Finishing the basement

It's been a long time coming, but the basement is finally just about finished.  When we did the house renovation a few years ago, the foundation was fixed up and some basic framing was put into place down there, but we haven't managed to get the resources together to actually make it into a livable space until recently.  We had a little bit of work done on it last summer, putting in a window into the future bedroom space, but then things were on hold again until earlier this year.  We had originally thought we would try to do the work ourselves, but eventually realized that it would take forever and take up all of our free time and still might not end up the way we wanted.  So we brought Larry back in to start work on it part time while he was finishing up a different job.   He started at the end of May and progress was initially slow while the time was split with the other job.  Full time work started in September, and by the end of the month drywall was up, the bathroom was mostly assembled, and the cork floors and tile work were all done.  October covered trim and painting, and was the end of what we had contracted Larry to do.  Finally, at the end of November we had new carpeting installed in the bedroom and tv room, and it was all ready to use.

Looking south through the bedroom in Jan 2011 and in Nov 2014.

There are still a few things remaining to do, including putting tops on the half walls, finishing the wire terminations for the cable/internet/speakers, and eventually getting some cabinets and counters for the laundry room and furniture/electronics for the tv room.  But it's still all useable for now, and we're loving having all of this new living space in the house including a big tv room, bathroom, guest bedroom, laundry room, and little playroom. 

See photos from the past year and a half of work after the jump.




8/20/13

Bedroom, old window

Bedroom, old window, still used for storage

Bedroom, old window, storage

 8/21/13

New window for bedroom

Bedroom, new window frame

Bedroom, new window frame

 8/22/13

Bedroom, new window

Bedroom, new window

Bedroom, initial wall frames

 8/23/13

Bedroom, wall framing

Bedroom, wall framing

Outside view of new window

 2/17/14

Laundry room from doorway

Laundry Room looking W (towards TV room)

Laundry Room looking E (towards bedroom)

Laundry Room looking W (towards TV room)

 5/25/14

Bathroom, looking through wall

Well-organized storage under stairs

NE corner of basement, at bottom of stairs

NW corner of basement

  5/29/14

NW corner of basement with framing

NE corner of basement with framing

  7/23/14

NW corner of basement with framing, insulation, and tub storage

Bedroom with framing and insulation

NE corner of basement

  9/1/14

Speaker and component cables and air vent in TV room

Looking E down hallway, standing by bathroom

Looking W down hallway from bottom of stairs

Bathroom with tub installed

  9/4/14

Looking W down hallway... fridge temporarily stored under stairs

TV room cleaned out and ready for drywall

Laundry room cleaned out and ready for drywall

  9/9/14

SE corner of basement with drywall

W down hallway with drywall

Bedroom with drywall

Laundry room with drywall

Looking E down hallway from TV room

TV room N wall, partially drywalled

9/10/14

Bathroom with drywall

Bathroom with drywall and tub framing

TV room S wall with drywall

TV room S wall with drywall

TV Room N wall with drywall

  9/13/14

TV room N wall with tape and plaster

TV Room S wall with tape and plaster

Looking E down hallway with tape and plaster

9/23/14

Looking W down hallway

Bedroom wall primed

Laundry room walls primed

Laundry room

First door in the basement is on the mechanical room

TV room N wall primed, some trim in place

TV room S wall primed

Looking E down hallway

9/25/14

Closet in bedroom

Heated floor installed in bathroom

Some walls around the tub

9/26/14

Bathroom floor tiles installed

9/29/14

Bathroom floor done

Bedroom closet doors installed

9/30/14

Cork flooring installed

10/1/14

Bathtub tiling started

Floor by the stairs, with temporary protective covering

10/2/14

Bathtub area almost done

Laundry room trim and electrical

10/6/14

Sink installed

10/16/14

Some painting done

Paint in the bedroom

10/17/14

Paint in playroom

Paint in bedroom

Paint in bathroom

Paint in laundry room

Paint in tv room

10/26/14

First time playing in the basement

Bowling in the new playroom

11/15/14
 

Driving his new remote control car (a gift from Larry) around the still uncarpeted floor in the tv room

 11/18/14

Too cold to play outside, so we (carefully) tossed around his new basketball (from the hospital)

11/25/14

Newly carpeted tv room

More carpet in the tv room

Leftover carpet rolled up in the hallway

Bedroom carpet

More carpet in the bedroom

Playroom and bedroom

11/26/14

Simon helped me put covers on the open boxes to cover up the cable/speaker wires until they can be finished

Wii Baseball in the basement

No surprise, he loved it and was great at it

11/28/14

Lilly loves having so much room to run around in

Soft floors are great for little girls who fall down a lot (like immediately after this picture was taken)

Playing in the storage part of the ottoman borrowed from Auntie Colleen

She stayed like this for a while and never quite managed to actually climb out