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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Craigslist Find

I'm still using a lot of old Ikea Expedit stuff for storage. It works, and is flexible, but not fancy. Been on the lookout for something better. Ran across this on CL for only $300, and got them to deliver. Right now it's just staged in the open area of the basement. I should be able to finish the framing and drywall in the old theater, and I'll move these in there.

Paint

Had to get a coat of paint on before the rains hit. Not completely sold on the blue trim, may due a dark brown or grey there instead, but a huge improvement over what it was. Right now I only have one coat on, and haven't done the edging right, so it's a rough paint job, but it will tide the house over until I get a patch of good weather and can finish the job.

Siding Started

Man, this stuff takes a loooong time to stain, but the results look very nice. Here I've started the first round of siding. I will probably do this over the coming 2 weeks, staining some on one night, and installing is 1-2 days later. It seems to take about 24 hours for the stain to fully dry. Looks great though. Here is a better shot where I've stacked a few of the excess pieces on top so you can see more of what the wood will look like.

Normandy Park Restoration

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