Before and After: The Den

I've been kind of in-and-out lately due to some shifting stuff going on with work, and a beastly new class. HOWEVER, I have some fun pics I want to share with you! We've been working on our den since the new year as you know from our big 'no more water' sub floor project.

It's been the home of our books and desktop computers for the past 2 years, but that's about it. We had other projects we wanted to do first, yadda yadda. This is what it looked like before:

This has been really depressing for me, because this is the room with the fireplace, and one of the main reasons I wanted this house. I didn't even like doing homework on that tiny desk, and it was always cold since it didn't have an insulating subfloor. We only got the fireplace fixed last summer (had to rerun the gas line, the idiot who installed it put it in a really bad spot and it was dangerous). So over Christmas we took care of the floor problems which means I got to start decorating!

First we started by building a desk. The drawers are from ikea and the top is wood I stained, edged and sealed myself from Lowe's. I have a print I need to get made to go above the desk, those pics/diplomas will be moving to a different wall.

Then I got new bookcases (I collect books, folk tales, fairy stories and histories mostly) because the others were ugly and the shelves were bowed. I also picked out new chairs from Target. We got them nearly 50% off with all the coupons/sales I used.

Ignore that stack. Those are Brian's from random classes over the years. He's supposed to go through them and pick the keepers.

And lastly, yesterday our sofa arrived! We bought it on super sale at Art Van last weekend. I want to make new throw pillows for it, and also ignore the coffee table. That's our old beat up one that we'll be craigslisting once I can find a new one I like.

So yeah, that's it! You can't see my valance because of the sunlight, it's just a white one that matches the floor-length curtains in our room. And we still need to pick a spot for a little tv and I've got new throw pillow covers I need to plop in place, but it's just about there!

New year, and a new floor!

So remember how we got water in our lower level a few times? Well over the holidays we did something about that.

We moved everything out of the room. Which included cleaning out 2 desks and several drawer units that have been used to shove random things in, and emptying our 3 very full bookcases. I spent a whole day just on this part, but it's nice to know that we don't have random drawers full of old class notes and crap from 2008!

Painted the entire floor with DRIlock.

Added a subfloor with plastic backing so if water does come in, it'll run straight to the drain.

And had the carpet reinstalled with a new pad!

Soooo much work for it to look exactly the same... BUT we have a lot more in the works too. It's furniture time!

Our Moat

Hey! Check out our new water feature!

This new moat should protect us against coyotes, crusaders, and the Wicked Witch of the West!

Desaturation!

So after hours of going over it with a rented carpet shampooer, the den floor is mostly dry! Woo! We'll have to keep an eye on it to make sure we don't need to replace the carpet padding, but hopefully we won't. We got it up quick, and it was just groundwater not sewage or anything. And I've gotta believe this is a one-time thing. These are the facts I got from talking to people around town:

• The sirens went off 3 times Saturday night.
• There was a tornado touchdown about 20 miles south of us.
• Every rentable carpet cleaner in the city was taken Sunday (lucky I went Monday I guess?) because a ton of people in the A2/Ypsilanti area had water in their houses.
• Some people had water up to 2 feet deep in their basements.

So we appear to have gotten out pretty lucky! It's supposed to rain some more tonight/tomorrow but hopefully it won't be much. This has to be a fluke spring and we won't normally have water issues. Kind of like the super hot summer of '88 was a fluke summer.

And I won't be posting the next couple of days, I'm going to a conference in Chicago! I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow to catch our flight... we'll see how that goes.

Soooo much H20

So our water saga continues.

This past weekend we were at my parents for most of it to celebrate my brothers college graduation and birthday (Congrats Beau!). Saturday night we were watching the weather as another apocalypse worthy storm rolled into Ann Arbor. Everyone kept telling me, "just be glad you're here and safe!" as there were loads of tornado warnings. Meanwhile I was just petrified for our house!

Well that night there were tornadoes, and epic storms. We heard from others upon our return that the sirens went off 3 times that night! And when we got back around 11 Sunday night? Water in the basement... great. Luckily it's confined to the central space of the room (it's a little lower) so the bookshelves/desks and computers were not harmed

It appears that the water table got so high that it's just seeping straight up through the floor. There is no wall or ceiling damage at all it appears. *knocks on wood* I don't have a picture because there is nothing to see. The carpet is about as wet as when you have it cleaned, and you're not supposed to walk on it yet. We laid down towels, and brought the fan and dehumidifyer down. When we got up this morning there was 4 inches of water in the dehumidifyer (thanks Mom and Dad for giving us that! Even though it's 30 years old it really works!) but the floor was still just as wet. I called Brian a bit ago and he seems to think there has been improvement this morning.

So we're going to have to figure out what to do to eliminate the possibility of a repeat flood. Since we're pretty sure we don't have a sump pump that's an option. Luckily even though it's been pouring for a straight month this is the first this has happened, so hopefully it means it's a rare thing? yes? please???

Also, I think Google is spying on me. When I pulled up my internet this morning, this ad was front and center:

Haha Google.... you're soooooo funny! Now stop playing big brother! This is not George Orwell's 1984!

Water water every... you know the drill. It's wet!

Soooo we're in the middle of planting season! The time where everyone and their sister is out gardening and making the yard pretty for summer! Have we been doing the same? Noooooo no we have not. Not for lack of wanting to mind you.

We have had almost completely non-stop rain for the last month.We'll get a little sun, but before the ground can even think about drying out it rains again. So the mess of a yard that I was hoping to have at least somewhat pretty this first summer? Yup. Still a mess. We also have a low spot near the back fence that I was hoping to fill with dirt and get grass seed in (our neighbors planed their yard so it drains into ours. Jerks.) so that it won't flood when it rains hard. Yup. Still there.

Still so... blah!

At this point it's feeling like not much landscaping will be happening this year. We're already in June and I have about half a planting bed raked and weed free. Another issue we've had is that all the planting beds and anywhere around the fence or near the house, there are these bricks and pavers. They are BURIED in the ground, sometimes 3 or 4 deep! It's almost like the previous owner stole them and was trying to hide the evidence... Unfortunately with all the time it's taken to pull them up, they aren't really usable for anything. They are oddly sized and in pretty bad shape. Especially sad considering that we have 2-300 at this point.

One major thing will be happening though, we're having all the trees on the front of the house pulled out. SO once they show up we'll be able to do something to the front.

Now you're going, wait Bre, this post is supposed to be about water! We demand more water! Well, take a visit to our bathroom. The genius lovely person who flipped this house did not put in a fan in the room with the shower. Then they painted it with FLAT paint. That was one of the only rooms I was not going to paint right away. Well now I have to, the paint is already peeling off from the shower humidity. And we're getting a fan installed as well. It's not too bad yet. In reality it still just looks like this:

But in my mind I see this:

I borrowed that picture.

The question now is, what should I paint the bathroom? And how nuts do I want to go? Ideally I'd like to get a new sink cabinet (not oak + laminate) and mirrors and install bead-board. I don't know if that's in the budget though. Thoughts?