Sunken Living Carpet

Got a wild hair and decided to tear out the carpet in the sunken part of the living room. I'd sold the dumpy couch I had down there this weekend. Realized I don't like the divided look it creates, and never used it. Once it was gone I decided to go ahead and pull the carpet out. Part of the reason is that I need to determine if there are any water issues with that lower part before putting anything else back in there, so better to live with it out for a while to find out.

Here it is with the carpet pulled out.

The nails that were holding the carpet edging in were in the concrete pretty good. Pulling them out made a little bit of a mess of the concrete. Nothing serious, just some cosmetic issues. I was surprised to find the concrete painted down there. I wonder if that was the original look or not.

Here it is cleaned up a little with some temporary furniture in place to make it usable.

It does appear that the moisture is wicking through the masonry at the base of the fireplace. I've sealed the top of the chimney, but I think that the masonry goes all the way to the ground on the back of the house is allowing the water to soak up a little. It's not a significant amount, not enough to feel wet, but it's clear the carpet tacking against the fireplace had been damp, as some of the nails had rusted.

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Basement Painting

We're set to close on the 15th of October, so I'm getting a little braver with my fixes and updates. I realize I want a little experience with the new airless sprayers before I tackle painting the exterior of the house. I also know that once I pull down the ceiling tiles in the basement, I'll want something to make it look decent while I'm working on the wiring and rearranging the upstairs. I thought I'd do a dark paint on the exposed wood. I'd seen pictures of that done in basements before and liked the look. The basements in this house are about 8" tall, a little lower than that when duct work or plumbing is a factor, so while not low, it can't hurt to have a dark look to improve the height of the ceiling. So, I figured I'd start by painting the ceiling in the unfinished part of the basement. Here are some before pictures: The paint I used was the same dark flat Olive Green I'd used on the lighting plate in the bathroom. It...

Basement Bathroom Progress

Just for reference, here is the original, claustrophobic, non-code-compliant basement bathroom. And here is progress on the much larger bathroom, even though to overall footprint is the same size. The shower has been expanded to fill the entire width, and the ceiling raised in the shower area. The original was a generic shower stall, and was very dark and cramped. This will be much brighter and while the dimensions are small, won't feel nearly as cramped.

Nice Kitchen Ya Got There

Was in a tech seminar all weekend so I wasn't able to work on the house. I think I overcompensated a little this Monday after work. All torn up. I can't work to remove that vent pipe until I have enough time this weekend to deal with any potential roof leaks, so it will stay there for a few days. I really needed to know what was behind the cabinets, and for some reason I lost the hot water to the sink when I pulled the old line. I'm betting some junk came loose can got up into the valve there. So, I decided to kill a few birds with one stone. Tear the old cabinets out, verify the state of the plumbing, put the cabinets in an arrangement matching the current layout plan, live with that for a little while to see if it's the layout that I want to stick with. Here is the result with all of the cabinets in place Based on initial evaluation, I think this layout really works. This shrinks the kitchen slightly, but it feels more usab...

Normandy Park Restoration

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