Basement FINAL update!!!

Hip-Hip-Hooray!!!! The basement is complete. It's been finished for two weeks actually, the contractors finished up on October 5th (that was the last day they were here) doing some last minute odds and ends. Kyle and I have taken our time to get our part finished, although as my last post mentioned we finished the trim Oct 4th, but since then we painted the banister, handrail, and last night we painted the walls over all the touch ups that were fixed from cabinet & carpet install. I've been using the space for a while, since my desk was moved down here at the end of September. We plan to get a TV soon, a deep freezer to put in the unfinished storage area probably next month, and then finish off with the mini-fridge the month after that. Here are the final pictures!!!

The bathroom:

The bar:

My nook (gesh it already looks cluttered) :-/

And here is a slideshow I put together with clippings throughout the project!! (hopefully it works)

Erg I can't get it to work...

Here is the direct link to the slide show, maybe this will work: http://www.flickr.com//photos/dpksh/sets/72157627924353096/show/

Basement Trim & Upstairs Door Trim

Remember many moons ago... back in June I believe when we installed new interior doors? Well we finally got the trim on all the doors tonight!!!

Also, last Tuesday I hung the baby's closet door! Yes all by myself :-P

Last Tuesday evening is also when we started on the base trim in the basement, we got about half the basement done. Over in my office nook so we could push the desk back against the wall and around to where the trim started.

Tonight, like I said, we hung the upstairs door trim and finished off the two doors in the basement. Here's the top of the stair door trim:

And here's a view of the bar and bathroom, trying to get as much view of trim in one shot as I could.

We are SOOO close to being finished. The contractor is coming tomorrow to patch up some spots and nicks in the wall and finish up a few odds and ends. What we have left:

-paint the banister and white touch ups on the trim

-paint the wall touch ups

-put together our new TV stand

-move the bar stuff (beer brewing, drink glasses, etc) into the bar cabinets downstairs

Hip-hip-hooray!! I'll post some overall pictures once we have all the little stuff finished. I think we plan to start painting the banister rails tomorrow.

Basement Update: almost to the end

I haven't given a basement update lately, just because well nothing too exciting has happened. I guess the last update was the carpet. Since then we moved some furniture downstairs (friends came over to help) and Kyle got some trim up (I helped with the long pieces)

I took these pictures a week ago, but it shows a few updates that they did.

Got the door frame made at the top of the stairs

Got the banister rails up

Got the doors hung (you can see some of the trim we put up on the swing door to the storage)

We've been busy doing our part (painting & trim) and I'll update that later tonight as we are working on it as we speak! Yesterday I cleaned out the dining room so we have that space back and today I worked on the guest room!!! It's coming together. Now that things are back in order and we have space to walk we just need to do a nice deep cleaning.

Basement Update: CARPET!!!!

We have CARPET! YIPEE!!!

The carpet guy came and installed it today. Last week, after the dry-core was laid we noticed a little bit of a problem...

(sorry so blurry, this was with my phone)

The dry-core sat up a lot higher than the tile, then with the pad (the thickest one, mind you), and the carpet it was looking to be a LOT higher than the tile. I called the installers last week to give them a heads up so they could be prepared when they arrived today. Well of course I didn't really hear back from them, but luckily Andy (my contractor) and his main man Robert stayed around to meet with the carpet guy to workout a plan prior to the start of install. So this morning they figured something out, right now there is no transition piece, which is what we were hoping for. We originally just wanted the carpet to but up against the tile, but the dry core was posing a problem. I think it looks fine now, but I'll see what Andy thinks and we might end up using a transition piece even though we were trying to avoid that.

Anyway so here is the pad installed:

Their fix was to have Robert cut an inch or so back from the dry-core and lay just a little piece of wood there so it gradually goes down to the tile and the carpet guy and just do a turnover tack on the carpet:

HERE is our CARPET! Isn't it beautiful :-)

It's going to look even better with trim around the base.

Home stretch!! We have just a handful (or two) of things left to get finished.

Basement Update: Cabinets & Dry Core (and overall pictures)

I have lots of pictures to share tonight!!! They got the upper cabinets hung. They were too long, so the cabinet guy Joe (who did a spectacular job on them by the way) had to come out yesterday to do some adjustment. Here they are:

There is a space under the front bar for a mini fridge, which we still need to get. And you can also see the outline on the wall by the floor where the air duct will get put. It originally was behind the cabinet area, but when they put the cabinets in they found that it was fully covered so they are having to shift it over a bit.

And there's a little story with the sink. The plumber was out Friday to get ALL the plumbing done... the bar sink we ordered arrived Thursday afternoon. I ordered it August 5th, it arrived September 5th... it was on back order so it took forever to get here. Well when Robert (Our contractor, Andy's right hand man) opened up the box, he noticed some rust spots on the back part of the basin... NOT GOOD! So I spend about 30 minutes on the phone with the company and they were contacting the manufacture who is going to replace it.... that just means more delay. So here you can see the hole is cut for the sink (which is why we can't just go get a new one) but there is no sink. So the plumber still has that one thing to do as soon as it arrives.

Here's the lovely bathroom! All in working order, WE HAVE TWO TOILETS now! YAHOO!!!

Here is the rest of the basement, you can see they've started to lay the dry core flooring that goes under the carpet:

I put the plastic back up over where there will be a door to the storage area to prevent dust from getting back there since I have it all cleaned already.

The drycore was an addition we choose just to help the flooring not feel so 'basement-y'. We have yet to have any sort of water problem (knock on wood) but if we were to, this would help. Close up of the drycore:

And the underside which is touching the cement:

Like I mentioned I cleaned out the unfinished storage area, and last weekend we got some of my arts, crafts, sewing, photography, & office supplies moved down. Not all but a good chunk which opened up more of a walk way space upstairs :-)

Here I am turned around with the above space behind me, looking at where the door will go and our laundry shoot

Here's our laundry - unfinished area. The wire shelf in the back was another check mark we accomplished this weekend. I had been wanting this hung for the past few years, we finally did and it makes for great storage :-)

Here is the under the stairs storage which I cleaned out a while ago. The shelves may look a little empty but that's because what is going on them is up in boxes upstairs. I didn't want to get it all in there as they still need to get in there to get the electrical over to the mini-fridge whole and re-route the air duct.

I also have pictures of our new plumbing to share. Like I mentioned with the remodel the plumber re-piped ALL our plumbing to replace the galvanized pipes with this better dura-plex stuff:

You can see all the red and blue pipes:

Here is over under the upstairs bathroom:

So that is where we stand right now. What is left:

• finish laying the dry core flooring
• fix the nicks and bangs in the wall/ceiling
• re-route the duct by the bar
• install the bar sink
• electrical out to the bar for the fridge
• hang the mirror in the bathroom
• carpet next TUESDAY!
• install the doors (2 pocket doors and 1 swing door)
• put up the trim (Kyle is doing this)
• final inspection

We are PRAYING this thing can get done by October and we can no longer have people coming in and out of the house all week. We are also getting really excited to have it usable. We probably won't get a TV for a while, but we will get the house cleaned up as soon as possible. As soon as the carpet is down we will put up the computer desk, have the cable guy come out to get the outlets moved over, move the computer out of the babies room and get his space all ready for him. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh I did get the upstairs interior doors painted yesterday. We still need to get trim up on those!!

Basement Update: the end is getting closer

Here is the basement as of last night, September 8th

Yesterday the cabinet were delivered, the electrician got most all his work done (outlets, light fixtures, switches) and got our wall sconce at the top of the stairs:

Today the plumber is here installing the toilet, the bathroom vanity, and changing out all our old galvanized plumbing to new aplex stuff throughout the house (well in the basement as it doesn't really run much through the house, just up to the kitchen sink and the bathroom sink which most of it can be accessed from the basement area that is being left unfinished.

Last week I did a thorough cleaning under the stairs and today and did the unfinished storage area that is over by the electrical box. It was such a mess from after they sanded!!! Dust EVERYWHERE! So it's slowing coming together, this weekend I hope to get some of my craft and sewing supplies moved down to the unfinished storage area. We might also work on the upstairs trim that goes around the doors and paint the doors to try and get that off our list.

Basement Update: Primed Walls & Tile

Not a WHOLE lot happened while we were gone. They did fix some mudding errors that the sheet rock guy had made and got the walls all sanded and primed. These pictures were the status as of Tuesday night (August 30th)

They sprayed the texture on the ceiling

Yesterday he got the tile laid and today he cleaned up the basement a bit. Now it's time for us to paint which we will be doing over the next five days or so. Or I should say Kyle will be doing most of it as I have to work everyday until Sunday.

Basement Update: Tape & Mud

Basement is coming along slowly but surely. Kyle and I are going vacation so hopefully we'll see some good progress once we get back (primed, dry core flooring, & tile) We are scheduled to paint once we get back. We decided back in the beginning to paint ourselves to try and save some $$ Painting and putting up the trim ourselves is saving us about two grand!

Doesn't look much different other than most of the drywall nails are covered with mud and the seams covered with tape.

We've also been working in the baby's room. Kyle go the trim painted white (window, closet frame, & base trim) I need to put one more coat on it today. He also painted the baby's room door. We hung new doors a while ago, but didn't paint them. We'll paint the other three doors before we put the trim up, which we have in the garage... but right now trim is our last priority :-) Once we get home from California, we can paint the basement and get the baby's room painted! That will make a big difference!! That's all we have left for the baby's room, although we can't really move in until the basement gets finished as my computer is still in this room (baby's room)