Frog and Goat

About a month ago we decided to tear out the walls in our basement. It is a damp and musty place. And, lo and behold, the basement has been drier ever since we ripped out the paneling and the wallboard. I know it hasn’t rained much but it hardly oozed a drop during the hurricane. I’d say that’s progress.

We’re going to either put a sealer on ourselves or contract someone to do it. I think we’re leaning to contracting someone since we want longer than the 5-year guarantee that we found on the sealer can. I’m not sure what a contractor will want to do but I’m really interested in actually using that space down there. It isn’t well heated and there isn’t any air conditioning down there so our work is cut out for us. The only thing we use it for is the litter box (actually the cats use it for that purpose), exercising and we play the occasional game of pool.

Anyway, you didn’t want to hear me ramble on about what might be. You want pictures of destruction. I’ve got them for you. The first picture is of the nasty drop ceiling that half of the basement had (truly the dropped ceiling stopped half-way across the span of the basement). The better-half hated it and it came down pretty easily. Oh, you can see the swinging paneling in this shot too.

The next picture is a shot of how nasty the walls were behind the paneling. That thing standing up is a crappy electric heater.

I used the shop vac down there last week and sucked some of the efflorescence off the walls. It doesn’t look nearly as bad as the picture now that it has dried out and that stuff is off the walls.

The interesting thing about ripping out the walls and ceiling was that we finally got the answer to our suspicion that part of the basement was once another room. We have an extra door in our garage and it is painted the same color as some of the old trim in the basement. But, the puzzler is why the room was never finished and why it was ripped out before we bought the house.

Did I ever mention that the guy living in our house before we bought it (from his brother) only lived in the basement? He only went upstairs to use the bathroom and the coffee pot. I lie not.

As promised I’m finally posting samples of some of the ugliest wallpaper ever. These are actual pieces of wallpaper that we tore off the walls in our house. When I tell you our house was completed in 1973, are you surprised?

From the Foyer and Dining Room
Our Crackhead Kitchen
The Master Bath
What were they thinking?

The yellow bathroom is on its way to needing a new name. Yesterday I put the first coat of Hi-Gloss Exterior enamel on the tile and it looks pretty darn good. We haven’t decided on an accent color yet so the top row of tiles looks a little crummy next to the shiny “new” tile.

The House Proud section of the website is now up and we haven’t figured out how to have all entries go there instead of showing up on the main page. We’ll get there but until then you can read about all things renovation in both places.

What should you do on a windy day, in theory? That’s right get some polyurethane down on wood you stained and paint the tile in your bathroom. Because if it is windy outside that means you can open windows and get good drying breezes. Too bad you have a headache and the smell from the polyurethane and paint is driving you nuts.

Just call me “whimper and whine”.