department of the interior: home decor

Weird, I've never seen mold like that. Does it smell pretty damp in your basement?

I would probably get a respirator mask, take some concentrated bleach to it, and then watch to see if it grows back.

A cheap dehumidifier can make a huge difference in small damp spaces.

Oh have you touched it? Is it soft or airy or hard? Because it also looks a bit like that stuff that expands to fill holes in walls.

It's not that hole-filling stuff. It's like a white foamy substance that is coming out of the walls. We have a dehumidifier but it's in the other corner of the basement. I think it's clear that it's a foam-shaped ghost.

Not to freak you out but I'd probably see if there is some kind of mold specialist in your area who could check it out -just to make sure its not too toxic.

that's the logical thing to do but i thought maybe someone would know what it was from the picture.

Can you tell at all if it's organic or not?

You should film it for a week and then speed up the footage.

j - no, it's white and foamy and only on the moister side of the basement (the one i spend the most time in)
io - a+ idea

It could just be scale (calcium salts leaching out of the concrete due to moisture).

Ha! In order to zoom in some, I ended up setting that photo as my wallpaper

yikes! welcome to my basement!

i'll google calcium scale to see if it looks similar -- i honestly didn't know what to google so that's why i asked ilx

is it this LL?

http://inspectapedia.com/sickhouse/Effloresence.htm#H1

That is the stuff - we have that in our basement!

yeah i already checked calcium efflorescence and that is definitely it
looks like something we are suggested to fix from the outside, but i think maybe another dehumidifier would solve it temporarily at least
also gotta clean it up yuk

thank you for your help ilx! at least i can be sure it's not a ghost.

efflorescence certainly sounds it should be a ghost imo!

haha yeah. or 'that ghost left so much efflorescence behind!'

finally bit the bullet and commissioned some custom LP shelving from a local woodworker

3 feet wide with five 13 inch shelves

should make a pretty big dent in our need for storage, we've been dealing in crates and boxes for a bit too long now

okay this video is kinda corny but oh man i love this house

http://youtu.be/L7mKPRlTgvM

well i mean

topanga

yeah

thinking bout things

breakfast so rustic

maybe i'll blog after my nap

but for real v, if you like that house i highly recommend tracking down a book called HOMEMADE HOUSES, A GUIDE TO THE WOODBUTCHER'S ART which is chock fulla rough-hewn indoor-outdoor handcrafted living

https://www.etsy.com/storque/media/bunker/2009/03/3038026950_4b804054db.jpg

sorry, HANDMADE houses

"homemade houses" lol good typo elmo

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/helicoptersss/media/Picture23.png.html

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/helicoptersss/Picture23.png

yeah i love this stuff so much

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6242226585_ab36833a11_z.jpg

agree, what's not to love

i need some advice on my new living room decor

i kind of want to start all over with a much lighter, airy-er look, but i can't afford any major purchases of new rugs/furniture so i'm gonna try and work with what i have which is a kind of poorly-thought-out, trying-to-be-an-oldfashioned-library look. our library isn't gonna be in our living room anymore, even!

so basically i have two persian rugs (dark green, navy, burgundy, beige, cream tones, all v muted)
an overstuffed dark green couch (slightly yellowish undertones, rather than blue)
a dark brown half height book shelf
a dark brown antique half height dresser with glove boxes built into the top

i need some inspiration on how to sort of ~decorate~ around these pieces that still play off the ye olden look but also feel a bit updated?? idk

nb wall art is already decided

Brighter/lighter pillows & afghan/throw on the couch to pick up the cream tones from the rug?

yeah ^ soft furnishings are a pretty easy way to decorate a space and can be DIY pretty cheaply if you're even the slightest bit crafty

yeah i'm def thinking about a couple of throws bc of our dog (5 more days till she comes home!!!!), but also lighting (why do US homes never have ceiling fixtures in the living room???). i really hate the floor lamp we have right now, but it was cheap so i don't feel bad about buying a new one (or two).

i already have some super cute pillows (military animal busts) but they're black screen prints on khaki/olive, so too dark :/ i don't want to replace them but i think i might need to.

Make everything except those pieces you already named be white/soft buff/light tan colors and possibly go for the rubbed/weathered look in your woodwork and walls.

Throw the rugs down not square and maybe overlapping w each other on a diagonal somewhere, to define the functional furniture groupings and traffic areas.

Chuck a cream throw blanket mussily over the sofa to break up the large green object (NB this is better for winter than for now, wtf, weather?)

thrift store lamps can be spray painted whatever color/s you want! just look for good shapes.

US homes don't have ceiling lights in the living room because ceiling fixtures are an abomination and don't illuminate anything either usefully OR attractively. Buy literally ANY kind of thrift store lamp (okay not ANY but almost any) and just spray paint it or add texture, and a new shade.

i have ceiling fixtures with dimmers and i like them but mostly they are pretty unflattering/gross

Throw the rugs down not square and maybe overlapping w each other on a diagonal somewhere, to define the functional furniture groupings and traffic areas.

i like this idea a lot, but i need to cover as much of the main part of the wood floor as possible bc of dog claws scratching it up :/

i have a little dining table that i'm hoping i can fit into the corner where the windows are, and i want to paint it and the chairs cream, which i think will lighten up the space. would like to paint the shelves and dresser too, eventually.

i've never really noticed dog claws making much of a difference on my floor but maybe i'm not looking very closely
i wouldn't worry about it as much as the HAIR
dog hair makes my life miserable

Dog claws?? How long ARE your dog's claws?! We've had dogs and wood floors for 30 years and the floors aren't scratched up. Heh xp

Yeah honestly it's easier to get dog hair off a wood floor (sweep lightly) than out of the rug (requires vacuuming/sticky roller/wet sponge), so I encourage you to leave some bare floor where you can.

it might not be an issue, depending on how much they wear down with street walking, but right now she absolutely can not stand to have the points filed down. i wouldn't care if it was my own house but it's a rental so don't want to risk having to pay for the floors to be refinished.

her claws are pretty long right now (she's a husky)

protip: get a dog that doesn't shed

failing that, shave your dog

Furminator, make a carpet/throw from felt dog hairs or spin into yarn

I think for every furminated hair my dog grows back five more. Lovely balls of dog hair gather on dark wood floor and roll like tumbleweed.

ok so my living room floor plan is working out pretty well so far

and so is the bedroom

but

the only place to put our bed is with it directly under a window, the sill of which is right at level of the bed. they are old windows and are gonna be drafty in winter. i think i'm gonna get a thermal curtain, but the problem with that as a single solution is that in order to be long enough to do their job, they're gonna end up getting pulled a lot (bc our pillows will be up against them), so i think i need some kind of faux headboard. i don't really want to attach anything to the actual bedbox, but i also don't want to put any huge holes in the wall.

any ideas?

A solid thing that stands on the floor and is pushed up against the wall by the bed frame? Liiiiiike, forgive me for this but just as a basic example, an old door? Or an old iron gate/fence/thing?

if the window slides up and down, check to see if it's a "double-hung" window that allows the top half to be lowered rather than just the lower half to be raised

I mean you could still glue/upholster foam cushioning to a piece of plywood and screw 2x4s onto the sides as legs that position it at mattress height. Then wrap the 2x4s in the upholstery material and staple gun it on the backside. You can just rest this against the wall if you want, with the bed holding it in place.