Travel Pete's Journal: Basements, Kids & Mental Health

Basement: Cork finished

The cork part of the floor is finished. Wasn't bad to do, about 2 full days I'd guess, although I split it up over a week and a half. Really, any of the laminates are decently easy to install and come out quite well.

We've picked out carpet and will have it installed by a pro. Mostly because we're also doing the stairs and I don't feel like doing them. But also because it just ain't that expensive to have carpet installed. I'm guessing $200 total. Whereas the cork install would have run us more than $1000.

Looking towards the backyard from the wine cellar.

If you look close above, you can imagine the floor sloping from right to left, which it does. Close to 3 inches from the right side of the screen to the left. Which is a problem, because the left side is now 1.5" below the foundation, so I have to figure out how to put floor over the raised foundation wall area. Where the floating slab is 1.5" above the foundation wall, no sweat, I've been using leveling underlayment cement to bring it to uniform height. A few more hundred pounds and I'll have the self-leveling stuff figured out, just in time to re-level the basement bathroom floor.

As the cork meets the stairs and ends in the storage room

our creative ending of the cork where it'll run into carpet. We'll keep the carpet very short and "commercial" so the kids can still play on it, ride skateboards, whatever.

Basement: basketball court?

The place didn't look that big until we put the cork floor down. Now the length is starting to show, and if you look at the pictures from yesterday's entry, you'll see why we're thinking of adding a full-size basketball court down there.

Or, I might just go with that ping pong thang I was discussing earlier. You can fold up a ping pong table. (Unlike, say, a pool table. Or a pool.)

Mmmm.... table tennis. Can't ya just smell it?

Basement: Business

In the basement finishing business, there are good days, and there are bad days.

As you can see, this was clearly a good day (the picture is X-small so you don't get overjoyed by my happiness)

I know, you all thought I was going to discuss basement finances, estimates, costs, overruns, good deals, etc.

And I will. It's all in my little red book. All in good time, folks. All in good time.

Basement: Flooring!

I'm writing this entry with my tongue. It's the only part of my body not burnt out by putting down this flooring.

It's all reach and force and knees and leverage. My stomach muscles burn, my arms are on fire (but big and sexy as blood bulges them up a bit) and I've got a very nice neck strain headache, thankee very much.

On the other hand, the cork floor feels fantastic, looks even better, and is coming along swimmingly with no major problems! In fact, I ordered 10% extra for slop and trimming the boards but I'm currently running at 1% slop so far (in the early easy going).

Of course, if I end up with extra we'll have to figure out what to do with 30-50sqft of cork.

Anyway, I put down a SupR-Kwality underlayment that is thick and cushy and all of that. Combined with the cork, it's a really nice combination so far.

I'm thinking of getting a table tennis setup. You know: ping pong! I'll even let the kids play with it occasionally.

Basement: Cork Floors

"Imagine the perfect floor...beautiful to look at, yet easy to care for...quiet, soft and warm to the touch, yet durable enough to handle all kinds of traffic - pets, children, high heels (!?!)... fashionable and fits any decor, yet insulates against sound, noise and temperature change."
--Westhollow Cork installation instructions

I've mentioned that we're considering cork floors. Because we're cool. And like warm floors.

We went with 500sqft of it. Sure, it's about the most expensive flooring a person can buy, but our children are *gag* worth it .

I chose iFloor.com's free shipping option where one picks up 1000lbs of flooring from a freight shipping terminal. Not bad, although the wagon drove home like a boat. Still got 35 mpg this morning driving Max to school and out towards Kansas to get the floor.

Westhollow's National Collection Montreal Stone cork flooring at $3.59/sqft.

Why Cork? It's CoRkY of course!

For more on why Cork is going to be all the rage, see these links:
iFloor.com's description of cork flooring prowess
or see the Westhollow website...
Westhollow Cork!

Now let's see if I can level out the crappy cement in the basement well enough for this project to fly.

Basement: Flooring

Going out to the Yellow Freight terminal past the airport is always interesting.

Today, for example, I got to watch a large coal train pass s-l-o-wwwwwly in front of me. And stared at a couple of bumper stickers reading "What part of "illegal" don't you understand?" and "Guns don't kill people yada yada yada guns are good" or something like that.

On the back window of an old Ford pickup truck was the fading slogan, "If it is annoying... then destroy it." Not sure what that means.

A van had "You Scream We Clean" on the back. I figured it was pest control, but on the side it said GurglePlunk Building Services or something.

Yep, always interesting.

Basement: Painting!

Painting and lights are up! Painting was a comparable breeze in the basement. The staircase, being finished, with trim, and with heavy knockdown texture, was hard to paint and edge the wall-ceiling corners. The basement was great. Unfinished, light orange peel which helped everything roll smoothly, etc.

We still ended up doing a (tinted) primer coat plus two coats of each color for a fuller richness and softer look to the walls. No reason to be lazy now, it'll just hurt more later to paint when everything is installed!

Lighting turned out fantastic. With 16 can lights (recessed ceiling lights), 9 wall sconces and a few track lights, not to mention bath and miscellaneous, the basement is nearly perfectly lit. Just one little corner to work on.

A good sense of the nasty white that used to encompass the entire house. The basement stairs are the last holdout from the old regime. And that tacky brass 'n' glass light fixture. Ugghh. You will notice I've already painted the ceiling. Lavender Twilight was used on the ceiling throughout the basement. Mostly it'll just look white in photos, but here you can differentiate it from actual white.

Basement Stairwell Redux. Now with a java mocha brown color, blue handrail (which is the primary basement color) and a new light fixture. Excuse me, Java Float (tm) color.

Bottom of stairs looking into storage area, brown transitioning to the blues.

Bottom of the stairs, towards the cellar and half wall corner. New light, cellar stained glass illuminated, and the two-tone blue we went with. Blue Symmetry for the main color, Jazz Blue for the accent.

Continuing along the half wall towards the outside and backyard.

Moving along, looking towards the likely future TV area.

Looking into the bathroom and under the stairs into the "Bat Cave" Fuzzy is designing, starting with some dark wallpaper with bats and moons on it. Good sense of the main blue color, with the darker blue covering the soffit and staircase.

Yellow Canary or something like that for the bathroom. Brighten things up a bit. You can just pick out the lavender twilight at top (which will be tiled over for the shower). Sand Dune is the actual color name. All Glidden colors.

Basement photos

Photo Easter Egg Hunt!

Something I've learned about drywalling... they always cover something up. Talked to a bunch of people, everyone agrees. Something you need will disappear.

No different here. I lost 2 can lights (recessed ceiling lighting) and the box for the smoke detector. Didn't realize about the smoker until last night when I was trying to get it installed.

Huh. So, where the hell is it?

Let's see if we can find out. Go back to my April 7th entry and you'll see a long warped photo of the room. If you look along the ceiling joists you'll find a small blue box. If you follow along the soffit crossing the screen horizontally, you'll see it about 10% to the right past midline tucked in with the joists. Ah HAH!! Found it.

It was easier to uncover with the enlarged, full-size image I've got, but still. We found that little box. Then, I was able to use my telephone tone tester to give us a more precise location of the box by attaching it to the wires of another junction box (where the smoke detector had been previously) and Viola! I stabbed through the drywall with unerring accuracy and had ourselves a place to put the smoke detector without destroying the ceiling.

If you want to do this yourself, you'll need:
a. 7 megapixel high-powered camera and steady hands
b. Memory... Remember to get the pictures before the drywall is hung
c. Telephone tone tester from your former network installation company
d. Two Boulder Singletrack ales

Paint colors

They never show up right.

I mean, I can say blue, and you'll see lavender. So, I've decided not to post any pictures of the painted basement.

Just kidding!

I'm finishing electrical tomorrow and will get paint and pix up in a day or two.

Besides, 3 straight days of painting and I'm starting to think that Latex should be limited to condoms and other sex toys.

In other hint of how we're gettin' our freak on color-wise, my wife has a Chocolate problem. Choco milk for breakfast, big mocha for the drive to work, and now she used the color of a tin of "sensoryTherapy" hot chocolate as inspiration for our basement stairwell!

Night time.

It's night. Fuzzy and I are discussing the basement bathroom features. She says what she wants, I nod agreement. Discussion.

And I'm thinking. Weird day today.

I argued this morning with my son about what underwear he was going to put on. It was a lot more fun, if I recall correctly, when I could sit back and laugh at my sporty-Spice Sis-in-law about her daughter and their struggles with clothing.

A lot more fun.

And then this evening my wife calls (whilst out getting paint for the stairwell and bathroom downstairs) and I'm short with her. She calls me names.

It's not right.

And by "not right" I mean: I didn't recall asking to have arguments about boys' underwear and paint. Just wasn't part of the master plan. And by argument, I mean discussion, since I'm not the primary decision-maker on paint colors.

Which is good for all of us.

Basement: Primed & Ready!

Ready for more paint, that is!

Yep. I rented a sprayer ($82, Home Depot) for the day and did 3500 sqft of coverage, including the full basement and ceiling for primer plus 2 additional ceiling coats of colored paint.

Turns out that Lavender Twilight is so light compared to our other colors it almost looks white...except for when it's against a white wall...which it never will be...so I needn't have bothered...except that we'd always know it was there...

I'm confident that a competent paint sprayer person could do an entire new house in 1 day with this machine. Which also explains why everything is white on white. Verrrry easy to do with a sprayer on top of white textured walls!

Anyway, way too much sprayback and splash to do the walls with the sprayer, so we're doing the walls all by hand. However, with my UltraLight Orange Peel Texture (tm) it's been a breeze to add paint. I can *almost* get away with one coat. Sighhh.... And no taping since it's all unfinished. Even the ceiling edges go fine with one of those wheelie brushes that run along the edge so nicely.

Here's the textured and primed basement!

On the set of "Color Me Heaven!"

Just like our eyes, the camera wants to color balance and find "white" and does so... our lavender twilight becomes straight white. Which, mostly, it is I guess.

The bat cave is now caved in, as it were!

Finished walls. Primed. Very exciting! The paint hits next, and you'll never guess what color we've decided to go with :-)))))

So far, *unfinished* painting is the way to go. Easy as pie. No worries about drips and the fact that the sprayer gets paint *everywhere*. Yes. Everywhere.

Just as a sidenote. Using the sprayer is obnoxiously easy. It does have a relatively wide spray, so isn't great after the primer and ceiling are finished, in my opinion. Which is why we are rolling the walls.

Also, cleanup is a pain. Whatever you do, cover the damn machine with plastic or rags to keep paint spray from settling on it, and make sure to clean it up pronto. Even then? Cleanup took longer than the 2 ceiling coats I did combined. The worst/hardest/messiest part of the whole job! And cover everything else, too. Paint dust floats around and gets on doors, windows, anything nearby.

Basement: Drywall finished!

The Drywall saga has been interesting. From extensive research and taking a class, to flip-flopping back and forth between DIY and farming it out, it's been 2 months of haggling with my inner lazy and cheap self.

Lazy won. My extravagant splurge was to bring in the Excellent Moyer Painting (a.k.a. Armando and his crew) to handle drywall.

Here are the results.

Good pre- and post- drywall hanging image, shows my favorite stuff, the guts of the walls. Sort of anti-climactic when finished, really.

The Bat Cave in process of being drywalled.

Drywall screwin'

Drywall hung and mudded. Next up would be a verrrry light texture called "orange peel" to make it easier to paint or wallpaper or tile or whatever.

Basement: Insulated & Warm

Now that we've gotten our insulation inspection out of the way, it's time to show a few pix of our labor and prepare for the next step. Drywall.

Wide shot showing basement stairs (right side) coming down to the large open Play Area and into the Party Room (tv area, shown back left)

Everyone likes warm feet along with a bit of quiet-ude, so we insulated the stairs. We insulated the bathroom for a parallel reason.

Looking into the living room area, with the Utility Room just beyond (seen through small construction door opening)

Basement: Back to business

Enough fooling around with building soccer websites. Now that Major League Soccer season XI has started and the Rapids have lost their first game (getting blown out 5-2 by the San Jose Earthquakes-cum-Houston Dynamos)...

it's time to get back to the very serious business of creating a fun basement!

This past week and a half was filled with hot air. 44 bags of it, in fact. Insulation, R-13, primarily as a sound and fire break, but a few concrete walls needed to be convered and insulated as well. Not too bad, we used "encapsulated" insulation which isn't quite as itchy, and made sure to wear our masks as well.

All existing vapor barriers were removed to provide access for electrical, so we re-did 1500 square feet of that stuff.

And now? We've got a basement goin' on! What with a cleared out space (44 bags of insulation take a lot of room) and all the tools removed to the utility room, it's a big place with actual walls. Getting pretty cool, and sound is a little dampened already with the insulation.

Add cork to the floors and GP Hushboard to the ceilings and we won't be able to hear the cries and screams of children playing and getting hurt! Of course, with cork's resilience, we're hoping for fewer injuries...

Basement: Inspection Day!

Not quite movie-quality material like "Independence Day" but still a biggie here at the Fisher conclave.

Our first City of Golden inspection takes place today.

Sometime.

When? We'll call you before we come out, how's that sound?

Sounds dandy.

Time to find another nail to chew on. Might need to go to my feet. Ewww.

Basement: Final Framing

Final framing is basically done. Finishing soffits tomorrow morning, and the rest of the walls are up. Bathroom? Check. Utility room wall? Check.

Here's the wall separating the tv-room from the Utility room. You can see the French double doors to be installed in the background. For future use, I've pre-built a doorway opening (and then reinforced it) so that in future it would be a cakewalk to add a door if we decide to add a bedroom. It also serves to get stuff out of that room until we get the double-doors in!

This wall was a comedy of errors, and served as our Mistake of the Week for last week.

So...I've been saying that small walls take just as long as big walls to build, but this one proved us wrong. We even went out to lunch just to think about how to get it up correctly with some stability.

This is another view showing the utility wall connecting to two small walls creating a corner that rolls into the bathroom door wall. Those small walls meant we didn't have room to lift the 14 foot wall into place...

It also shows how we had to sandwich the pocket door between two walls (and transition from 2x6 walls to 2x4 walls) and had to duck it under the ducts.

Here's a not-that-great picture showing some of the bathroom walls, viewed through the door opening and the pain-in-the-ass pocket door frame we had to install. Amazing how many different planes we had to figure out how to be plumb in.

Here's a better view from the inside, showing the pole we needed to line up with and some of the odd framing to find somewhere to anchor the dang thing.

The concrete slopes on the floor, so we had to raise the door at some points. The joists are covered by large ducts that hang down so there's nothing to attach the door to, except the foundation wall. Which also slopes. Then we have to line it up with the steel column which holds the house up and which serves as the other side of the wall. Then we need to get the top of the pocket frame to be square, plumb, and stable with some interesting framing. Sheesh!

Basement: The Rough-in

It's called rough-in... as opposed to finishing.

And before our first inspection we've got to finish:

Framing.

And roughing in. Roughing in the HVAC ducts, the electrical, and the plumbing to be exact.

Should be done Thursday, in time for a Friday inspection.

The plumber is almost finished and just needs to connect to the hot and cold water pipes. I marked where he should attach to the cold water by conveniently slamming a nail through the pipe for him. Very difficult to miss that.

Hurts my brain just looking at it. This shows a smidgeon of the complexity of the wiring... and why I'm not doing it myself. Electrical fires are baaad.

Hanging out with the electrician tells me that there are a LOT of picky little codes and some really important things that aren't code but should be. Very interesting lessons, but mostly I learned it's amazingly complicated to figure out.

Tony (my electrician) told me that he will have run about 1450 feet of 14- and 12-gauge wiring in the basement, and will have put in, if I remember correctly, 58 openings (switches, lights, outlets).

Two rooms are run in a 3-wire configuration so they have a switch managing the same lights on both sides of a room, which allows us to convert the utility room to a bedroom if we want later on with relative ease.

Rules cover: how far away outlets must be from doorways, types of wire, how many wires can be stapled together, how far staples must be, the type of crimping tool that must be used, wire gauge for bathrooms, number of outlets on a circuit, etc, etc. etc!!!!

All in all, now that I see all the electrical run, I'm *realllly* glad I didn't do it!

Basement: MOTW

This past week? Mistakes of the Week

Framing went swimmingly on Tuesday. With hours of Sunday cogitation, we were ready to hit the boards. 5 walls later we were rockin' the house and the bathroom was complete, including the incredibly-difficult-to-install pocket door frame on a floor that isn't even close to even and under some very low-hanging HVAC ducts.

In fact, we had our first mistake on the first wall, but quick thinking by 1st Midshipman O'Neill saved the day and we went smoothly on from there.

Wednesday was slow and laborious. 2 small walls and our "super wall" left to do. The small fries went okay, no surprises.

And now we come to our true mistakes of the week. We had a 14 foot wall to put up. Difficult, but I'd purchased a couple of 14 footers as our top and bottom plates to give it better structural integrity. Or so I'd like to think.

The wall wasn't exactly 14ft. It was 13' 9". So we had to cut 3" off the boards. Unfortunately, we were so used to cutting 6" off studs (to account for various things) that our First Mate of Miter Saw Operations cut an extra 6". Oops. Now the wall was too short.

Then we realized that because we'd put up the small sidewall first, we couldn't fit the big wall in anyways, so it would have *had* to be cut! Maybe not 6 inches, but...

Wait a sec, maybe it did! Turns out our outer walls slopes 1.5 inches outwards as it goes up, and our inner concrete wall goes 1.5 inches the other way, so we'd have to put some "shim" 2x6 boards in there anyway. Geez, can't win for losing.

And just goes to show that there ain't a straight wall anywhere to be found in the basement!

Sheesh. Makes framing difficult.

Basement: Framing pix

Some initial framing pictures, which is what we've focused on while having the concrete poured and plumbing roughed-in.

Our first wall. Awww, how cute! Looking into what will be the wine cellar. Already we've stained the cellar walls (as a moisture barrier and to give it that "cellar" feel) and got the wine armoire moved in, strategically placed to hide the incoming water pipes.

Our second wall. Awww, how cute. Even cuter with the crazy angle, which hides some not-quite-as-vertical-as-advertised walls... This is a half-wall, so it doesn't touch the ground or the ceiling. Truly, a masterpiece of the floating wall technique.

Here we have the stair framing which we are cutting away to reveal our hanging staircase feature. You can also see some equipment and 44 bags of insulation filling up what will become the utility room when we frame it.

Oops! That's going to be this week, so everything's got to move!

Two very small walls. They took just as long as the big walls! Angles, you know. This rough frames the doorway to the storage and furnace/water heater area which will remain unfinished.

The bathroom wall comes together. Framed, hung, and now rough-plumbed. We just need to finish the other walls and the plumber will add in some final touches so that we have a large shower with 4 or 5 nozzles shooting water all over the place. Fun for the kiddies!

Basement: Outtakes

For obvious reasons I wasn't in a good position to take a picture of the mist and water shooting out from the "nail-in-the-copper-pipe" incident, but there are others...

Every which way but loose... Even "Professionals" like us have trouble making up our minds sometimes.

Not sure where to start. Do I discuss BilFish's "Stud gun" prowess? Shall I talk about his "gramma glasses chain" which is actually earplugs? What about the lame hat? Do I mention how short he looks? Actually, this was an attempt to duplicate our Basement book images which make it look like the basement is really tall. Just take from a high angle near the ceiling.

I'd love to say it was a tool-related accident with the framing nailer. Unfortunately, the truth has more to do with bending over with my big ass, and perhaps an untimely fart or two? ;-) Just clean blew the leg right off the pants.

Hanging up my pants for the last time...

The Fisher Brothers learn young that stopping play on the woodpile to pose for a picture is just part of life.

Basement: Concrete!

Sometimes you just need to pour some 'crete. Last week was one of those times.

In our case, the reason was to create a solid landing pad for the french doors that will replace a window to the outside in the utility room.

However, we did 1 big pour covering 3 slabs. First was the small 3'x5' boxout that we cut out of the basement floor to move the plumbing.

Next was the small 5'x8' slab idea outside the french doors that turned into a 25 foot slab when we realized that a minimum cement order is 2 yards.

Finally was a last-minute addition of a small slab to replace the growing pile of junk and trash piled next to the garage on a steep and rock-filled slope. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don't have pictures of the junk pile.

Formerly covered with painful river rock up next to the house, it didn't do much for the landscaping, frankly. Now it's prepped for the pour. You can see insulation leaning up against the windows which will soon become French doors. The left of the picture shows the steep grade where we brought the 'rete down and poured the garage slab (just behind the a/c unit).

The pile is gone and forms are ready to create a nice slab to hold trash cans, gardening supplies, perhaps a small (and in case anyone from our HOA is reading, appropriately colored and matched)shed?

And also "just because" I added a 2" pipe under the slab to run water hoses and (in the future) more power to the front yard areas. Another PeteGyver maneuver.

Slab poured! This is the side door to the garage. I think I mentioned before, but we unloaded about 10,000 pounds of concrete for the slabs.

Our concrete guy sloped it gently to meet the existing patio slab, very well done. Bailey Doggy appreciates not having to step down 2 inches. I have a lot of respect for getting a cement pour just right! Very few tools, but lots of skill. We'll be landing the stairs from the kitchen deck to the backyard right in the middle of this slab.

Better view of the full length version. We'll be staining the concrete a taupe or tan color and see how that works. A bit of gardening and dirt fill and it'll look like it's been there forever.

Basement: Shawn Holds Up Wall

Seems like I'm always asking my assistant, Mr. Shawn O'Neill, whether he's working at holding up a wall...

Apparently, he was.

Basement Mistake of the Week

No contest this week.

Last week's mistake, since I didn't do an entry, was not looking busy enough when the concrete arrived. This meant that my nephew and I ended up with "gnarled wheelbarrow & splinter" hands after toting 10,000 pounds of concrete (a little less than 3 yards of mud) from the truck down the steep hill to our backyard where Mr. Concrete Contractor Guy (very nice man) got it set up and smoothed out. Coulda been worse my nephew said. Coulda been toting it *up* hill.

Back to this week.

But first, did I mention that last week we did concrete pours? 3 slabs in total, one small one in the basement for the plumbing, a large one against the house as a walkway and entrance for the upcoming doors, and another nearby the side door to the garage as a great pad for storing supplies, garbage bins, and possibly a shed?!?

Okay, fine, we'll get to this week's mistake. I had been waffling back and forth between a few minor imperfections as candidates for MOTW. Fortunately I struck gold when I decided to finish putting up some strips crossing ceiling joists for support.

During the process I nailed our main water line.

*BAM!*

Misting ensues, which makes me think it's gas for a second, then I run like crazy to turn off the main water supply, accidentally turning ON the sprinkler system first... DOH!

So. Nail in the copper pipe. Bad move. Even worse, it was late afternoon, I had to get my little guy from daycare, it was snowing pretty good, and the plumber said "I can be there Friday..." in two days!!!

Luckily, Meyer Hardware and a $3 pipe repair clamp came to the rescue.

Back in business during this short week until my plumber comes in tomorrow to manage the rough-in.

Rough-in? You betcha! Despite problems things are moving apace and we've got quite a few walls up. I'll get some pix up to show our progress to date, with framing taking place the last two weeks.

Basement: Mondays!

I know I said the basement project was mostly a Tuesday-Wed.-Thurs project, but like a good vowel, sometimes it includes the old "Y" as in "Why is this strange guy in my yard on Monday?"

Because he's setting up forms in preparation for pouring several yards (yes, yards) of concrete in the backyard!

We're adding a large slab (approx 25' x 5.5') along the backyard back of the house as we're adding French doors where current there's a window. Luckily, I've got a great concrete guy and a nephew to do some heavy earthworks and preparation.

Liam just loved running around in the nearly record-setting warm temperatures we've been having this week.

So, tomorrow we're back on track with the beginning of framing, although we've already discovered some tricky bits today when finishing up some chalking and plumbin' (plumb lining that is).

Basement: The TEAM

There may be no "i" in TEAM, but there is a "WE"...

...as in we the two guys doing all the work. I figured it was finally time to introduce the dynamic duo.

Without Further Adu. Ado. Ahhhdoo. Adieu!

Introducing Shawn 48" Level O'Neill

And rounding things out with BilFish 'Pencil Head' Fisher

Two guys. One Basement. A Lot of learning.

Ahem.

Shawn will handle laughing at BilFish's jokes. BilFish will handle himself quite well, thankee very much ;-)

Basement: Mistake of the Week

A new category of enjoyment for all is my Mistakes of the Week!

This week it appears that going and getting the building permit for this. So far, all the contractor guys I’ve talked with make fun of me, but fellow homeowners have been more sympathetic… Until I show them the $650 I just spent on the permitting/inspection process. Suddenly, Permits are a major line item in my basement budget and my fellow homeowners are abandoning ship!

Speaking of budgets, the Basement Costing worksheet keeps growing, and so does the tab. I’ve had a few things go in my favor (doing our own duct work) but mostly it’s remembering to add more materials and extra work to be performed beefing up the cost.

And I’ve re-opened the option to hire a professional drywall crew, so that bumped my high-end estimate back up a few.

Overall, the range has shrunk between low and high as things become more clear and accurate and work gets done, materials purchased. And mostly it’s squeezing, at this point, towards the middle estimate.

Basement: Construction Week 1

When referring to the Basement Project, I’ll count from the first week we actually did anything down there.

That would be this week. Bizzee, Bizzee!

After finishing up moving most of the crap out of the basement, Monday was President’s Day and 10% off with a new charge card at Home Depot (and a free ladder). A few thousand dollars later I wasn’t sure if the free ladder was worth it! On the plus side, we’d ordered all the studs and framing materials, doors, insulation and other big ‘n’ awkward things to have delivered (scheduled for Wednesday morning).

That pretty much took the day up, although we got started on HVAC duct moves.

Tuesday my Co-Conspirator was supposedly taking school exams, so I was left alone with the plumber to mark out where to cut concrete out for making bathroom fitting changes, and left to my own planning devices, I guess. I got nails for the nail gun, tested the borrowed gun with my l’il pancake compressor, new fittings, that sort of organizational work.

Wednesday was werk-it day. The concrete guy was out in the morning, Home Depot delivered a couple tons of materials to the garage, and Shawn and I spent the day working, organizing, moving, shifting ducts, sawing through the house and generally making a noisy ruckus.

Thursday? Just the two of us, finished up all duct moves (fart fan 30’ run to outside the house, outside vent, moving fresh-air intake ducts, finishing duct sealing). Also got most of the chalking done for framing, figured out final wall position and cut out a bit more useless framing hanging from the side of the staircase.

Today? (Friday) Well, long weekends are going to be mostly contractors and strategy work, as I’ve got Tues-Wed-Thurs each week with my Nephew and without the kids so we can get loud, dirty and (hopefully not too) dangerous.

So the plumber is helping me rough-in the bath fittings while Liam naps. Good thing we dug into the concrete after all... the toilet fixture the builder put in had a large, and I mean very large, hole in it. Wheee..... That would have been fun when we started using it!

Basement: Really, Truly, Final Final Plans

At least, closer to final plans. We've begun chalking and framing and duct moving and all of that, so we can only make so many more changes... I hope!

Here they is! Mostly, a complete bathroom configuration, which *finally* makes us happy about that whole bath-storage-stairwell space. With enough stuff finally moved out of the way, we could walk around and really feel the space, and that proved to be important in this case.

New vertical bath with door moved, more traditional design, no more Über-weird closets and storage spaces. Look below for previous design with odd doors and storage nooks and what-not.

Basement: New Final Plans

As I assumed, if I labeled anything "Final Plans" then I was in for a major revision.

In this case, we ditched the bedroom. Kaput. Gone. Number of bedrooms? 0. Got rid of them all. All 1 of them.

Anyway, the thinking goes like this:

We have a guest bedroom upstairs. For the next 10 years or so, it will serve quite admirably for its purpose for housing guests.

In return, we get a much larger play and craft space in the basement as the kids grow up.

Then, perhaps in a decade or so, we may need to make an allowance for a child wanting his own bedroom. This means either moving the guest bedroom to the basement or moving a kid to the basement.

At that point, with some pre-planning, we could conceivably throw up a couple walls and víola! we have a bedroom. Pre-planning would mostly include ensuring a separate electrical circuit with the correct requirements is strung to that area (AF circuits, smoke detector, etc).

Or, if it turns out the kids stay in the same room or we decide not to build a bedroom later, we'll have greater flexibility in 10 years to decide what we *do* want to build down there. Office? Art studio? Bigger bedroom? True entertainment center room? Who knows?

But we'll have the option and it won't be difficult to add on to later. And as I said, we'd get the nice, big, open floorplan in the meantime for playtime with the kiddos.

Still a bathroom, but no bedroom to clog up the passing lanes...

Wide Open Plains

*Oh, and this allows us to make the Utility Work room a tad bigger ;-)

Basement: Drywall

Sure, it's more than a month before I'll be thinking about actually *doing* drywall work, but with bids coming in at $25-30 labor per panel (4'x8') to hang, tape, & texture I need to know now whether I can attempt this or not!

I'm not exactly mental, but I dragged my nephew to a Clinic.

Home Depot hangin' & tapin' Drywall clinic, to be exact. Which meant there were 2 people in attendance and we got a personal, 2 hour tutorial on how to hang it high and keep it dry.

Fantastic! I mean, you could fill a Brittany Spears gossip column full of the drywall knowledge I don't possess.

Still, that won't stop me from sharing what I learndeddd ;-)

First: The DIY drywaller has some assistance. In recent years, several products have come on the market to make it possible to A) do drywall by yourself if need be and B) get it done quickly without too much swearing and banging of heads.

Me? I plan to use every labor-saving device.

First of all, ceilings go first. Why? Dunno. They do. That means I'll rent the Panel Lift drywall tool for $30/day. Knock it out in a day or two, call it done. $30 or $60 to keep from lifting 4x8 panels over my head for 20 hours? Priceless.

When putting those drywall sheets in, I've splurged on a $15 drill bit accessory called the Dimpler that allows you to drive screws in to exact depths into drywall. Brilliant! (especially seeing how poorly I did freehand during the clinic). There's a cheapie version for $2.50 that's not depth-adjustable.

Which leads me to the first of many debates without conclusive answers in the drywall world: nails or screws.

The answer: For me? Screws. Easier to work with, hold better, don't get nail pop(out) as often. On the other hand, nails are fast and cheap.

Other 6-of-one-1/2-dozen-of-ta-other debates:

Basement: Contractors

I think I've already mentioned that I'll be attempting most of this project myself.

My theory goes something like this: I'm going to try most of it myself. When I have a good contractor at a very good price available, I'll use him. Or, if I screw up, I'll call in a guy to clean up after my mess. Wait, *how* much for that drywall work? Guess I'll be learning that!

Good thing I've got all the good contractors. They keep pointing out the shoddy workmanship of the other guys who came before. You'd think there wasn't a single good person who built the house. But it's like that, isn't it? The current guy says, "I don't take shortcuts, I take pride in my work. Not sure about how other people do it nowadays..."

Actually, I think the contractors I'm lining up probably are very good, but it's just funny how they talk sometimes.

Basement: Mistakes, Part I

I thought I'd introduce my mistakes along the way. Luckily, no binding contracts have been mistakenly signed, no materials mis-delivered.

I have failed on my first attempt at estimating costs. For plumbing, I assumed something like 400-1000 for labor. It's come in closer to 1000-1500 as the estimate.

So much for estimating!

On other fronts, I'm doing better, I suppose. I recently pulled a PeteGyver, dumpster diving at a nearby construction site for some 2x4's and 2x6's for my basement above-the-car storage project. Brilliant!

I've also enlisted the occasional aid of my neighbors to help verbally slap me upside the head whenever I describe a dumb project idea over the phone. Painful, but Brilliant!

Basement: Final Plans!?!?

On this, my 300th blog entry, I present what damn well better be our final plans for the basement.

The Final Plans... Just small changes. Continued tweaking of the bathroom layout to fit where the #$%@! builders put the roughed-in plumbing. And a zig-zag approach to the top of the bedroom wall facing the Family room to ensure it doesn't end in the middle of sliding glass door!

Yes, it's head-over-heels backwards from the Plan view, but that's the way the cookie crumblies.

Basement: Plans Evolving

Okay, 3rd major round of plan changes.

Going with an even smaller wine cellar, changing the longitude of the bedroom, completely reconfiguring the bathroom area (switching the entry to other side of basement), and a few other tidbits.

Basement plan rendition. Bedroom layout changed, smaller cellar space, a bit less storage so we'll have to sort that out, and a completely reconfigured bathroom based on where the actual rough-in plumbing is. This still may change when the plumber gets here Tuesday to take a look-see.

3D view, it's flipped 180 degrees from the Plan view, so don't get confused.

Basement: New Plans

They say that the only constant is change.

And we've changed our minds, and the plans for the basement. This floor now has some work to do! Sure, we started with the Open 'n' Airy concept, but our entire house is open and airy already. We still want a decently-sized room for kids playing, so we'll try to keep that in the 20-25 foot range, which we hope will keep it feeling open enough.

At the same time, apparently we've got *needs*!

We've added a workout area with a short wall, window access to review Wine Cellar Success, and the mud room opposite the bedroom for any dirty projects, gardening, and general work room stuff.

Major overhaul
The bedroom switched sides, there's a new garden/work room (where the bedroom was) and we've made a much smaller wine cellar, deciding we'll enjoy fine wines in the Library.

A reverse angle, with backyard towards about the "5" position on a clock.

Basement: Floor plans

We bought a cad program with the Better Homes & Gardens treatment on it, looked decent at Costco for $50.

Very good program so far, full 3-D room rendering and blueprint-style plans. The software is from Chief Architect.

Here is the first design we've come up with, after getting all the measurements hammered out. Don't steal it!

Blueprint

3-D View

Basement: Intro

It's all about confidence.

And liquor. But mostly confidence.

Today, I am announcing that I am running for office. Official Construction Supervisor and Worker for the Fisher Basement Project.

I think I've discussed before the need to finish the basement so kids can play and not get rusty nails in their foot or some other weirdness.

It's time. I've decided, to the best of my ability, to chronicle this adventure for others. Mostly because it's about all I expect to be doing for the next 4 months. That, and it was other brave homeowners' quests online that assisted in giving me the confidence to go forth.

That, and talking with good friends who can provide armchair support from locations as appealing as California and as far away as Connecticut.

BilFish: Good Luck, buddy!