WEEK 24: There are many positive aspects to lifting your house above the flood plain, mainly that you will no longer have the dreaded anticipation of an impending flood every time it rains. That can not be overstated enough.  However, with every gain there is liable to be some growing pains.

WALL CRACKS: Our house is from the 1920’s, at least parts of it. Some of our walls our plaster and the rest are sheetrock. We saw damage to both types of walls during our lift, but more to the plaster ones.

Sheetrock: Gap runs floor to ceiling in the sheetrock in one corner

Plaster wall cracks

Plaster wall cracks after house elevation

Essentially, every room received these hairline cracks. As a result,  all of the rooms will need to be repaired and painted. This week my main project is choosing a color pallet. It’s turned out to be a lot more time consuming than I anticipated. Especially since I’ve decided to chase down the phantom “perfect” color.

NORTH FACING LIGHT: When we first moved into the this house, many of the walls were white. We added color everywhere. Nothing pronounced, generally neutral hues. But I’m ready for a change and since the walls all have some cracks, I get a do-over in terms of choosing a color scheme.

I’ve lived in this house for quite some time now and realize that several rooms are only afforded north facing light which means they tend to be on the dark side even on a sunny day. I’m looking to brighten up these gloomy rooms with bright warm tones.  Have you ever looked for a shade of off-white? There are many, many, many of them.

Choosing an off-white color pallet

PAINT WHEEL: Although it may be hard to tell from this photo these are all variations of off-white. The bottom shades have a gray tinge (cooler tones) the one third from the bottom actually has a green tinge, and the others have a yellow  or brown (warm tones) tinge. There were peach tones that were immediately cut from contention.

I could make myself crazy spending days deciding on the “perfect” shade, but fortunately I’m under a deadline. I work better that way anyway. 

KITCHEN AND DINING ROOM: I also have to track down the color scheme for these two rooms. Again, I’m looking to brighten and lighten up the space, but don’t think I want to have a monochrome house. I”m leaning toward the color in the photo below, the sample on the wall, but may move up a few shades to lighten it as well.

Color decisions

Floor Woes: Entirely unrelated to paint decisions, below are some photos highlighting what can happen to your floors when a “shim” of wood is left in the wrong place and then your million ton house is set back down onto it.

Pencil is flush to floor

The above photo shows what a pencil should look like when resting on your floor.

Pencil resting on bump in the floors

Note how this picture shows the pencil up in the air. It’s not too pronounced, but it is noticeable when you walk on it. My contractor is hoping to remove the shim today and assures me that the floor should  settle back down. All in all, the floors fared very well throughout this process. Which is more than I can say for the walls. Given the choice, I’d rather fix walls than floors. I’ve done both and walls are much easier.