« Playing House XII | Main | Nesting Season »
April 14, 2010
Playing House XII: Gallery
The photo here at left looks out towards the basement entrance (north) from beside the fireplace, which corresponds upstairs to the entrance to my office, looking out to the deck through our French doors. You can see the drywall challenges posed by the various ducting bulkheads, so I’m very happy to report that we’ve found the perfect professional mudder/taper, Marjorie, who will get to work as soon as Richard and I finish the remaining boarding. |
Here are a few photos of our progress in the basement. Okay, more than a few. I’ve included all the main rooms (except the bathroom and mechanical room which we aren’t working on yet), focusing on the main family room area facing the fireplace, so you can see the transformation since the original photo from September, 2004 when Richard and I first put the offer on the house. The next image after the original shows the gutted space with the first framed wall and new electrical panel in the summer of 2005. With projects over the years being small and intermittent, I find I don’t have very many photos between that first summer and this year’s major push. The rest of these are since January of this year. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Next on the basement to do list are the plumbing and fixtures for the bathroom, mechanical room, and storage-turned-laundry room; flooring, which will be tile throughout; lighting, halogen pot lights on dimmer switches which are wired and ready to install after painting; and of course painting and moulding. That’s a big list and we’ve got a teeny budget right now, so don’t expect to see furnished rooms any time soon! But already it’s warmer, brighter, cleaner, and so much easier now to visualize our plans for the space that I no longer dread going downstairs. Whether or not we get any further this spring than the drywall stage, I’m looking forward to showing it off to our guests in August. And here, of course. It’s been ages since I last had anything to post under the title “Playing House”! |
|
 |
 |
You’ll see in the final images that we still have half of the west and north walls and the north edge of the ceiling to cover. And the sides of lots of bulkheads. We only got the lower walls of the laundry room and guest room done this Saturday, and one more ceiling board up in the main room, but Richard got some key wiring and plumbing issues sorted out, and I got our boxes and piles of construction materials, tools, and storage items put away elsewhere. Hopefully we’ll finish up by the first weekend in May for the mudder/taper to do her thing the following week. And then we can call up the EcoEnergy people for our final evaluation, and get in line for our big fat rebate cheque!Posted by anita at April 14, 2010 12:32 AM
Comments
Wow, it's really coming along! This is so great! I remember demolishing parts of that basement 5 years ago!
Posted by: Wandering Coyote | 12:12 14 April 2010
It is awesome, after such a long time! And I can't believe - so I double-checked the blog from spring of '05 - that it's been 5 years since you lived with us!! We'd just finished painting the guest room when you came to visit for Easter, and started the master bedroom demolition and the heating system in the basement when you moved in May 21st. Richard picked us up from the Greyhound station downtown and we went to the Andrew Sheret together to order our bathroom fixtures before we put him on a plane to Salt Lake. Whew, where did THAT energy level go??? If only we were still that motivated. Still, the closer a room gets to paint and floors, the more excited we are. I can't wait to rip apart that nasty old downstairs bathroom with that rotting laundry sink cabinet and finish what you and I started in '05, but Richard had to hold me back on that for now. I am nothing if not patient.
Posted by: anita | 18:57 14 April 2010
Whoa! What a huge change from the gloomy, bunker-ish original. It looks like it's coming along great, at last, and I'm stoked for you two. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have in August! Keep us posted in the meantime with any significant developments. Good luck! x
Posted by: Erika | 10:13 16 April 2010
Thanks, Erika! All the more reason to corral the rest of the family into visiting us in August, right? If we're really lucky, it might even be ready to bunk you down in for the night. Of course, feel free to come up sooner and we'll put you to work on your future guest room!
Posted by: anita | 10:23 16 April 2010
Yeah, that was 5 years ago...Where has it gone......?
Now, you MUST come and see MY new place! I have a guest bedroom & everything now!
Posted by: Wandering Coyote | 09:50 19 April 2010
That's the key when you live in the middle of nowhere, isn't it - having a guest bedroom to encourage people to visit!!
Posted by: anita | 16:40 19 April 2010