When you say perimeter drainage, do you mean something like a french drain where you dig out a trench around the perimeter, install a perforated pipe and back fill it with gravel? I just want to make sure I understand your suggestion. Yes, although there is more detail than that. As in all things there are degrees of doing as well. Code, best practices for the area and absolute best can be pretty different. Retrofit on a slab on grade is easy to do absolute best. Dig your trench, line with geotextile fabric leaving enough fabric for the last step. Place your bed of drain rock such that the drain pipe will follow the actual foundation all around. So your trench will have to be deep enough and wide enough to accomplish all this. You probably can't make it too wide but there are material constraints and you want to leave some yard, eh? Fit your perforated pipe. Do not use the black, corrugated stuff, use the white perforated drain pipe. Before you glue, figure out where all this will drain to. Out the front, side or back? It has to go away, not just in a circle. Use sewer pipe if there is any chance of vehicle traffic running over it. Sock the perforated pipe. Lay, don't throw, drain rock over the pipe once all fittings have been glued up, do not dislodge or break the pipe. Wrap the geotextile fabric from step one over the drain rock/pipe install. Top the geotextile with pit run, then with a decorative mulch or a stone garden or anything but plantings. Place foundation beds/plantings out from the home, leave the area in which your drainage runs clear. As your plantings mature the void behind them goes away. Most people cram the foundation plantings way to close to the house anyway. OK, so there are technical terms for all this but I've tried to keep it simple, for me, lol. Kaib has it...think like a rain drop or in this case like ground water coming up and/or surface water percolating down. You want to make it easy for it to go somewhere else. Its all downhill from there. And, if I may say, a fun and satisfying project given slab foundation. I've done too many basement foundation walls and that entail a lot of digging.

Flo - Dining is aprox 16.5 x 12.75. As much as I like the table, it would have to be down the road a little bit, but would like to plan so that I don't do things twice. I have a hard enough time getting the once done. :) We have way to many necessary projects on our to do list. My $50 dollar table that I have now is a beast. It is great in the fact that it expands to take up the whole dining room, but it requires lots of help to get it there. Ready to not decorate around a couple of large family gatherings a year. I have to share my kids with their in-laws now. Boo hoo. As far as color, I could do a bolder color, but wouldn't want every wall bold. I have heard that accent walls are going out too. Obviously, I don't paint often, so I would like something somewhat timeless, if that exists. When I was picking a paint for the master bedroom, I had many colors up similar to SW Sea Salt. I drove my husband crazy. I eventually went with Designer White from a parent co of SW. I have white washed tongue and groove ceiling that I felt was hard to coordinate with. I love it. It is a bit stark, but feels fresh. It is probably to stark for downstairs. Definitely going to grab a sample of the Natural Choice.

Foam against the wall, whether it's rigid or sprayed, is the the most effective system. Here's how Building Science Corp. advises doing an interior drain. Many drainage companies use this method. This way, interior insulation can be taken directly to the floor. Glued, but not nailed/screwed. For a basement with a system that requires a gap, the best you can do is try to prevent the damage of the convection loop with moisture resistant insulation at the top--rim joists and floor members. The convection loop problem was only fully realized in this century. Before then, in fact, it was often advised that half-height basement insulation was fine, as it was the above-grade portion of the basement wall that needed to be upgraded. It's hard to picture your situation in the abstract.

There's no substitute for being there. Cut down the shrub, then prime the front wall to the left of the door with white primer. You'll be able to see new colors much more clearly once the old gray is gone. Look in the garage for spare fence boards. You can test stains on them. IME, many finishes crack and flake, so talk to your local paint store about what stains do well in your area on your wood. You can remove a board and take it with you. Once the wood has gone gray, it doesn't lighten up when stained. Bleaching it would probably not be worth the effort and would need the safe cleanup of bleach chemicals.