Basement Update

There isn’t a whole lot of progress being made right now…but Tim has all of the walls down and is almost done clearing out all of the debris. We pretty much have the new floor plan decided on, but there’s a lot to do before we start thinking about putting walls back up: dry–locking the walls, moving a gas line and moving some duct work. Maybe more?

So here’s the basement’s floor plan when we moved in (it’s an approximate drawing):

Here’s what the basement looked like after I returned from a weekend trip to my parent’s back in October…

And here’s what it looks like now. I’m standing at the bottom of the stairs. No more built-ins, no more paneling, and no more ugly carpet tiles (though I think the tile we found underneath is worse).

Now I’m standing next to the shop-vac in the previous picture looking at the rest of basement.We found 3 different types of tile flooring (plus concrete) in the basement after ripping up two different sets of carpeting. There was a wall where the first set of tile ends (about where the stack of the carpet tile is sitting) and a room back by the third support beam, with an open storage area between the two “finished” rooms. The full bathroom I painted is just to the left.

Now standing in the back (the washer and dryer are to my right), you can see the huge disco stickers we found on the wall after removing paneling. Sadly, they will soon have dry–lock over them and no one will ever know they were there.

And here’s what the floor plan will be when the basement is done. It really won’t be extremely different, but we’re excited to have a real finished basement, versus a “finished” basement. There will be doors into the utility and storage rooms, not just a wall opening. We’re having to work around the HVAC and hot water heater, indoor water meters (weird I know) and some of the support beams not moving from their current location.We would love to move all of them, but it’s not in the budget right now.

Tim has decided to finish re-insulating the attic before he really gets going on the basement, so I think this winter project will turn more into a spring/summer project. It’s okay though, because our common–area living space will double when we’re done with the basement..yay!

—m.