Whats in a Basement...

Its been on the todo list for gosh. over a year I guess. But I was always curious as to what a basement remodel, a whole heck of a lot of sweat equity, and some necessities would run. I finally tallied up the costs for our basement remodel.

$4,224.25 Was the total. I must admit that I'm pretty impressed. Considering the extras, and some issues that came about. Now I'll have to admit. The costs of the paint and the super discounted area rugs are not included. So I dunno. Tack on another $100 to $150 tops.

Some breakdowns. about $1786.91 of this cost was the flooring and underlayment. 42% of the overall project costs. Ouch! But we wanted the nicer faux stone laminate flooring. Its looks great!

The ceiling cost about 781.56, or about 19% of the overall costs.

The cost of new tools (heck what would be project be if you can't land yourself some new tools. For me the biggest was biscuit jointer. LOVE IT!!) was only $156.16. Even Jodie can't complain about that.

The rest was for 2x4 lumber for framing, the can lights, electrical supplies, etc etc.

Oh yeah, one of the most important breakdown. about $10 in candy. Mostly Spree and Twizzlers as the checkout aisle in Menards. Hey a man has to eat!!

Whats in store? A master bathroom remodel. Something tells me that $4224 is not gonna cut it, but you never know. We got J, the master tile layer on board. So except for new fixtures, its just some basic rewiring, the extend of the new drywall will be determined. Cost for a dumpster, and possibly a plumber thrown in for final hookups. Stay tuned in 2012!

In the beginning there was darkness...

Along with the darkness, there as damp, unused, void of space.

11 years ago, a few weeks before J and I got married, I started tearing up the basement. Tonight, 11 years , 6 months, and a couple of weeks later, Its done. (ok ok, so I need to hang a new door going down the stairs, but that doesn't count).

The original inspiration, was the Knight of the round table tapestry we brought back from Belgium so many years ago. J created some individual crests for each of us. They are backlit with halogen dimmers so they add a nice glow to the basement.

Its so nice to have another usable room in the house. If all those toys were strew about the house, I think I'd have already gone nuts!

A picture is worth a thousand words..

So you are just going to have to guess since I didn't take one yet. Ha!

Since we are in radio silence. And J is trying to stay busy, occupied, that sort of thing. Some of the basement punch list items have been getting some pressure. Being a good worker bee, I'm giving some heed to my project manager.

The "pole wrap" is up. What's a pole wrap? Think the cover of a role top desk, wrapped around one of the steel support posts in the basement to make it look decorative.

The walls have pictures and tapestry and a cuckoo clock even.

The carpeting for the stairway is on order.

My sample "faux" window was a success. Same with the glued-up,biscuit jointed shelf experiment. So I need some "garage time" to crank those out. All that might be left after that is the stairway lighting that we are thinking about. And maybe the electricity under the stairs to a different feed.

Picture is coming..

Boy its nice..

Having a NEW room in the house is so nice. We've already spent quite a bit of time down there. J&I are thrilled with not having the ground floor filled with toys. Still have a punch list of things to do. But its not to bad.


Peace and Happy Easter!

Its done (well almost)

The Basement remodel is complete. There is a small punch list. Like bringing in the cable line for the TV and the cable modem. Putting the shelves in the bookcase. Installing the wrap around the support post. I still have to build the Faux windows, but that's garage work and doesn't impact move it.

Tomorrow. Or, actually today as I see its Sunday already. We'll give a good cleaning to everything, then start the move it.
Soon I'll tally up all the receipts I've been carrying to see what the total $$ cost was. We still have one medium expense for carpeting on the stairs. Coming soon a picture following the move it. And hopefully some type of photo montage that shows all the changes and progress. So pre-move it photo is below.


Peace and Happy Holy Week.

And the light goes on...

Basement remodel update:
I've been focusing on work this week. But feeling the urge to do a "little" something, I opted to look at the "accent" lighting that will be near the basement windows, behind what I'm calling faux windows that I have to build. To my surprise, the went quite quick. While they are not screwed down (since I still need to trim out the inside of that rough window framing) I did test them on the dimmer switch that controls them.

WOW! I turned off all the other lights in the basement. Being night time, that left the basement quite dark. I turned on the accent lighting (which includes a new spotlight pointing above the fireplace). SO COOL. even with the light dimmed down. It was just so cool. if I listened hard I could almost hear the Medieval revelry within some Inn.

Splash one more item on the basement punch list...

Peace

A biscuit for your basket

With the laminate flooring carefully pulled up. It was time to get to Menards this time, rented the Menards truck since I cant bring home 4x8 sheet goods. 12 3/4 tongue and groove OSB in fact. A couple of very long night getting it cut up and installed. A short break for a baptism in North Central Wisconsin. And it was time to get the floor done.

The fun part about installing the OSB? was jointing the short edges of the wood. There is no tongue and groove. After some research, and some phones calls. The answer was "biscuits". Not having the ability to use biscuits, I ended up with a cost conscience biscuit jointer from the Depot. It was quite, clean, and did the job like a champ. Heck even my mom was excited about it, no sure why she's always wanted to have or use a biscuit jointer.. but there you have it..

With the OSB down, and the laminate already cut, it didn't take long to get the laminate by down. A couple hours tops. The floor looks awesome. And now it feels awesome as well. Its still got a tad of give, that's good. but it doesn't fell like walking on cardboard over shag carpeting.



There were some tricky areas to cut around, but the I-Beam support post was one of the most tricky. Especially given the nature of the flooring with the tile and the grout lines. In order to keep the pattern going, it proved to be quite a challenge. I couldn't be happier how well that turned out. It's blog worthy by itself.

So the flooring is done. The chair rail, baseboard, window and door casing will begin sometime very soon. I've got to snap up the rest of the ceiling after I install some speakers, and do some accent lighting in the windows. Those are the biggest punch list items. So we're almost there.

Peace!

A bounce, A spring in your Step, but spongy?

Great progress was made on the basement. Last weekend the flooring was put it. J picked out an awesome Dupont laminate. Its called "Tuscan Stone", its sort of a cobble stone look. Very cool and very fitting for the Medieval theme to the basement.

Unfortunately, this week, I have to un-install the flooring. The flooring was a bit "spongy". That is to say, I expected a little give in the floor while using the Delta-FL underlayment, but it just didn't fell right. Calling up DuPont, the people at Delta, I got some mixed answers. In the end, I listened to the riot act read to me from the DuPont people about invalidating the flooring warranty. So I carefully pulled up the laminate and put some some 3/4 tongue & groove OSB as a subfloor material on top of the Delta-FL.

The flexibility in the floor, and the clicking from the Delta.. are now fixed. I'll need a couple of hours to put the laminate back down. So soon I'll be back on schedule. J has already pre-stained all the trim. So it will be full speed ahead on the trim very soon. Following that, the punch list if pretty small. Pictures are forthcoming...

peace

Time Capsule (well sort of)

(name of the kids removed)

I sometimes thing that when I remodel these rooms I should wall up some trinkets or newspapers or something as a time capsule. While I think about it, I don't ever follow through. As I was preparing to cover up the concrete floor, in prep for the new floor in the basement, I had an idea. A time capsule or sorts, but also a little praise, a little prayer, and message for the kids. Since J and I are working on the basement for them. So I grabbed some of the big, fat kids chalk and did a time capsule "Ted Style"...

Its about a floor... (part 2)

So the old flooring it out. The ground was vacuumed, scrubbed, and vacuumed again. Then it was time for the Delta-FL. It took me a bit to get used to working with it, to cut it to size, but its more rigid than I thought, which is good

After that was in, it was recommended to still use some thin foam underlayment. So I did that as well. The final view with both layers of underlayment is shown to the left.

During some reviews I read of the Delta-FL. I read that the underlayment can make some noise until its has been lived in awhile. I hope so, since its pretty noticeable the noise it makes. Some of the noise is the delta-FL sticking then unsticking to the still sticky black adhesive that I didn't fully remove. The other noise was simple from the plastic coming in contact with the concrete flooring.

As of the writing of this post, I've got the first three rows of laminate in. I'll post a photo when I'm all done tomorrow.

Peace

Its about the floor... (part 1)

(photo at left is the last shot taken before I tear out the old linoleum tiling)

So J asked me to rearrange some of the things i was going to do on the basement this weekend. So moved to the front of the line is the new flooring. Going int this project we knew that the ceiling and the flooring would be the two bigger ticket items. We saved some on the ceiling, and instead we added it to a flooring that J and I really like. Needless to say, that laminate floor cost probably as much as what I've put into the basement (supply costs only).

We had an underlayment product names Delta-FL. Best way to describe it is large, rigid, bubble wrap in steroids.

In a project like this, its always fun to see what you'll find. We know that there was a gas appliance in the basement at some point. The old pipes was there. We suspect a stove or a cooktop, since there was a fan. We I discovered after I removed the flooring was that there was a 2nd kitchen in the basement. Or minimally a really fancy wet bar. (photo below to the right is the floor after the tile is removing, showing where the old kitchen was).

You can sorta make out a circle in the first rectangle. That's where (I'm pretty certain) an old drain was filled in with concrete. The white areas are thin layers of concrete or thin set. When the kitchen was taken out, the owners opted to put a 2nd layer of tile down, and to make the two layers level, they used the concrete.

more to come in part II...

Up!

Perhaps not as colorful as the animated movie, but also. The ceiling is up in the new basement. The only ceiling tiles left are the once I have to cut around the can lights. As you can tell J already has the color splotches on the walls. I have no doubt (really I don't) that she'll gonna match it all look sweeeet! Whats up next? I'll take a break while J paints the walls. Then I'll be back with all the trim work, the remaining ceiling tiles, and a pretty large sized list of loose ends.



On a different note. I've about finished week two of the 8 week "New Year, New You!" program at the fitness center at work. Counting calories is no fun. I don't need bean counters to tell me
my twizzlers and M&Ms add up. Ha! But at least its getting me (slowly) back into an exercise groove. Lastly, I wanna give a shout out to our friends presenting and attending a WWME encounter this weekend. May the Lord bless you all.

Peace

Primed up!

As the kiddo's spend part of the watching and re-watching UP!, I got the wet sanding on the basement done and the priming of the walls. So the walls are now officially done except for the wallpaper and/or paint that goes on that. J is working up ideas on that, but its not holding anything up. The next stage is the ceiling. Tomorrow I'm off to Home Depot or Menards and picking up the supplies for the ceiling. I'll only get a few ceiling tile samples, since the budget-style type we were looking at need to be ordered. So I need to get the tracking up on the ceiling that try out the samples, then we'll order the rest. We glanced at some flooring, but the choice of the flooring will need to happen quite soon. There has been some churn on the stairs. Originally I was to replace all the raisers and the steps. Now we're playing with the idea of using a less expensive carpet, and just having Menards of Home depot come to install carpet just on the stairs. We'll see. We have a bit of time on the choice.
Peace

Mud in January? In Chicago?!?

Yes that's right Charlotte my dear. Mud in January. Drywall mud to be specific. The taping and the mudding is now done. At least its substantially done. I still need to wet sand it, and thus might need some small touch ups, but its done. I've already got the primer, so that will go up this weekend. With J busy scrap booking, we don't really have an opportunity to look at/for and select a ceiling. so instead of putting in the ceiling, I'll probably rip up the old floor tile in prep for the new floor (also needs to be picked out, but that will go in later after the ceiling, and probably the painting and wall papering. its starting to look like a functional room. Once its primed I'm sure it will really start to take shape.

Peace

Going Green

Its a new year, work work is already beginning to siphon off my time. But the basement progress continues. Going Green. While I did use some Owens Corning rigid foam made from recycled materials. That is not the reason for the post title, rather the Green board I used as another piece of the moisture abatement. All the drywall is now complete. Tomorrow, I'll ensure all the screws are tight, start adding tape to the joints, and adding the corner bead (plastic molding under the drywall mud to protect the corners from things like two crazy young boys!). If things go smoothly, I might even begin the mudding tomorrow.

Peace

btw I've joined into a program at the fitness center called "New Year,New You!" so I'll have to come up with a goal, and I'll be on my way with the coaching and seminars that go with it...

Typing? Painful? naawww

After two weeks of hammering, splicing electrical, wielding a razor blade as scalpel on drywall, the number of cuts, bruises, gashes, in my hands are at an all time high. Even the pads of my fingers ache, making typing a challenge. No big complaints, it will all be worth it once the basement is done, its just the journey getting there that is a bit.. ahh... painful..

Pretty in Pink

Got a few moments of free time. Sssshhh. Don't tell J that I'm on the computer or else I'll hear the "How's the progress on the basement coming". My reply is "pretty in pink", as in Owens Corning insulation. Today was a sort of odd progress day. A day in which little things were done that don't really make it look like a lot of progress was made., but consumed the entire day. I added the vapor barrier on the 1 wall that needed it. I reinstalled the radiant heat units (bottom left of the photo). I built up a soffit around new waste water pipe from the kitchen/2nd floor remodel. and I framed out whats going to be our "interior" window. Lastly, it was clean up and clear much of the stuff out to make room. Now Its full speed ahead on drywall install.

Its progress.. (more)

With spring in full swing. Yard work needing to be done, hopefully work can continue to proceed on the basement. I did spend a bit of time on some more framing. I would say the rough carpentry is about 70% done. I got a little bit let on a the wall. I need to frame up a pre hung door, and build a small soffit around some of the newer plumbing from the remodel. Once the wall are up and I got the door framed, I'll snap a picture.

hope you all have a great week!

There's a hole in my wall, Dear Liza

There's a hole in my (foundation) wall, dear Liza
There's a hole in my wall, Dear Liza, a hole
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, then fix it!

There's water coming from the hole, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There's water coming from the hole, dear Liza, dear Liza,
Then plug it, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then plug it, dear Henry, dear Henry, then plug it!

With what shall I plug it dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what shall I plug it dear Liza, with what?
With hydraulic cement, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With hydraulic cement, dear Henry, with cement!

There's an electrical panel in the way, dear Liza, dear Liza
There's an electrical panel in the way, dear Liza, dear Lisa
Then move the panel dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then move the panel dear Henry, then move it!

..and on an on...

So.. work on the basement has resumed. As I mentioned in my last post, the combination of unusual amounts of rain, and frozen group, led to flash flooding, and a veritable lake in our back yard. Bad news as it results in some water in the basement, good news, that I found out now before I got any further. It was quite a chore to loosen up and shift our main electrical panel to get at the hole. But I did. I cleared out the joke of a plug that was there, filled it with some good hydraulic cement, and also waterproofed the surrounding area.

The panel is now back in place, we had another TON of rain, and half our back yard is a pond. And the basement is bone dry. I've got the radiant heaters reinstalled, and I've got the first section of framing done. Its been a whirlwind of progress this weekend. With some good fortune, and some time, there's a remote chance I could have the majority of the framing done by the end of then next weekend. We'll see how things go.

Peace!