poplar road

Like the mice that have been slowly but surely chewing their way into our house season after season (yup, just caught another one yesterday), we've been tackling our basement transformations little by little since Richard gutted it back in October of 2004.

With help from Chris, Jason, and Rick, the gas lines, ducting and framing were done back in '05 and '07 between other more urgent projects. Last September Richard finished the wiring and most of the plumbing, and the heating system got its final upgrade with the geothermal installation in December. Finally this January, the looming deadline of our final EcoEnergy evaluation lit a fire under Richard to get the basement to the drywall stage.

It's taken him just about every Saturday since then to finish the plumbing, ducting, insulation, vapour barrier, etc. He even had to relocate the laundry in what was to be the storage room, because he couldn't get the venting for the dryer to work within the plan for our ensuite bathroom. (I'm pleased with the result, actually, because this way I get more of a counter and a full-size laundry sink, and after 5 years hell I'm used to the stairs.) Every project seems to have at least one snag like that which makes it take longer than you'd expect, so I was really relieved when our EcoEnergy evaluator was able to get us an extension past our April 6th deadline. I admit though, I was tempted not to tell Richard we got it, for fear he'd spend the long weekend on the couch!

I shouldn't have worried; his momentum had been building as the walls filled in with insulation and the vapour barrier gave everything a unified surface. Suddenly we have rooms! Despite not having friends or family up to help over Easter, the way we usually do, the two of us found the energy to spend every minute of daylight hanging drywall for 3 days straight. For me, I'm motivated to get this out of the way so I can return to gardening. I had originally planned to spend the long weekend in the yard, but the universe shoved me in the right direction by sending a fresh bout of winter weather - it even snowed yesterday morning! So the garden can wait.

As I write, Richard is trying to find more of that energy to get down there so we can finish it up today. The boarding, I mean. We're still hoping we can find a mudder/taper with professional skills and not so outrageous prices to do the finishing for us in a week or two. The quote we got last night was absolutely ridiculous! I need to get us moving, no time for photo editing, so look for the pics of our progress later. High ho, high ho....