Thisclose to being done

I have been a horrible slacker when it comes to this blog... Things fell behind, I got discouraged, and I was blocking all things basement from my mind. But suddenly, in the last week or so, we've had tremendous progress. We are SO close to everything being done, and Chad decided that we'd move in. Here's a glimpse at what things look like with a little furniture:

Day 26

Big, busy day, today. Most of the ceiling is now in place. The gaping holes will be for lights, and the edge pieces (where the ceiling tiles have to be cut into non-square shapes) still have to be done, but the addition of "most of a ceiling" is great progress.

Day 25

Today was the priming of the new wall (by the new window):


And the addition of greenboard to the shower ceiling area:

Day 24

A few random things. Such as a small wall portion at the bottom of the steps to serve as a place to attach the drop ceiling:


And the framing in of the ceiling above the shower:

Day 23

The hint of the beginning of the drop ceiling (see the rail-thing near the top of the wall?):

Day 22

The wall around the window (plus a 9-year-old):

This was followed by several days (4/2 and 4/3) of spackling and sanding, but I'm not counting them, since each "day" was about an hour of work. They're just getting lumped in with this one.

The paint

It's hard to get a good picture of the paint job, since the lighting downstairs is still lacking. Here's the best I could do:

Day 21

Behold, we have a window:


Also, much painting was accomplished by yours truly and my wonderful husband. Pictures to come.

Day 20

The hole was filled in. More cement was cut out. A picture of a gravel filled window well area may show up here. If not, don't worry -- you're not missing much.

Day 19

This might not look like much:

And these might look rather mysterious:


But they're both part of this wonderful event:


The hole -- in the yard -- was dug today! Another hole -- in the cement -- was cut! We officially have a window well!

Logan enjoyed the tractor in the yard:

Day 18

The bottom set of steps was put in today. It's still covered in paper and plastic, but you can see how it flares out and get a hint of the stain through the plastic. The railing still has to go in, but that won't happen for a while -- after painting, carrying machinery and flooring up and down the steps, etc.

Day 17

The Priming of the Walls

Also, you can see new steps in this picture that didn't get put in until March 25th... That means I have fallen behind on my daily photographing goal. Sorry!

Days 14-16 - March 17-19

More drywall work these days. And they were mostly partial-days, but I'm counting them anyway. Mostly, they worked on doing the wall along the steps.


At some point, they also made this bumpout next to the steps (though this picture was taken March 26th, after the priming -- I'm all out of order these days).


In the process of all this, the old steps were removed. I chose to ignore the laundry in the dryer tonight.

Day 13

We decided to get all new steps put in while we're doing the basement. I won't go into details, but when our house was built, the steps to the basement were not done well. At all. So we figured, while we're spending all this money doing all this work, we might as well get the stairs done too. The top half was put in Monday.


Since the new ones are slightly narrower than the old ones (to give us a tad bit more space on the very small landing), we now have gaps that will need to be dealt with.


Oh, and that lovely "brown paper" color? That's not the real color. The risers are painted white, and the treads are a lovely stained oak. You can catch a glimpse of it here:

No work days...sickness reigns

Well, sickness reigns for the drywall guy, and bad weather reigns for the masonry guy, who must come cut a window in the cement. And so...no progress, no "Day _____" to report.

I did, however, order the flooring material today. Not that I have any idea when it will be needed. But having it ordered is a good first step. The cabinets for our wet bar are scheduled to arrive this Thursday. Which means, I'll have to start parking outside, since the cabinets will take up residence in our garage until their basement corner is ready for them. I am very spoiled when it comes to parking in my garage, so I'm hoping that the weather starts warming up a bit very soon.

I still need to order the countertop for the wet bar. Chad and I recently agreed on material and color/pattern, so I just need to find time to get to Home Depot (preferably without toddler in tow) to place my order.

And we haven't even started to think about paint. Our contractor said we could go ahead and paint the bathroom now, before things like fixtures and wall plates get in our way. But between illness, busyness, and the aforementioned toddler who is always in tow, we haven't done anything in that direction. It'll be fine either way. If it's harder to paint later because we waited too long, we'll survive. My goal is to get some primer on the bathroom wall, and if the color has to wait, it'll be okay.

Not that I've bought any primer yet, either.

Days 10, 11, & 12

Technically, these were all partial days (Feb 21, 23, and 26), and they all focused on one thing:

Spackling

Day 9

More walls are put in place.

The two doorways are fully cut out. One goes back to the storage/laundry area, and the other goes to the bathroom.

There's still a big spot left open for the future egress window. Said window is waiting on the weather... we need to to be slightly better than "miserable" in order to move dirt and start cutting into the cement.

Day 8

We have walls! The addition of drywall makes it feel more like a real room, as opposed to an area of the basement where we stuck some wires, pipes, and 2x4's. A good chunk of this morning was spent waiting for the lumber company to deliver the drywall (the driver got "slightly lost"), but he eventually arrived and a decent portion of the basement is officially "walled."



Why the darker walls in the bathroom? I have no idea.

Day 7

Things are warming up in the basement. Today was the day of insulation.

Look -- here's some:

And some in the bathroom:

And a big space where a window will someday be:

Day 6.5

Today gets one of those ".5" titles, since no actual work went on in the basement today. The electrical inspector came, pronounced Logan "ornery" upon seeing him, and looked at all our wiring. I did not take a picture of him inspecting things, since I didn't think he'd appreciate that.

Then the "stair guy" came in the afternoon, and we discussed stair options. Again, no picture of the stair guy measuring things. I'm not sure that gentleman was interested in appearing on my blog.

But I can't leave you without pictures, so I'll share some of our Valentine's Evening Festivities: Running Around the Basement.

"Look! Wires! And ductwork!"

"Mom, I don't want my picture taken."

"Hmm... This shelf would be perfect for one of my toys."

No more activity until Monday... a quiet weekend will be nice.

Day 6

The electrician came today. I'm sure you'd love to see pictures of all the wires that have been run, right? Oh wait, you wouldn't? Okay, then I'll just show you a picture of two future outlets. They're right there -- those small blue things on the wall. This is where our small sink/counter will be. One outlet is near the ground, for the small fridge. The other one will be above the base cabinets. Chad thinks he's setting up "Chad's Coffee Bar" down there.

We'll see...

Day 5

Today = HVAC and Inspections.

First, some new ductwork:


Then, the building inspector came by and approved the framing, plumbing, and heating. Yippee! Our contractor said, "Things are moving along more quickly than I had estimated."

Day 4

Look, a shower!

And pipes!

And more pipes!

Today, obviously, was a day of much plumber activity. The plumbing roughing-in is done -- they'll be back when it's time to install fixtures, etc.

Day 3

Today was a much quieter day.

They worked on the framing, etc. on the wall by the steps:

And they did some more framing on the far side of the bathroom:

Day 2

Today was a day of much jackhammering and much regular hammering. The result: most of the framing is done, the bathroom rough-out is well underway. And happily, the jackhammering was completed by nap time. Logan was slightly stressed out by the noise, but we both survived.

Framing, plus some shower parts leaning against the wall:

More framing. the blank space in the center of the picture is where a window will eventually be:

Framing around the bathroom:


The results of the jackhammering: