  And it is Uno's post, with mafia religeon and all. it is just as well I'm not a goofy young man who seems to be clueless to his predicament