Day One-fourteen: We learn the Pottery Barn Rule

You break it, you buy it. So we decided to excavate to see if there was more to the problem than the one 2x4 we found yesterday. This required taking a perfectly fine closet in that basement room:

And turning it into this:

We found plenty to give us cheer. Not only did we find no signs of active mold. )See all that nice, clean wood?) There were a couple of non-essential pieces--all they did was hold up paneling--that had some possible old mold stains but they didn't pass anything to the wood they were touching. As for the other side of that offending 2x4, it would seem to confirm the suggestions by several people that it's a creosote coating, which was more common in the days before pressure treating wood. As far as we can tell, and we've seen many of the 2x4s in the walls, this is the only board like this in the whole house. And it's definitely non-load bearing.

In more happy news, the new contractors came to seal the tile in the basement bathroom. After letting it set for a couple days that project will be officially done. Well, the contractor's part is done. We need to put in some small touches (e.g. baseboard). But for now "Hoo-ray!"