Furniture shopping...

We decided to go look at furniture for TV room over the weekend.  We did not really set out with a plan of what we wanted or the style... and we went a little crazy...  I'll let the photos speak for themselves!

The Jobsite Super! (sorry Kathy)

Not much needs to be said, the Photo speaks for itself.  Zoie has actually handled all of this disruption better than her two dads!  We have the doorway from the kitchen to the basement sealed off.  Each night she paws at the plastic until we take her down and let her see what has gone on in the basement.  She generally sniffs around, does a perimeter check, and then heads back up the stairs.  The whole time we were planning this we were concerned how SHE would deal with the change, but I think we needed to be more concerned about us!

 

Carpet tile samples arrive

We are going to be using FLOR carpet tiles in our TV Room, hallway, bedroom, closet and on the stairs.  We have selected two styles of carpet in two different colors to use together throughout the space.  The carpet tiles are about 19" square with rubber backing and can be applied with double sided tape.  The great thing is you can pull up one tile if it gets soiled.  They clean up easy, air dry and can go right back down on the floor.  I ordered samples of the tiles to see what they look like in the space before we order 600 sq ft of them.  The samples arrived this week and I think they look great!  They are surprisingly soft too for how low the pile is. 

FLOR "Velvet Rope" in Celery on left, and FLOR "Rake me over" in Palm on the right.

More Drywall

There is very little drywall left to do at this point.  Below are some updated photos of the space as the walls become less "transparent".  The space really feels defined now! We hope to be painting by end of next week!

DRYWALL!!!

I came home tonight to find that the sheet-rock in our new bedroom is basically all up on the walls.  IT feels like a real room!!!  The drywall will all be complete by next weekend!  After that is PAINT! 

Inspectors, insulations, and more progress

Week three brought finishing of the mechanical rough in, inspections, and insulation!  For me, the biggest win this week has to be the passing of all of our inspections on the first try!  I did not know that was possible!  Again, one more reason we love working with Kathy! 

The Shower Pan Man (and his helper) have been back by...

The next step on creating the shower pan includes something blue, plastic sheeting and cement board...

The infamous PIPE!

One of the bigger challenges in the basement was what to do with the exhaust pipe for our furnace.  We still have an oil furnace (and yes we love it!  we are not changing to gas)  The drawback to the oil furnace is the need for it to be vented in a regular chimney. The original set-up had a pipe going through what will be our master bedroom in front of one of our egress windows. 

Our solution was to remove the existing pipe, cap the flue in the chimney dedicated to the furnace, and relocate the exhaust.  We had a hole bored in the the basement wall near the furnace and added a secondary chimney on the exterior of the house.  The new chimney is stainless pipe and does not look too bad.  It is conveniently disguised by a tree in the yard too!

And now we are just waiting to have the fireplace brick repaired

SPRAY FOAM!!! not to be confused with the bubble machine I have previously owned!

At the end of week two, we had all of the exterior walls insulated with a closed cell, soy based spray foam.  The product provides a moisture and vapor barrier as well as an Insulation rating better than any fiberglass insulation we could have installed.  There was a noticeable difference in the temperature of our whole house within 24 hours of this product being applied.  It seems to be money well spent!

HVAC, plumbing, and electrical - oh my!

Week two was some what of a whirlwind.  I am not sure who WASN'T working in our basement.  One afternoon, I came home from work and there were four plumbing trucks, two HVAC vans, one electrician, and a partridge in a pear tree  ...err  I mean our General Contractor, Kathy.  Lots of progress was made during this week; plumbing was roughed in, electrical rough in started, old heat ducts removed and new ones added, and framing was finished.  We also had the main floor of our house re-piped and have all of the old galvanized pipe removed.  This was the week that we moved the water heater too.  This meant that we had no hot water for two nights.  

266 "studs"...

yes, I'm a dork!

At the end of week one, a truck showed up with a load of 2x4's... it became very real, very quick.  By the end of the day on Friday, we had walls going up.  By the end of the weekend, most of the walls in the basement were framed and we could really begin to see how the space would be divided.  After living here for 12 year and thinking of what the basement could be one day, it was surreal to actually see the plan start to come together.

The Big Dig or something like that....

Day one started with cutting the floor and trenching for all of the new plumbing needed for the new bathroom.  Based on phone calls I received from neighbors while I was at work that day, I understand this was a pretty loud day... On day two, the pipes were laid in the ground, dirt was back filled, and concrete was poured back.  The large rectangle area cut out below the window is the area the new shower.  On day three, the shower pan was created. 

Let the work begin!

We talked to several contractors, met some great people, and some not so great.  In a conversation with a contractor that felt the job was to big for him, we were referred to Kathy Belisle, Belle Isle, LLC General Contractor.  (See her contact info in the right column)  We met several times with Kathy, and each time felt more and more comfortable.  On April 17th, we signed contracts with her and she began work the next day!  Two and a half weeks later and one basement that is turning into exactly what we want, we could not be happier with our decision to work with Kathy and Belle Isle!  Everyone Kathy has brought in to work on this job has been great to work with!  One day she had 13 contractors in our basement working together.  We really couldn't say enough good things about what she has accomplished in just two and a half weeks.  I knew I had chosen the 'right' contractor for us when she called me to let me know she was sitting with our cat to comfort her during all of the noise of the concrete cutting!

The "blank" canvas

This is the space on the day before work started.  We (along with the help of friends) had already spent a lot of time working to move 12 years of "stuff" that we had collected, demo walls, and scrape 1000 sq ft of floor tile