The salt mine

The entrance to the bathroom before drywall (West side of basement)


The entrance to the bathroom after drywalling


Work out area, wall where the TV is going (north wall of basement)



South wall of basement, where the closets and cabinets are going.


Long wall of the work out area (East wall of basement)


Stairs (center of north wall) and laundry (west side) before drywall

Stairs after drywall




So, in the perpetual way of houses, almost immediately after you move in you are struck by an all encompassing need to preform home improvement.
We are currently being decended upon by many various and assundry workmen, and it turns out the process might be cursed since is seems that no one can get it done. The current workmen include but are not limited to:
1) the insulating people (done)
2) the stained glass guy (not done, not installed) It turns out the church that he need to get done first is a disaster. Someone chalked the pelxiglass directly to the windows, and therfore he had to destroy them all to get them out of the church. That set him behind a little bit.
3) the furniture guy (not done). The coffee table is almost done, but, he is still working on the other stuff. In addition to having a seizure this summer, his wife also has lung cancer, so he has been a little busy
4) the wood stripping guy "the finishing touch", although maybe more appropriately known as the perpetual touch. I think that at some point he may start getting mail at our house.
5) the new electrical box, done, but pending permit and final inspection
and of course finally,
6) the basement crew, my mother, father, me and rob.

So, the plan for the basement was simple, we would put some walls up around the toilet sitting in the middle of the basement, put a sink in, make a workout room, it would be great. Oh, the best laid plans. Needless to say, each step of this project involves two more backsteps. For example, we put up a wall to divide the main portion of the basement from the area with the water heater, etc so that peanut can play down there in the winter without having to worry about that stuff. But, once you put up a wall it becomes intensely obvious that there is no light over the laundry area, and therefore we need a light overthere.
Also, there were no plugs anywhere in the entire basement, and the previous occupents had run extension cords all over. This is unacceptable, so we had to fix this. Plus, if you are going to run wire into the walls, you need to put up studs, so that means that you should insulate before you put up the studs..etc, etc. etc.

Long story short, here are a few pictures of the basement after the initial part of the remodeling (The "before" pictures are lost in the transfer between yahoo and kodak, but I will put them up as soon as them come out).

As you may be able to tell, all the walls are insulated to the outside, and there are walls built to close off the stairwell and the bathroom and laundry are done. All of the F*^&%$g bulkheads are build around the head vents, and we have framed in the closets over the gas meter and sewer pipes. Also, we have most of the wiring done, so we are getting close.
We intially planned that it was going to be simply a workout room and bathroom, but now, it has evolved a little bit.
For the large side (to the left of stairs when you walk down) basement it will still be a work out room, but now there is going to be large flat screen tv on the wall above the paneling in the first picture. Eventually the futon will go down there as well. The wood paneling goes all around the walls in the larger side of the basement. There are also 2 long closets along the back wall with the gas meter and the sewer pipes, and center portion will be a counter and cabinets.
The smaller side (to your right as you come down the stairs) is divided into a portion for laundry and pantry type storage, and a portion for the bathroom, which is going to have a 48" stand-up shower, sink, 2 linen cabinets and toilet cave (low celing in that area due to a heat vent).

It is gonna be great. So, I hope that you can come by and see it once it is done. If you are comign for Christmas there is a non-zero possibilty that you will be sleeping down there...so get a look at your new digs.