help! I'm new at this... looking for advice.

Check the smoke, CO and LP gas detectors. Those age out and need to be replace but are often overlooked. Consider adding fire extinguishers. We have them in the back bedroom, behind the drivers seat and near the entrance door. We also put in redundancy by having a CO and smoke detector in the kitchen as well as the back bedroom.

Edit, if you do put the new carpet in covering it with throw rugs and/or the self adhesive plastic carpet protector makes life easier.