what is this? a post about the basement!

You may have forgotten that we were remodelling our basement since we started this project in January of 2010 and I haven't posted anything about it since October 22, 2011!!   Things did come to a grinding halt down there last Fall once we finished everything except the floor.  Way back on February 1, 2011, I posted about the flooring we were planning to install and it's finally happening this weekend...19 months later. The Trafficmaster Allure Ultra in Rustic Maple is going down.

Here are a few pictures to jog your memory of the longest home improvement project ever...


our 1970s basement was full of mold when we bought the house... yuck...

here is that same space during the remodel - this was April of 2011...

and here we are today FINALLY tackling the floor...

It's time to get to work!  The box says it's the easiest floor ever - we'll see about that.

in the basement

Wow. My last post about the great basement remodel was on June 7th. JUNE 7TH!

We haven't done very much down there since the beginning of June. Mark built some custom couches with twin size mattresses - the perfect lounging sectional when we're watching TV and two twin beds for sleepover guests. The end. No art work has been hung except my wood collage and one of Mark's paintings. Things sort of came to a halt when we could no longer afford the flooring we had planned for. We have a few ideas brewing and some day that floor will get covered with something. Even with its makeshift floor, it's still one million times nicer than what we had before. We (including Lottie) LOVE our basement!






After a long break, we are finally doing a little work on the laundry room. Since we chose not to drywall the ceiling in there, Mark installed a drop ceiling. He also gave me my dream indoor clothes line using a tension wire he picked up at IKEA many years ago. We had a floating shelf from our Chicago apartment days and now it's found a new home as laundry soap storage. We decided to cut an old IKEA table in half to create a folding area. We're using an old MALM dresser for storage until we get some cabinets. The dresser is actually working out great for our extra sheets and towels. I have to say it is so amazing to have a real laundry room with a door, a super nice solid wood pocket door! Yay! Too bad a new dryer is not in our future. That ugly beige beast works like a champ and we'll have it until the day it dies.

hurray for new stairs!

Mark built our new oak stairs for the basement in one day. It took all day Saturday but he got it done and they look fantastic. Mark rules! Just sayin'.

basement: doors and floor

Mark has been waiting months to bulid this shelf-door and it is amazing! It's the door to our furnace and hot water heater. We won't be able to diplay anything too fragile since it is a functioning door. And this space is sort of a man cave so there's no need for me to girl it up with my vintage pottery...that's what the upstairs is for! We found some carpet tiles for $2 bucks each. Not in our original plan but they are going to work out perfectly for a portion of the basement. We also picked up the correct size pocket doors this week so now all we have to do is the trim work, finish up the floor, and install some cabinets. YAY!

basement: paint

The basement is painted! We chose the combo of Benjamin Moore's Wickham Gray and ACE brand's Linen. I still need to do some touch ups here and there and I'll get some better photos once things are cleaned up. Mark put in all the ceiling speakers and most of the can lights. A completely bored Lottie watched from the couch.

We messed up and bought the wrong size doors for the laundry room and tool room. Ugh. We should have the correct size doors in place by this weekend.

basement: drywall dust

Two coats of white primer on the walls does not make for interesting blog photos. So how about some drywall dust art instead.

basement: drywall

Another boring post about the basement. All the drywall is hung, taped, and has one coat of mud on it. Do I have drywall dust footprints everywhere upstairs? Yes. It's a good thing we bought that pool table a few years ago since it can double as the world's biggest work bench. Next up is a ton of sanding and more mudding. And so much more drywall dust!

five for friday

1. Benjamin Moore Wickham Gray
2. Behr Irish Mist
3. Benjamin Moore White Dove
4. Pittsburgh Paints Gypsum
5. Benjamin Moore Silver Half Dollar

I'll be painting the basement soon. Gotta keep it light. If you've got a favorite light-greyish-white paint color, let me know!

stuff in the basement

Every basement needs a 1970s recliner. This one's a family heirloom passed down to us a few years ago. That crazy bright green is something like super-chartreuse or maybe even slime colored. Guess what...it stays in the basement after the big remodel because I love it.

And then there's dumpy. A vinyl couch we pulled out of a dumpster. It was missing legs so we added some from Ikea. I gave it a massive bleach scrub and now this couch is awesome. Dumpy usually lives upstairs in our spare bedroom. It will find its way back there once the basement is finished.

We still need to remove the old linoleum on that side of the basement. We'll tackle that as soon as the drywall is done.

basement: insulation

In my fantasy world, we would have used insulation made from recycled denim or mushrooms or some other super Eco-friendly material. Any type of blown-in style would have been a luxury as well. With our budget, we got fiber glass kraft faced batt insulation that was on sale at the big box store... it was on clearance about 8 months ago and we've had it stored in the garage all this time. When the previous homeowners "finished" the basement in 1970s, they opted for no insulation. Even if we can't afford the fancy stuff, some insulation has got to be better than none.

basement: we have light and sound

And the Mark and Beth Contruction Company is still working at a snail's pace! It's been a little over a month since my last basement remodel post and I can proudly say the electrical wiring is complete. With a lot of help from a friend, a licensed electrician, we now have 35 new lights and so many electrical outlets and light switches. The old basement used to have one option for light in the main space - one switch for all on or all off. Oh how I hated those flourecent lights in that drop ceiling!! Now we have 6 switches just in the main space and they are all on dimmers and there are so many lighting options. The sound system is also installed and connected to the upstairs for whole-house rocking out. Mark even added a ceiling speaker to the kitchen while he was at it. We spent the weekend carrying sheets of drywall from the garage into the basement and that sucked. At least for me and my bunk left arm. The sub-pump and furnace are now walled off (and insulated for some soundproofing) and 3 walls of the laundry room are hung. Yes, we are the slowest drywall hangers in the universe. And Lottie, a dog that used to hate being around power tools, is now hanging out right next to all the construction action. She's come a long way this year.