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.

Excavation in the Original Basement (March 29 - April 27)

With all the bad weather we've had out here lately, Larry and the boys have been focused on getting things moving along in the old basement.  It's been progressing along down there for a while, and they've gotten a lot more done in the last few weeks.  The main things to do in the basement are create new footings and move/replace the support posts (done a few weeks ago), tie into the new basement in the back of the house, and redo the plumbing/drainage system.   It's the plumbing work that's the reason for the basement being so torn up right now - the original plumbing was poorly laid out which was giving us weak water pressure and slow drainage.  The plumbing still isn't completely finished but we've already seen a huge improvement in both of those areas throughout the house.

Excavation on March 29, digging out a trench to access the old drain pipe under the basement floor

Click "Read more" to see lots of pics of the progress in the basement over the past month.