And so the basement story continues...

For a reference on our previous progress renovating our basement, go here.

A few things have happened since I have written last.  One, we had a daughter!  Isn't she cute????!??

She is now 3 months!!  My my, how time does march on.

Little miss has slowed down basement progress some.  Juggling new baby and creating a room for said baby to live in at the same time is no joke!  I don't recommend it.  We intended to have it done before she came but it just didn't turn out that way!  Finding time to do (loud) basement projects in-between the naps of a toddler and infant (a sensitive, colicky one at that!) has proved to be quite tricky.  We couldn't have done this without the help of my generous parents!!

At this point, the space is really taking shape!  There was a lot that took place behind the scenes down there...so many details to think about before closing in the space!  Here's a recap on plumbing work we have done: Gabe re-routed/replaced almost all the in-efficient copper plumbing with PEX, we moved the water heater from one end of the house to another, and added a bigger water pump.  And Gabe did it all--minus the initial pipes that were added underground for septic.  I was very impressed with his thoughtfulness, planning and ingenuity in the whole process.  We now have better water pressure and a quieter, more updated system thanks to Gabe's research and dedication.  Here's Gabe in action with a blow torch:

Here he is moving the water heater:

And then installing the new, bigger water pump a week later:

Mind you, this work was going on the week we decided to try and potty train our toddler boy.  THAT was an interesting week!!!

So many pipes!

Gabe was forever adding things to the list for what needed to be done before we could schedule the drywall guys to come and work their magic.  On top of the plumbing work, Gabe also did most of the electrical himself, with me being consulted on location of boxes, type and size.  He put in all the vents and we added an exhaust fan in the bathroom--that will be nice, there isn't one in the upstairs bathroom, so we have to open the window in the middle of winter ;) We had to cut into the exterior wall, through brick to fully vent.  That was a noisy day!  Also, I must add, our 2 1/2 year old son is pretty sensitive to loud sounds--he doesn't yet love the sound of his daddy's drill.  It seemed like there was always one more spot to frame (having something on which the drywall would attach!  Just another thing I wouldn't think of!!)

For a good 6 months from the time we started framing in February, there wasn't a whole lot to see--minus minor details only a specialist would notice!!  At the end of August, Gabe and my dad worked on insulating the space.  This was an exciting step since it starts to feel like an enclosed space.  The sound started to deaden a little bit--in a 1960's home with squeaky wooden floors this will be much appreciated!!  The insulation was placed around the exterior wall and in the ceiling, upon my request.  I'm so glad we did!  Here are a few pictures:

After installation, we needed to have one more inspection before we could drywall.  Almost there!!

The night before the drywall guys came, Gabe was rushing around finishing last minute things.  It will be easier to add a light fixture to the stairwell before the drywall goes up, so he took the opportunity to go up to the attic crawl space (yuck!) and do a little guess work on where the fixture would be dropped.  He got it right on the first try!  That's ma man!  :D  Our son was so excited daddy was going up the ladder to an unknown, un-explored space--he wanted to come too (he couldn't--too messy with insulation).  I was rushing to make room for all the little things that were in the room outside of the room.  Gotta be organized or it gets chaotic real quick!

Pics the night before d-day:

Just to note--we have no general contractor.  Gabe and I source and gather materials before the guys come and make sure they will be as efficient as possible.  In this case, we bought 38 sheets of drywall and buckets of mud.  I'm sure there are more details, and we have additional help from my mom and dad too.  My mommy brain spins at times!

Three weeks ago is when we were able to schedule a couple days for the drywall guys to come out and get the job done.  It ended up being a 3 day process stretched over a week timeline.  He came on a Tuesday, with a buddy, and hung the drywall, taped and mudded.  He was here another time over the weekend to sand and mud again and then one final time the next Monday after that to do one more mud and sand.

We had 2 sheets of drywall left.  Better too many than not enough when you are paying someone else for their time and labor.  There was just enough time to take back the last few sheets in Gabe's pick up truck before we sold it to fund more of the project :)

Pics of drywall!

in the mud room from the basement door

from the bathroom

looking into the bathroom

The bulkhead looks a little rough because the guys didn't put drywall there.  Gabe wanted to clad it with something different so he could access the pipes in this trunk line.  So he put 1/4" primed plywood in it's place and we will do some sort of trim piece to hide the cracks showing at the top.  Not my favorite idea, but I guess it's a necessary thing.

Since I didn't get pictures of every. single. step. you can see that it has been primed (with a spray gun) and ceiling paint is already done on top of that.  It is Sherwin Williams "High Reflective White" in a flat finish.

We have since moved the freezer out into the "mud" room where the water heater used to be.  It just fits!  Although it is not in its final location--there will be some switching around of utilities to come.  Just not a priority right now like having a bigger bedroom so we aren't all tripping over one another and all our furniture in our current bedroom!

Freezer's new location:

Basement bedroom without the freezer in the middle:

Now for an especially fun part.  Finishes and fixtures!

Last weekend, we had another subcontractor come out (thanks for the reference Dad!) to tile the bathroom.  Know this, it kills my husband to have to hire someone out to do this.  He wants to do EVERYTHING!!  :P (i love you Gabey)

They came on Saturday, completing most of the shower/tub surround and flooring.  They were there until after 10pm that evening! And they came the next day around 8:30 until around 1pm and laid the rest and grouted.

I'm very pleased with my tile design:

The pink that can be seen around the edge of the tub is part of the waterproofing membrane and can be scraped off easily.

Here is a detail shot:

And the wood look flooring + vanity (uninstalled):

Few more shots:

You can see the paint color options I'm mulling over on the above picture.  I'm looking at some variation (lighter) of Behr "Dolphin fin", "Rhino" and "Sage Gray".  "Rhino" was used in the bathrooms in our first house flip.

Here are the color samples:

Dolphin fin

Rhino 

Sage Gray

Here is the tile on the floor in the bathroom:

I had them lay it in a wood staggered pattern with 3/16" grout joints.  The grout color is "Truffle" from Home Depot.

Here is where we ended up sourcing our wall tile since it went discontinued at Home Depot during our project and I had only bought one box as a sample!  It is a 4 1/2" X 10" matte white tile.  There was one box total out of 11 boxes (120 square feet) of breakage and they were kind enough to send us that replacement free.  This is laid in a brick pattern with a 1/8" grout joints.

This is the accent tile:

I had them cut it down to 4" wide for the band.  We had to do some planning in order to make it fall neatly where we wanted it in relation to the niche.

We haven't installed this yet, but here it is:

Here is the laminate (not my first choice!) flooring we ordered for the bedroom.  I guess hardwood and/or carpet isn't a good idea for a basement.

I made a mock up of the vanity mirror to see how it will fit.  It was tricky to find a mirror that will fit between the sconces.  It's up high because I have a tall husband :) and also because we are putting in a "chair rail" of tile on the north wall to act as the backsplash.

Here is the mirror we bought:

Here is a pic of the vanity sconces:

Here is a pic of the lighting fixture in the hallway of the bathroom, in front of the linen closet:

This weekend, we are hoping to install the doors and some trim.  Gabe bought them a couple days ago:

The floor trim we have ordered in keeping with the rest of the house:

We are also hoping to install the flooring in the bedroom.

Here's hoping it's done soon!!  We sure are ready.

I'll be in touch for the conclusion of the matter!

Revitalized Hutch

There had been a gem of potential sitting in my basement for a while in the shape of a hutch.  It was the only thing left (of value!! they left a lot of trash!!) by the the "tenants" that stayed in the house for 5 months.  It is an interesting piece, with lots of unique details.  I wanted an opportunity to experiment with chalk paint, so I took this low risk opportunity to try it out!

The hutch can be seen below in two pieces, with the door taken off (sometimes I forget to take the "before" pic at the very beginning!!):

I decided to take off the glass panels on the sides as well because the one on the left had a crack in it and I didn't want to mess with finding replacement glass!!  Not very "rehab addict" of me (for any of you familiar with the show!), I know.  The next step would be to have Gabe use an oscillating multi tool to remove the side lights (the attached side glass panels). This proved to be tricky since we would have to deal with the articulation of the sides where Gabe cut them.  I found a 3/4" trim detail at Home Depot that fit perfectly, so Gabe glued/nailed it into place.

Here is an after shot!

I used Annie Sloan's English Yellow color.  It was a little bit expensive, but I thought it was worth it!  After two coats of the chalk paint, I used a couple coats of the wax that they recommend too.  I really love how it turned out!

And some detail shots:

with flash

And I really loved the original handles for this piece, so I kept 'em.  I did have to give them a good spray paint job--a dark dark brown, resembling oil rubbed bronze.  You might be able to see how I distressed the pristine paint job to give it a unique look.

without flash

I didn't paint inside, because the wood finish still looked so good.

Once our basement renovation is finished and our bedrooms are all switched around and finalized, I will make the final decision about where to put this large yellow hutch.  It's rather bulky and heavy so I need to see where the dust settles with everything else first.  My first thought was the dining room, but it's such a small room and the dining table barely fits anyways.  My second thought was the living room, but I'm not 100% sure, so I'm just going to wait it out!!  Currently, it is fulfilling the role of housing breakable storage in the basement.

Until next time!

Basement Reno Update!

A couple of pics to remember where we started with the basement:

Yucky!  Look at the south basement wall after Gabe patched some cracks and power washed it:

And then this after painting:

And the stairs, as it were:

The first major step towards our basement reno is to "tweak" the orientation of the stairs.  The current orientation straight down will not work for the plans we have for the basement.  Here's an overview--we planned to put a landing three treads up and making a 90 degree angle towards the door to create a vestibule/mud room.  As you may or may not see in the floor plan below, there is a structural pole that is rather close to the stairs heading towards the door, and works better being tucked into a wall.  Having the stairs facing the entry is more ideal. The wall can then line up with the HVAC duct and cuts the space basically in half creating a bedroom space immediately off of the basement entry vestibule.  There will also be a bathroom adjacent that is accessible to the bedroom (kind of a master suite) but also available to the other large space that might become a partial guest room/rec room eventually.  The space created in the far right corner is leftover for utilities such as the HVAC, washer/dryer, water pump, etc.

Here is a shot after much of the work has been done to turn the stairs towards the entry door:

We sourced some floor boards and treads that match what we have going up the stairs:

What made this project somewhat complicated is that in turning the basement stairs below 90 degrees, we lost the requisite headroom required by code, 6' 8".  So Gabe made a platform for the fridge that came out from the wall about a foot and raised it up by about 4 inches.  Pas de probleme :)

This did create a small issue to solve once the fridge was back in place--being able to see behind the it.  So we plan on building a "privacy panel" that will extend along the edge of the counter blocking the view of behind the fridge (sorry no pic).

Moving on to the rec space:

Some fresh pallet shelves for some of our storage:

The shelves to the left of the above pic needed to be repainted and re-jigged a little bit, so Gabe took it upon himself to refresh them a bit:

And this is how they turned out:

Love the repurposed shelves!

I had an idea to hang a curtain up to hide the storage so it wouldn't feel so much like a storage space, so Gabe did this as well.  Here he is hanging the really long rod:

The "English yellow" hutch on the right that is partially seen in the picture has a story for another blog post :)

Additionally, I added a rug and a yard sale find book shelf for toys to make the space useable as a rec room for now.  Good for tae-bo practice too :)

Finished curtains (and a bunch more stuff in the room too!):

Moving right along to the other other planned spaces!!  First, we had to tackle the plumbing for the bathroom.  Back in Dec/Jan we hired out the job to the professionals after Gabe dug thru the concrete floor seen on the left:

 

This will facilitate the use of a new tub/shower, toilet and sink.  After a lot of hassle, the discontinued use of that particular plumber, and 2 failed plumbing inspections, the third time was the charm!  Then we were able to pour concrete over the opening:

We could then go whole hog on the framing, yay!

Before Gabe could start on the framing, he insulated the walls with a polystyrene panel (seen as the sky blue panel behind the framing in the above photo).  After he pulled the heavy things away from the wall (extra freezer and tool shelves), he started framing the walls in the bedroom:

Here is a good shot of the framed egress window Gabe replaced last fall:

But I can't show that without showing the before pic!!  It's pretty grimy looking:

This was back before we had painted the walls, yuck!

The new window is substantially bigger, and fulfills the code requirements for a window in a habitable space/bedroom.  This was an essential step if we ever want to be able to claim it as a bedroom later down the road when we sell.

Next pic displays the same corner as the photo before, all framed up!

  

Panning to the left, this is the wall that divides the bedroom from the bathroom:

Gabe is installing the bulkhead here, that will hide drains from the bathroom above.  Yes, the bathrooms are stacked for ease of plumbing.

With Gabe relatively in the same spot as the previous picture, the bathroom can be seen from the rec room space through the hallway (with the linen closet on the left):

In the leftmost portion of the photo is the corner that will house the water pump, water heater and potentially down the road, the washer/dryer.  Where Gabe is standing is roughly were the toilet will go.

Next, is a shot looking from almost the same vantage point, but more towards the bedroom:

One more shot of what we have so far looking from the bedroom out towards the basement entry:

Now, Gabe is working on the rest of the plumbing.  We splurged and got a water pump to replace the insufficient one we have now.  I will be so happy for better water pressure!!

Looking forward, these are the plans, tweaked and revamped a little:

A few things that have changed from the previous drawing.  The water heater was moved from the upper left hand corner of the drawing to the lower right hand corner and the washer/dryer was stacked in the water heater's old spot.  I took out a closet from the master bedroom design, since I thought it would be nice to have a little nook for a desk or a dresser or something.  Three closets in a master bedroom of a house this size might be a bit of overkill!  We tweaked the walls surrounding how we will manage our storage, closing in the storage on the west end of the rec room, creating a guest room of sorts.  It will be mighty small, but it will be something when we currently have nowhere for guests.  I haven't narrowed in on flooring for the bulk of the basement space, except for the bathroom, I have decided on some nice tile that I will detail in a later post once all the other materials and fixtures are selected!!

Until further adieu.... :)