Remember those painted outlets that matched the old wall color? You can buy a box of 3 prong white outlets from Home Depot for pretty cheap (less than $2 a piece). So the steps for this were actually less complicated than I initially would have thought. Step 1, turn off the electricity (Duh!). Step 2, there will be two wires attached to the two-prong outlets. Simply remove these wires and reattach them to the new 3-prong outlet. One will connect to a screw on the top and another on the screw on the bottom. Step 3, screw the oulet into the outlet box. Ta da! The 3-prong outlet will naturally ground itself (this is what the 3rd prong is for) since the outlet box is grounded into the wall.
This carpet looks clean, right? Not so much...We ripped out all the carpet in the hallway, bedrooms, and the den (aka a lot of carpet). This was INCREDIBLY helpful for removing the old smell from the house. The combination of painting the walls, cleaning out the vents, and removing old carpet has made a world of a difference.
One word from experience however, never rip out carpet unless you have a plan for what comes next. This may seem obvious...In our case, we were so anxious to remove the smells, that we got a little over eager. We have carpet installations planned for the 3 bedrooms and the den, but the hallway is still TBD. We are still deciding on whether to re-install carpet or go with some engineered hardwoods. Our preference is for hardwoods, we just need to finish some other projects/re-evaluate budgets, etc.
