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!

Ringing in the New Year with Drywall

A lot has happened in December.  And has not necessarily been us working on the house!  I finished up my semester with a 4.0, we got Gabe's sister Eva married off and spent a little bit of time with Gabe's side of the family in Michigan recuperating.

The last I wrote, we were putting in the second to last window and were waiting for the front door arrival.  The porch construction was making progress and we were rushing to get the house "buttoned up" for the winter months.

I was very busy finishing up the semester in the first two weeks of December.  Gabe got out to the house whenever he could, working around my schedule, and I managed to squeeze a couple hours in as well.  The first thing to speak of are the porch stairs, completed by our framing subcontractor, who did a nice job.  Here is a picture Dad took during the week of the progress:

It's not completely secured, but good enough for now!  We still have to decide on the design of the stair rails.  It is better that we do this in the spring anyway, when it's warm.  (we will be able to get the drywall in the building a lot easier too, if the rails aren't in the way)  It sure is nice to not have to monkey up the rails anymore! :)  It can also be seen that the window closest to the road is installed.

Various contractors worked during the week to accomplish many things.  The porch's metal roof is now completed:

The hardi-plank siding that has clad the back of the building (addition) still needs to be added to the front right corner of the building.  The electrician finishes the first floor wiring.  We decide to add two more pot lights to the living room; the vanity light needed to be raised a couple of inches...adjustments are all part of the process!  The framing contractor tied up loose ends, such as cutting the hole for the front door, since we are moving it over five feet to give more livable space to the living room.  He also framed in the entryway with a cased opening.  This will give the area some distinction, and provide a little bit of protection from drafts.

On Tuesday, we had an unusually warm day, so Dad scheduled grading to be accomplished.  Mom worked hard on Saturday to plant grass seed on the muddy ground.

Dad and Gabe worked that day to install a window in the old door hole.  We still didn't have the front door, but needed to make that progress, so we just used the french doors in the back to lock up.

How's that for progress?  :)

Within the next week, I had finished up my classes.  Friday, Gabe and I went to Home Depot to finally pick up our front door!  We also had to make arrangements to gather all the insulation.  We had in mind to finish up the insulation and schedule drywall by the end of the year.  I met a high school friend at Home Depot who helped us to gather all the necessary insulation and by about 4 we were on our way to the job site.  Mom & Dad had been at the site for a while getting some things done.  By the time we unloaded everything, it was about time to turn around and go home!  We had a Christmas play to clean up for in about an hour, so we jetted back to Mom & Dad's to get ready.  The play was a local production of A Christmas Carol, a treat we got to enjoy at a nearby performing arts center converted from an old barn that Dad designed and had built using my uncle's amazing timber framing skills.  It was the first time I had ever seen it, and it looked great!

The next day got started with Gabe working on preparing the front door to be hung, and Mom & Dad working together to get the insulation hung in the second floor.  I drove back to Home Depot to gather the remaining insulation.  It was a chilly one!  We definitely had the propane heater on that day.  Mom also worked to get the place organized so I could spray the floor with Bora-care later that afternoon.  These are some of the final things that needed to be accomplished before we could get the space drywalled.

Getting it nice and clean!

Here is Gabe working on preparing the opening for the front door:

And it gets glued:

And there it is!  It's a little hard to tell here, but it is hung!

Working on hanging insulation upstairs:

Check out Mom monkeying around on the scaffolding!

Later in the afternoon/evening, we are all working on insulation.  Gabe doesn't have too far to reach to do the ceiling!  That's kinda nice.

One room completely complete!

And that concludes the pre-Christmas activity on the house.  Gabe and I left for Michigan Tuesday morning the 18th, and returned the 28th.  We helped decorate for Eva's wedding on the 22nd, and rested a good bit while we were there.  I even beat my father-in-law in Settlers of Catan!  I won't mention all the times I lost at Ticket to Ride though.  Hanging out with our little nephew was a joy as well.  My little VW Beetle got some repairs too while we were there.  It would have cost twice as much in DC with all the work that we had done!  We managed to get 50 mpg on the way home...how's that for efficiency??!?

Since we had a bit of a hang up with car repairs, we couldn't get home in time to work on the house with Mom & Dad on Friday the 28th, which was our plan.  They ended up doing some more insulation by them selves, dodging Dad's flu sickness somehow.  Saturday was a family reunion in Harrisonburg with the Buckwalters.  We were feeling like we needed to do our share on site, so we stayed out until Sunday and worked a few hours in the afternoon (trying not to make a habit of this!!) to finish up the insulation, so Dad can get it inspected in the next week.

Here we are finishing up the insulation task:

Living room corner, adjacent to the fireplace

We had a propane heater again that day because it was mighty cold again that day...or else I had been in Michigan too long and was chilled to the bone :)

Notice the blue sprayed floors that was done a couple weeks previous, and didn't get finished since there was something blocking the sprayer from spraying.  Once we get that cleaned out was can finish the task.

Here are the two new pot lights we added:

This made my day, seeing Mom's determination to get the insulation done and done well:

Another shot of the ceiling insulation upstairs that we finished up that day:

Mom working on the insulation in the kitchen/dining room:

Gabe, scaling the heights of the stairwell

We finished up around six on Sunday evening.

We scheduled drywall to be hung on Monday, Jan 7th.  The plan is to have 130 sheets of drywall delivered to the site on Friday, since the drywall can't be dumped inside due to the close power lines.  So, we will have to move it ourselves!!  What we do to save a buck!  Gabe asked a couple of guy friends to meet us there on Saturday morning to move the boards.  We will also be there to finish up all the last minute things before drywall is hung.  Should be fun!