My Name Is Mud(room)

So, after having a few contractors come in and give estimates we had Jenn's Mom's friend stop by to take a look. He used to be a contractor himself and now owns a respectable Home Inspection business. His opinion was that the room doesn't really need that much work. Cooler heads have prevailed and we've decided not to fully renovate the room.

However, we do not lack for decisive action. After watching no less than four generations of mushrooms bloom and die on our wall, today begins our crusade to take back our mudroom by the cheapest and most effective means available. After I post this, we'll be heading to the good old Home Depot to retrieve the following: a large-ish can of Thompson's Water Seal, plenty of caulk, a second deck brush, a gallon of cleaning solution, gloves, safety goggles and masks. Mr Falcone (the home inspector) determined that some of our moisture problem stems from the fact that the brick wall on the back of the house (above the mudroom) was never sealed. The bricks soak up rain like a sponge and it goes right through to the plaster walls, thus giving our guest bedroom closet that warty look, among other things. Sealing the bricks may also help prevent some of the mudroom moisture. After giving the walls a good scrub-down, we'll caulk up all the open corners and seams of the room. If, after all that, it looks like it may need a new paint job, we'll do that as well...some time in the near future.

As for "further down the road", we plan to rip up the lumpy, sloped floor and build a new one ourselves. We've determined that the current floor has had that strange landscape since it was built decades ago. They probably just put walls up around an old, badly built back porch and called it a mudroom. With some help from a few experienced people we know (and anyone else willing to pitch in) we'll pull up the old, crappy floor and put in a nice new one. One that's level and has tiles, etc.

Well, we're off to grab the supplies. Wish us luck!