Basement Remodel

 

The basement reno is moving right along!  Everything in the bedroom/bathroom area is 100% gutted and removed. 

The boys had so much fun tearing everything down.  It’s exciting when you can see some major changes happening before your eyes. 

We ended up having quite the pile of junk!  It took Andy about 2 1/2 hours to haul all of this up to the dumpster.  He had help from the boys while I locked Tate and myself up in my bedroom so Tate would not get hurt or in the way.  Tate hated it. I, on the other hand, was not too upset I didn’t have to make all those trips up and down the stairs!

Isn’t that a mess?!?  It filled an entire 6yard dumpster.  We had the dumpster full a second time and then had them come get it out of here.  It was only in our driveway a week but I was already tired of seeing it there!

This little guy decided to chip in and help, too.

Here it is, all cleared out of the junk pile with just a little bit of carpet left to pull up.

Last week the locate guys came (they come and determine where your utilities are under the ground so you don’t dig them up or put a hole in the gas line).  We have to move both our gas and electrical services because of where the windows will go.  We also have to move our heat pump/AC unit, which is going to be a pain, but it’s necessary.

In addition to moving those things we have to relocate some of our shrubs and,  yippee (!!!), cut out some others!  I’ve hated these green giants since stepping foot in this house.  They scream ‘THIS HOUSE WAS BUILT AND FINISHED IN THE 80’S!!!!’.  We (meaning Andy) revved up the chainsaw and started cutting away at those ugly things!  When my brother in law comes with his backhoe to dig the holes for the windows he’ll pluck the root balls out of the ground.  The south side of the house looks so much cleaner now!  I’m already dreaming up which plants I’ll be planting along that side of the house when this is all done and over with.

Did you see all the flags in the first of these three pics? Those are the locate flags.  Looks colorful out there!

Goodbye hideous bushes!  I even talked Andy into cutting out the one at the front of the house next to the driveway!  It feels so much cleaner and nicer up there now.  Planning that flower bed out, too!  What a difference that made to get those out of there!  ‘Younged down’ our house a lot!  Now I need to take down and paint those hideous maroon shutters, ha! Always something, right?

Saturday morning we ran up to Menards (a hardware store chain) and bought the lumber for framing up the walls.  We moved all of those 2x4’s down to the basement through the tiny window that is currently there.  Worked really great! 

Aside from that purchase we have also bought the vanity and faucet for the bathroom.  Got ahead of ourselves there but they were both on sale so just went for it.  We had picked out the shower but now are worried about how much room there will be when they step out of the shower so are now considering a corner shower where the front is rounded so you step out more into the center of the room instead of directly in front of the shower.  Think that will work better.  Still a work in process, obviously.  And it’s a good thing we realized this before purchasing the shower.

I’m guessing this week or next our power company will come and relocate the lines and this weekend we will get the egress windows and window wells purchased so they are here for when they can cut the holes.  Things are moving along, it’s exciting!

Erin