I have nothing but the utmost respect for funcolors, so certainly you should consider other options. But to me, you have lived 12 years with the finish you hate. If it were paint, you would not hesitate to change the color - in fact, you would have changed it long before. But because it is wallpaper and was expensive is no reason to not feel that you have paid your dues by living with it for 12 years. Cars are expensive, but no one would fault someone for getting rid of one after 12 years. Furnaces and dishwashers and fridges and couches are expensive, but 12 years is a long relationship with anything like that. So you have my permission, LOL, to paint away, and perhaps transform the space into something you love, giving it new life and perhaps some more regular use. This is your house, the place that is your refuge from the world You shouldn't have to live with someone else's choices that you hate - and you have done that for long enough. What if you did a paint in a lighter warm brown, to really get rid of the red/taupe/pink you hate, and then a dry brush of a darker brown or two to highlight the texture, and a final satin sealer glaze over top, to create almost a bamboo look?

Using Android tablets with some browsers I am able to use the photo icon to have it open the directory on the device to find a stored picture to then upload and post. However that is not the case with all browsers. I use Boat Browser as my primary browser on my kitkat Android tablet and when I click on the photo icon absolutely nothing happens, it does not open any type of dialog box or directory it does nothing. So on that tablet my only option is to be forced to use a different browser like Chrome. In fact even the stock Android browser will not open the photo option for me. Kind of a pain to have to change browsers any time I wish to post a picture. The only way around that is saving pictures to my Houzz ideabooks from my pc or using an alternate browser on the tablet and use the houzz photo button to post them from there. I don't know why it works with some browsers and not all. Those of you on mac or ipad is there an alternate browser you could try using? There are lots and lots of them for Android in the play store.

I recently finished my basement, and the 78" ceiling height in my 1940 house led to some creative language for the permit. Local code requires 80" for habitable space unless its a utility room or bathroom in a basement. We already had both a utility room and bath that were original to the house, so we were finishing out the rest of the basement. We could have asked for an exception (not a variance?) for the ceiling height, but the lack of egress windows would have still limited the allowed uses. My permit says that I finished out a "storage area", so the basement cannot be used for a bedroom, office, or family room. However, I have insulation on all exterior walls, walls are fully framed and sheetrocked, I have smoke and CO2 detectors, and the electrical outlets and lights meet all code requirements for a habitable area. I put in tamper-proof receptacles in all new areas, and there were already GFCI's in the utility and bath areas. Everything about my new work meets code requirements and is fully finished, but I if I sell the house I can only describe it as a storage area. All permits were submitted and all work was inspected and approved by the city. I assume you could follow the same track for finishing out your attic. You can never call it anything more than an attic for storage, but that does not mean you can't put up drywall, install receptacles and lights, and finish it off to your preferences. However, I would be concerned about the 2x4 floor joists, since you may cause cracking of the ceiling below if you put anything heavy in the attic. Bruce

I assume you are also planning for tamper-resistant receptacles. They are stocked everywhere now, but the old receptacles are very common in many stores. When you insulate and frame the walls you have some other code requirements to keep in mind. Here are a few that come to mind. Basement cement walls are seldom completely straight, and as part of adding moisture barriers and insulation it is common to have small gaps between the cement wall and the framing. Exterior wall framing must have fire blocking at the top so there is no path from the framing into the floor joist area above, and it must have vertical blocking every 10 linear feet of wall. You can use drywall, OSB, or spray foam, etc. for fire block material. It will be inspected as part of your framing inspection. In above ground framed walls you have most of the moisture coming from the inside (people, cooking, etc.) so the vapor barrier is usually on the inside next to the drywall. However, below ground basement walls usually need a vapor/moisture barrier on the outside, facing the cement. You want your moisture barrier on the the "moist side", and in a basement you always have a moderate amount of moisture coming through the cement. Closed cell foam is probably the best vapor barrier, but its also common to use heavy plastic sheeting. Some floor coverings do not work well in a basement. For example, high quality epoxy works well on an above ground patio, but the below-grade moisture may be too much for it to adhere well in a basement if there is no moisture barrier under the concrete. Basement bedrooms require an egress window or a door in the bedroom that leads directly outside. You cannot substitute a walk-out door in a common area to meet this requirement. In most areas the habitable space in a basement must have 80" of headroom to the finished ceiling. They give you some leeway for shorter areas that will allow you to box beams and HVAC vents, but you need to ensure you know what the inspector will allow. Bruce