Bryan & I get along very well. We are alike in almost every way – we share the same sense of humor, have the same taste (exception: Neil Diamond), are hard workers, & are both pretty laid back & patient. We are also both the youngest child in our families growing up. This means that we both have the tendency to sit back & wait for someone else to make a plan for us to go along with. Starting & finishing projects does not come naturally to either one of us. We’ve been avoiding this particular project for a long time, but we are at a tipping point – Maggie needs space!
We’ve lived here for almost eight years. This weekend, we finally tore into “That 70′s Room” in the basement. When we moved in, we treated this room as a family room (complete with hand-me-down couch & wood bigscreen TV). Eventually we installed a new TV upstairs, & turned the basement room into a shared office/studio for Bryan & I. Unfortunately, neither of us were very motivated to spend time there. It was dark, cold, uninviting, & a little cramped with both of us hobbying in there. Not to mention disorganized. I had the bright idea to move the office/studio upstairs, into the light, & move our bedroom downstairs. It kinda made sense. The upstairs room is very bright, & we used the office/studio more. However, that room is even smaller, & thus made for a very cramped work room. Not to mention disorganized (again). I got really frustrated seeing the mess all the time during the day. About a year ago, I was having a tough pregnancy & was not handling stairs very well. So we moved our bedroom back upstairs. I was sad to lose the light, bright studio. We never set up the studio again downstairs (I have a studio away from home now); instead, we allowed the basement room to become the dumping ground for every piece of junk that didn’t have a home. Ugh.
This room is currently in the corner of the basement, but we will move one wall over about four feet so that when you come down the stairs, you’ll walk straight into the finished room. This will become the boys’ bedroom/playroom. Bryan & I will move into the room that the boys have now, & Maggie will get our room (they’re both about the same size, but we’re giving Maggie the warmer of the two).
We spent the last couple of weekends clearing out the room & getting rid of crap (there’s still a lot to go). Today, we really got the party started. See the before & during pictures below, which are in chronological order. With the help of Bryan’s friend Kyle, we first tore off the faux paneling & ceiling tiles to reveal old drywall. After confirming that the walls were not insulated (we were pretty sure since it’s so cold down there), they kept going & took off the drywall too. Other than the one wall we are moving, we will use the existing framing, which is in pretty good shape.
I will take pictures of all progress & post here when changes take place. Here’s the checklist:
➔ clean out room
➔ remove faux paneling
➔ remove drywall
➔ remove ceiling tiles
➔ remove wall to be moved
➔ order a small dumpster & fill with debris
➔ order new windows
➔ frame new wall
➔ relocate light switch
➔ install new drywall
➔ mud walls & ceiling
➔ install trim
➔ putty, sand, & caulk trim
➔ paint
➔ install doors to unfinished areas of basement
➔ order new carpet
➔ install sliding barn-style door at the base of the stairs
➔ move the boys in!
Click on any picture to enlarge, or click here to see all the pictures. Sorry for the bad photo quality. It’s pretty dark down there.
Tonight Bryan hooked up the water supply lines to the faucet & installed the drain pipe on the left side of the sink (the disposer will be on the right). So now we have running water in here!
Click on any picture to enlarge, or click here to see all the pictures.
Last night Bryan installed outlets & switches. Today the plumber came back & installed the water supply lines in the corner & patched up the wall. I kept working on patching & painting the walls.
When Bryan got home from work, he got busy cutting a hole in the countertop for the sink & installing it. It was pretty late when we brought in the lower cupboards, countertop, & sink. The plumbing & electrical isn’t hooked up yet, but at least we have a work surface now!
Click on any picture to enlarge, or click here to see all the pictures.
So yesterday we tore everything out. Today we hired our friends’ dad, a plumber, to come do some work. He removed the old plumbing pipes under the window & cut a hole in the plaster in the corner (our new sink will be in the corner) to see exactly what needed to be done & make room for new electrical work.
I worked hard all day patching the wall that will be our backsplash. We contemplated different backsplashes, but in the end we decided to just have it be painted wall. I think it will look just fine. I worked in small sections. Here is the sequence I live by: vacuum, patch, sand, vacuum, prime, paint. I also worked on getting the ceiling areas around the upper cabinets painted.
After work, Bryan worked on the electrical. After some consultation with our old bishop (an electrician), we’re putting one regular outlet in a hole hidden behind the fridge, a quad plug in the backsplash to the right of the window, a quad (disposer switch + regular outlet) on the left corner backsplash wall behind the sink, & a regular outlet under the sink for the disposer. This will get us very close to code, although technically we should have one more outlet in the backsplash, more than twelve inches to the left of the sink (we’re going to skip that one because we don’t have space). The dishwasher will be hard-wired. Bryan got all the outlets done tonight, & the wiring run to the basement (but not to the box yet).
The plumber will be back tomorrow to run the new sink plumbing in the corner & patch the wall.
Click on any picture to enlarge, or click here to see all the pictures.
Today, Bryan decided to tear out the rest of our kitchen. We started the project a long time ago – we have detailed plans & have already purchased all the cabinets. The upper cabinets are done, but we’ve hit some road blocks with the lower cabinets & sink. Earlier this year we made a little progress:
Over the weekend, while prepping for a yard sale, Bryan came across the corner-shaped countertop that his parents gave us a while back. We realized that this piece is exactly what we needed – the problem with remodeling an old house is that it’s really hard to plan ahead. You never know what’s going to happen, & there is a lot of plumbing & electrical work involved in our remodel. We know that the walls are not square, & so it would not be a good idea to order a countertop ahead of time. But how does one operate with new cabinets & no countertop for weeks? I also don’t know for sure what kind of countertop I want until we see the kitchen put together. But, now we can use this old corner countertop for a while until we decide for sure what we’d like to get.
Bryan called Kyle (one of his scouts) over to help demolish for a few hours. They carefully removed a few of the new upper cabinets as well, to get them out of the way. Our sink (super heavy cast iron) & lower cabinets are all gone now. I guess now we’ve really got to finish it! I have no sink!
Below are the before & afters. Click here to see all the pictures of it in process.
The credit union at my dad’s office holds a Kids’ Day each year. They have a bounce house/obstacle course, free food (hot dogs, chips, drinks, cotton candy), a treasure hunt, & a dollar walk (like a cake walk). We met my dad & cousins there & played for a while today.
Rees can’t resist a grassy hill (see video below). Click on any picture to enlarge, or click here to see all the pictures.
Armed with information from the repairman, I found a reliable brand of water heater @ our local plumbing supply for a good price (he recommended against anything carried @ the big box stores). It’s a 50 gallon & just barely fits in the space of our old one. We picked it up this afternoon.
Thayne came over in the evening & got the drain going. Then he & Bryan were able to drain the old heater by damaging it until it leaked. They got a lot of water & gunk out of it & then used a dolly to haul it out. The new heater was installed in a matter of minutes, & we’ll have nice clean hot water in no time.
Getting rid of the old heater was a huge amount of work & caused a giant mess. The outrageous price quote from the repairman (to have their company replace it for us) made a little more sense by the time Bryan finished the job!
Well, we tried. The drain valves were so gummed up that nothing would come out of the heater (water or sediment). Which may have been a blessing in disguise because Bryan then discovered that our basement drain isn’t working anyway. He pulled some random stuff out of the drain (pen refills, tiny pencils, screws, etc), then we called our neighbor/friend/handyman Thayne. He has experience with cleaning drains & he’s coming to get it working tomorrow. It’s pretty clear that we need a new water heater, but we need a working drain to empty the old one out so we can haul it out of the basement.
Some parents put together a soccer team that only includes kids from Rees’ class at school (he’s in a program that keeps the same class together for kindergarten through 8th grade). Rees was asked to join. At first he said no, because “I don’t know how to play soccer.” After we explained that there would be practices & Dad would help teach him, he decided to give it a try. He played several seasons of soccer up at Spence Eccles Field House (on Guardsman Way by Rowland Hall) when he was little, but I don’t think he remembers that.
Bryan took him to his first practice today & took a few pictures.
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