The storm that came through the area today was supposed to result in about a foot of snow, but it turned out to be mostly rain with only a little snow. We thought we’d really lucked out with not having to plow the driveway until we went downstairs tonight around 6:00 and found our basement floor completely soaked. With the ground still mostly frozen, the water seemed to find it’s way into our basement with no problems. Here’s a photo of the soaked indoor/outdoor carpet:

We didn’t have a ton of stuff stored in the room, but we did have an old mattress and box springs and a bunch of cardboard that got kind of wet. After we moved it all out of the way, we realized just how wet the carpet was, so we made the decision to pull it up. The carpet was already pretty stained and we think it was responsible for the musty smell we noticed coming from the basement right after we moved in last fall.

The carpet was glued down pretty good, but we were able to get up most of the part that was wet. We aren’t entirely sure what’s under the carpet. There’s a good bit of glue and carpet backing still left on the surface underneath and it looks like there either are or were tiles there at one time. The glue definitely looks like there’s a tile pattern and we wouldn’t be surprised to find them in this room since we have them elsewhere in the basement, but we aren’t able to find any seams between the tiles or anything. In some places, it also looks like some self-leveling cement might have been used. So, we’re going to have a fun time figuring out how to clean this up … especially considering that installing more carpet probably isn’t a good choice now that we know that the basement takes water.

We turned a fan on and plugged the dehumidifier back in … and we tried to vacuum up as much as we could with the wet/dry vac and it was starting to dry out, but it’s still pretty moist. Hopefully we won’t get any more rain so it can dry up quickly.

When we took up the carpet, we did find something interesting, though. There’s a metal door in the middle of the floor. We knew we’d find something interesting there because we could hear a difference in the way it sounded when we walked on it, but we still aren’t sure what it’s for. Chad lifted the cover off of it and here’s what was underneath:

We aren’t sure what the hole was ever used for. It just looks all rusty now … and whatever it is, it must have been something that the previous owners knew they’d never need access too. Any thoughts on what this might be for? We think it might be the remains of a waste clean-out, but we’re not sure.

The painter finished up with the final coat in the master bathroom yesterday. Here’s a couple pictures of what it looks like now:

The main wall color is a Sherwin Williams color called Sand Dune. It’s the same color that’s in our guest room and living room and it’s also going in our bedroom. On the paint chip and in all the other rooms, it’s a nice tan color, but I keep thinking it looks pink in the bathroom. It must have something to do with all of the green tile it’s up against. I’m hoping it will take on a more tan-ish hue when we get the rest of the bathroom put back together and get towels and a shower curtain in there.

We had a discussion with the painter a couple of days ago about the type of paint to use in the bathroom. The paint that was in there before was a semi-gloss finish, which probably wasn’t a bad choice considering that there is no exhaust fan in the bathroom and the walls get really wet when someone uses the shower, but we didn’t really like the way it looked. We have plans to install an exhaust fan in the spring when there’s no more snow or ice on the roof, but we still wanted to make sure that our paint selection will hold up ok to moisture. For the new paint, we chose to go with a satin finish instead. We like the way it looks on the walls a lot better than the semi gloss and the painter said it should hold up fine to the moisture. About the only downside is that covering the semi-gloss paint with a satin meant that he needed to use an oil base primer, which has turned out to be a little aromatic.

Eventually, I’d also like to install a new light fixture in the bathroom since the current one is rusted and maybe change some of the hardware. I’m excited to give it a face lift without doing a full-scale remodeling project.

There was an article in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago about our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore location. That was the first we’d heard that there was anything like it in our area and we were excited to walk through the store/warehouse for the first time yesterday.

They had a really broad variety of stuff including lighting fixtures, cabinetry, hardware, etc. Some of the stuff was basically junk, but they also had some really beautiful solid wood doors and we were amazed by the selection of door knobs and cabinet hardware. Some of the items were brand new, donated by stores, and others had come out of homes as the result of remodeling. We came home empty handed, but that was mostly because we didn’t go looking for anything in particular. It’ll definitely be a great resource when we need to find things that match the original items in our house and it’ll also a good place to donate used building materials to when we start on remodeling projects in this house.

We’re excited to have a store like this in our area. It’ll be fun to see how their selection changes over time.

Our painter has made a ton of progress in the last couple of days. The final coat has been put on the family room and it’s completely done now with the exception of a couple of places that still need touching up. The color we chose called Nuthatch. It’s a Sherwin Williams paint and the painter selected a low-sheen eggshell finish since it wasn’t available in satin. Here’s what the room looks like now:

We were afraid the color would be a little dark, but I think it’s going to be ok with all the light coming in through the windows and doors.

The painter has also been working on the master suite. In the master bathroom, everything has been primed and he’s working on the final coat. The part above the trim is called Simplify Beige and the part below it will be a color called Sand Dune, which is just slightly darker. They’re also Sherwin Williams colors and they’re both a satin finish. The color on the wall is just a primer right now, so it’ll be a little darker when the final coat goes on, but here’s what it looks like so far:

The master bedroom is about half-way done. The trim is being painted a color called Modest White in a semi-gloss finish. The painter made sure to tell us that he’s using the Proclassic variety of paint on the baseboards since it will dry harder and hold up better. And the walls are being painted the same Sand Dune color as what’s in the bathroom. The final coat is done on both the trim and the walls in the first room, but he hasn’t started on the second half of the room yet. Here’s what it looks like so far:

The painter started in our sun room and master bedroom today. I was shocked by the amount of progress he made while we were at work. He got a coat of tinted primer on in the sun room. It’s such a huge improvement over the green! It’s only about a 75% tint, so the color will be darker when he puts the top coat on, but so far, we’re really liking it.

In the master bedroom and bathroom, he started priming the trim. It’s a little hard to see in the picture, but it’s looking a lot crisper than the yellow-y cream that was on the walls and trim before. I’m so glad we decided to paint the trim.

Since the trim was a semi-gloss finish and we had wallpaper on the sun room walls, he chose to prime both with an oil-based primer, which has made the house smell just a little, but so far it hasn’t been too bad. I’m really excited to see what everything is going to look like with the final colors!

Our painter stopped by yesterday and he’s ready to start painting our master bedroom suite and sun room tomorrow! He’s going to paint the trim in our master bedroom and bathroom the same shade of white as the rest of the house (it’s a more yellow-y shade now) and the walls are going to be the same tan-ish color that’s in our guest room. In the sun room, he’s going to paint the walls a darker shade of brown. I can’t wait to see what those rooms will look like with the new colors.

We spent today getting ready for the painting to start. We moved a bunch of furniture away from the walls, scrubbed them down a couple more times to try to get the excess wallpaper glue off, and took down some window treatments and other hardware. We also emptied out our bedroom closet and the linen closet in the bathroom. Our upstairs is a complete disaster now, but it will be worth it when the painting is all done at the end of the week.

Last Wednesday, a snow storm came through our area that was predicted to drop record amounts of snow. Lucky for us, the forecast was off and we only got somewhere around 7 inches, which still qualifies as the biggest snow fall so far this year. A lot of the snow has already melted, but it was pretty while it lasted. We did remember to take some pictures this time (something we’d neglected to do after every other snow fall so far this year). Here are a few of our favorites. I really like how all of the trees look with snow piled on their branches.

Fabric samples for the furniture we ordered for our sun room came in the mail today. It’s funny how differently we remembered our selections. Both of us thought we’d picked way too light of a shade for the new couch, but when the samples came, we were happy to see it is a nice shade of tan.

I tried scanning the fabrics they sent and the textures came out a little stronger than they really look, but the colors are pretty accurate. The tan color on the left is a textured microfiber that’ll go on the couch and matching chair. The lighter fabric on the upper right is a more heavily textured microfiber that’ll go on the over-sized ottoman we’ll be using as a coffee table. The fabric in the bottom right will be used on throw pillows. We’ll also have a brown leather recliner that they didn’t send a sample for.

Our designer mentioned in her note that some of the furniture is in already. None of the custom pieces are done yet, but some of the tables, lamps, and artwork are in. They should hopefully be delivered sometime in the next week or so. I’m so excited to see them in our house!

We also heard from the painter recently and he thinks he’ll be able to start sometime next week, so now we’re just working on finalizing our paint color selections. Here’s what we’re thinking about. The trim is already painted the lightest color. We’re thinking we’ll paint most of the room the darker of the other two colors and use the middle shade as an accent color. We’re still a little undecided about what to paint the accent color. One option is to paint the entire wall where the TV will go the. The other option is to just paint the portion of the wall that’s directly behind the TV, which is built out about a half inch due to the fireplace on the other side of the wall. We’re not sure if that will look nice to accent that or if it’ll look weird. Either way, though, we’re excited to see the room come together soon.

Here’s a picture I took last weekend of the view out of our dining room window. That’s the Mississippi River in the background.

We’re just amazed by how much of the river we can see now considering that we could hardly catch a glimpse of it with all of the leaves on the trees when we moved in last September.