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| The basement is, for all intents and purposes, finished. The carpet was installed last week, and we've spent the past couple weeks moving furniture, putting pictures up, and generally settling in. It's already worth the time and energy we spent this year, and we are loving it. Here are some pictures of the last few months' worth of work.
Taped seams and screw holes, ready to be primed and painted
The first of two primer coats, to be followed by two coats of paint
Painted walls and finished ceiling (which was way easier to install than I thought)
I felt obligated to make a Shawshank reference for future occupants
Mustard seed-painted stairwell and carpeted stairs
Freshly laid carpet (which has since been covered by furniture, toys, TV, etc.)
Here's how it felt to finally be done
If you look back at previous entries, you can see how far we've come. It took about 10 months and lots of late nights and weekends (and money), but we love it. Now we just need people to come over and hang out with us. We hopefully will be in this house for a long time...
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| One of the worst and most inexplicable things about our house was its hideous orange backdoor. I can only assume that some previous owner was a huge Clemson fan and, probably in a drunken stupor, decided to show his (or her) loyalty by slapping some Tiger orange on the backdoor. It was super streaky and just plain ugly. Plus, it was askew and left a lot to be desired in the area of weather-sealing. So, in yet another step toward a finished basement, I replaced the door today. Here are some pictures.
Original ridiculous door
Sans door
New door w/ old door looking on forlornly
As with most of my home improvement projects, this one isn't quite done yet. The pre-hung door went in very easily but, thanks to some off-center bricks in the wall, it's essentially a window at this point. The fit is very snug and it takes quite a bit of effort to open and close. I need figure out how to get it open and closed more easily, seal the edges, and then it will be good to go. It's nice to have a plain white door that allows natural light in the basement. I was able to use the previous handle and deadbolt, which was a nice bonus.
P.S. The music below is what we've been listening to this weekend, thanks to Noah's current obsession with "Hold On Loosely." He knows the whole chorus, and it's pretty much the funniest/cutest/coolest thing in the world when he sings it.
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| I continue to work on our basement, and I'm managing to make some good progress. The thing is, though, I end up spending a lot of time on peripheral projects, little necessary evils that must get done before I start doing the real work of "finishing the basement." Also, I always underestimate how much time it will take to finish a project. (If Sara had a dollar for every time I headed downstairs and said I'd be done "pretty quickly," she'd have several dollars.)
My latest projects involved updating the base of the stairs. First, I took out a door into the garage that we hadn't been using, and replaced it with a wall. (There were two walls into the garage.) Next, I replaced the wobbly and rotted out landing with a much sturdier version. The final step will be, once again, a step. I've posted some pictures below.
Here's the door, looking from the basement toward the garage. (The ugly orange backdoor is to the left.) We rearranged the garage so this door was inaccessible, and it made sense to just seal it up. I thought of doing it brick by brick, like in The Cask of Amontillado, but that seemed melodramatic and time-consuming.
I removed the door without damaging it too much. I hope to use it for a closet that we'll build around the water heater. I then built a frame out of 2x4's and, once I put the wall up on the garage side, I put insulation between the studs.
Here is the finished product. We chose to use salvaged wood paneling so that it would match the rest of the stairwell. Our plan is to fill the seams and cover with wallpaper. The paneling goes behind the stairs and it seems a little too tricky to replace it all with drywall.
This rickety landing and stair has bugged me since we moved in. The landing squeaked and shifted when you walked on it, and the stair was broken in the middle. The wood was rotted out and there was debris filling the space underneath. This was another of the "I can't believe we bought this house" spots.
I derived great pleasure from ripping out the old landing. The wood looked even worse than I had imagined, and I was surprised we hadn't fallen through at some point. I cleaned out the junk underneath to make way for the new support system. I also took down the post that held up the bottom of the railing, which is why there is a 2x4 propping it up.
After taking far too long, here is the (mostly) completed landing. I used 8" high cinderblocks as the base, built a frame out of 2x4's and 2x2's, and covered it with OSB. It was a much smaller version of the storage room. Sara had a good idea for the bottom of the railing, and you can see it in the form of the shorter green post. I took the existing post (which hadn't quite reached from floor to ceiling anyway) and cut it to reach the bottom of the railing. It needs to be shored up a little more but will do fine. (It looks very crooked, but that's the fish-eye effect of taking the picture at close range.)
I bought a step today, and I'll put that in this week. Sara and I have sort of fallen off the landing a couple times already, so I should finish it sooner than later. I'm still several projects away from hanging drywall, but we're getting there.
One more thing; we watched Slumdog Millionaire last night and it lived up to, and even exceeded, the hype. I highly recommend it.
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| While we were reorganizing our stuff last weekend, I came across my old G.I. Joes (what's left of them... many died tragically at the hands of a short-sighted middle schooler with fireworks.) I figured Noah would enjoy playing with them, so I brought them up for him to check out.
He loves them, and plays with them constantly now. Hopefully I can get the box of vehicles from my folks this summer to make the set complete again. This all means that I'll probably be buying G.I. Joes again pretty soon. Good thing they're relatively cheap.
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