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Mar 17, 2016
Mar 9, 2016
Basement Renovation Plans
It's been pretty quiet around the ol' homestead lately. The unfinished basement is our first big project. We're still in the planning stages so there isn't a lot of action, just talking, talking, talking. And drawing endless floorplans of course.
(Warning: the photos for the next little while aren't going to be pretty as we do all of the maintenance work necessary to get to the pretty stuff.)
It's nice that the basement is totally unfinished. It's a blank slate if you will. A blank slate with a couple of cat pee stains.
To prep it for...whatever we end up doing, we painted the entire floor with an epoxy acrylic paint from Behr meant for concrete and garage floors. It's an all-in-one product that just rolls on (two coats) like regular paint, but gives a strong stain-resistant finish. It's even tint-able.
The hardest part was preparing the floor for painting. We scraped off any residue we could find, swept, and then scrubbed the floor down with diluted Mr. Clean and a stiff brush. Once it was dry we swept it again. We also took down the lower level of drywall all around so that we could get the paint as close to the building frame as possible. I think I mentioned before that we're going to replace all of the old drywall as it was hung (badly) more than 15 years ago and then left. You can see where there is some water damage and mildew in the front corner.
Painting the floor was kind of fun. You don't need to tape off the edges, the area is flat, and the paint covers really well. The tricky part was that we still have "stuff" in the basement - some boxes that haven't been unpacked, Tom's workbench and power tools, and furniture for the eventual family room. We split the basement into 3 sections, emptied one section into another and painted the now empty one. We had to wait 24 hours between coats, and we chose to wait a week each time before moving the boxes, etc. onto a freshly painted area, so it ended up taking 3 weekends to complete. Aren't you glad we don't work for you?
Once the floor was done, Tom was ready to go ahead with new drywall. The basement is pretty cold right now without it, and that sure isn't helping our heating bill. The basement is already wired with electrical outlets all around, but since we don't really know what the room layout will be or where the furniture will go, he installed more. He ran an additional, completely separate circuit around the room, adding outlets in the places where there were gaps. He also installed two electrical boxes up high on the north (left) wall as the TV will be mounted along there somewhere and it would be nice to have the cables completely hidden.
Now he was all ready to start drywalling - he even bought himself a drywall hoist to hold the sheets. But then he started researching and decided that, even though the walls are already insulated, he'd rather replace it with spray foam insulation. There have been some leaks around the front windows in the past and he's concerned that moisture will get in behind and rot the frame. So we're waiting on some quotes right now.
In the meantime we've started sketching our ideas - this is my favourite so far. I used Floorplanner to design it. The program is really easy to use - and free!
We know we want a separate laundry room, a powder room, a storage room, and a family room/TV room that's as large as possible. Since there is so much space to work with (and so little room upstairs), we thought it would be a good idea to also incorporate an office/4th bedroom. The window in that area of the basement is so large (4 panes wide) that it would be a shame to just turn the room into storage. Maybe I'll get to have another craft room like I had before.
We'll have a separate room for the furnace, water heater, and water softener - in our last house they shared a room with the washer/dryer and everything was always covered in lint or dust. There'll be a door from the laundry room though for access.
The laundry room is going to have a 4 foot tall raised shower stall so that we can bath the dogs there. We'll be able to come in the front door and straight down the stairs into the shower, instead of carrying their muddy bodies through the house to the bathroom.
We're thinking of something like this:
The rest of the empty space will be taken up with a drying rack. We hang dry a large portion of our clothes so we need the space.
The storage room will be accessed from the laundry room probably. We thought about having the door at the end, but I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to get to items at the back if they were loaded in that way. I don't know; still working on it.
I'm loving the large area we have for the family room. And yes, there will most likely always be a dog hanging out on the couch, just like in the drawing. That empty space at the top is still up for grabs - a workout area, maybe? We're hoping to build a walkout to the backyard someday so we aren't planning on building any rooms against the back wall.
The next thing I want to do is tape out the walls on the floor with painter's tape to see if the layout makes sense. That means unpacking more boxes. It's mostly kitchen stuff - I don't know how it all fit in our last kitchen, which seemed so small itself. I think there might be some KonMari in my future......
(Warning: the photos for the next little while aren't going to be pretty as we do all of the maintenance work necessary to get to the pretty stuff.)
It's nice that the basement is totally unfinished. It's a blank slate if you will. A blank slate with a couple of cat pee stains.
To prep it for...whatever we end up doing, we painted the entire floor with an epoxy acrylic paint from Behr meant for concrete and garage floors. It's an all-in-one product that just rolls on (two coats) like regular paint, but gives a strong stain-resistant finish. It's even tint-able.
The hardest part was preparing the floor for painting. We scraped off any residue we could find, swept, and then scrubbed the floor down with diluted Mr. Clean and a stiff brush. Once it was dry we swept it again. We also took down the lower level of drywall all around so that we could get the paint as close to the building frame as possible. I think I mentioned before that we're going to replace all of the old drywall as it was hung (badly) more than 15 years ago and then left. You can see where there is some water damage and mildew in the front corner.
Painting the floor was kind of fun. You don't need to tape off the edges, the area is flat, and the paint covers really well. The tricky part was that we still have "stuff" in the basement - some boxes that haven't been unpacked, Tom's workbench and power tools, and furniture for the eventual family room. We split the basement into 3 sections, emptied one section into another and painted the now empty one. We had to wait 24 hours between coats, and we chose to wait a week each time before moving the boxes, etc. onto a freshly painted area, so it ended up taking 3 weekends to complete. Aren't you glad we don't work for you?
Once the floor was done, Tom was ready to go ahead with new drywall. The basement is pretty cold right now without it, and that sure isn't helping our heating bill. The basement is already wired with electrical outlets all around, but since we don't really know what the room layout will be or where the furniture will go, he installed more. He ran an additional, completely separate circuit around the room, adding outlets in the places where there were gaps. He also installed two electrical boxes up high on the north (left) wall as the TV will be mounted along there somewhere and it would be nice to have the cables completely hidden.
Now he was all ready to start drywalling - he even bought himself a drywall hoist to hold the sheets. But then he started researching and decided that, even though the walls are already insulated, he'd rather replace it with spray foam insulation. There have been some leaks around the front windows in the past and he's concerned that moisture will get in behind and rot the frame. So we're waiting on some quotes right now.
In the meantime we've started sketching our ideas - this is my favourite so far. I used Floorplanner to design it. The program is really easy to use - and free!
We know we want a separate laundry room, a powder room, a storage room, and a family room/TV room that's as large as possible. Since there is so much space to work with (and so little room upstairs), we thought it would be a good idea to also incorporate an office/4th bedroom. The window in that area of the basement is so large (4 panes wide) that it would be a shame to just turn the room into storage. Maybe I'll get to have another craft room like I had before.
We'll have a separate room for the furnace, water heater, and water softener - in our last house they shared a room with the washer/dryer and everything was always covered in lint or dust. There'll be a door from the laundry room though for access.
The laundry room is going to have a 4 foot tall raised shower stall so that we can bath the dogs there. We'll be able to come in the front door and straight down the stairs into the shower, instead of carrying their muddy bodies through the house to the bathroom.
We're thinking of something like this:
Houzz
The rest of the empty space will be taken up with a drying rack. We hang dry a large portion of our clothes so we need the space.
The storage room will be accessed from the laundry room probably. We thought about having the door at the end, but I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to get to items at the back if they were loaded in that way. I don't know; still working on it.
I'm loving the large area we have for the family room. And yes, there will most likely always be a dog hanging out on the couch, just like in the drawing. That empty space at the top is still up for grabs - a workout area, maybe? We're hoping to build a walkout to the backyard someday so we aren't planning on building any rooms against the back wall.
The next thing I want to do is tape out the walls on the floor with painter's tape to see if the layout makes sense. That means unpacking more boxes. It's mostly kitchen stuff - I don't know how it all fit in our last kitchen, which seemed so small itself. I think there might be some KonMari in my future......
Feb 12, 2016
New Light Fixtures
One of the things we've had a hard time adjusting to in the new house is the lack of overhead lighting. In our previous houses, even if we didn't like the lighting, at least there was something there to illuminate the room at night until we could get it changed. This house only has lighting in the kitchen and bathrooms (and the basement of course - fabulous, buzzing fluorescent lighting).
We were back to work just a couple of days after moving, so most of our unpacking happens at night. There's nothing more fun than unpacking by flashlight. Really, nothing. You should try it. One box and you're ready to go to bed. We did eventually set up some lamps, but without the rooms arranged a couple are still sitting on the floor. (My friend Jody unpacked and arranged her entire house the day she moved in - I'm sure my place drives her bananas.)
So we knew we had to get our butts out there and buy some overhead lighting. But what to buy? We want to take our time with this place and love everything we choose, so
It was easier to pick out lights for the two spare rooms - I loved the drum light in our old bedroom so much that I knew I needed to see it again in the new place. Luckily Home Depot still had a couple kicking around at one nearby store. That's the worst, isn't it? Falling in love with something that's discontinued when you want to buy it again.
The process of installing a brand-new fixture involves cutting a hole in the ceiling and running wire from the wall switch up and across to the designated spot. I would love to show you exactly what Tom did, but it was freezing cold in the attic and he refused to stop to take pictures. But we have plenty more lights to add so I know there'll be many, many more chances.
Here's a quick rundown though:
Do I need to point out that the power to the room (or the whole house if you'd like) should be turned off while doing electrical work? I hope not.
He started with the area around the light switch. A section of drywall was cut out so that the wires were visible. Normally he would also cut out a section nearer to the ceiling so that he could drill a hole through the framework to run the wiring up into the attic. Up until a couple of years ago the house had baseboard heating and he found that the wiring from that was still in place (capped at each end) so he was able to reuse this instead of running new wire. He extended the red wire down so that it reached the box with the light switch and capped off the beige wire (which runs to one of the wall outlets in the room).
We measured the center of the room and he cut a hole in the ceiling with a 4" hole saw. The ceiling box is secured to a 2x4 cross piece mounted to the joist on the attic side with the wiring running through down to the room.
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