The Seedy Underbelly

My winter project is going to be to get the basement completely gutted. As you can see from the pictures below I've got quite a bit of work to do. I need to go through 7 years worth of kid's stuff and see what needs to be saved, what needs to be sold at a yard sale, and what needs to be trashed. Only then can I continue tearing apart the old finished areas. My goal is to have a completely empty basement to serve as a blank slate.

The door at the top of the stairs will eventually be removed. I'm going to put in a couple winder stairs coming down from the main level so I can move the stairs back a foot or so for better head clearance at the bottom.

This used to be a guest room. It was probably the most "finished" room in the basement, although for some reason it reminds me of the office from "Joe Vs. the Volcano".

Another view of the old guest room. The closet is against the east wall of the basement. The wall on the left will be removed to open up this space so we can use it as the family room. Current plans call for an "Old Hollywood" theme and a large flat panel TV on the wall.

This is the tiny, decrepit old bathroom circa 1980. Everything will be removed, the footprint will be slightly enlarged, and the new bathroom will be consistent with the work we have done on the main floor.

This is our current laundry room. It will remain a laundry room, but it will be properly finished with some built-in cabinets and ironing board. (How many code violations can you count!?)

The boxy room on the right is the bathroom. The room on the left will become the new guest room. I'll have to put in an egress window and a closet, but it will end up being a good sized guest room (about 10'x12')

Finally, our tour takes us to what will the the other half of the family room. The wall to the right is the one that separates this space from the "Joe vs. the Volcano" office. You can just see the edge of the bathroom on the left.

The plan is to first gut the entire basement, then put in new PEX plumbing and run CAT6 cable everywhere while everything is accessible. I'll figure out the rest at that point.

New Bathroom Hardware

The bathroom project hasn't technically started yet, since I'm not even half way through with the dining room, but I've been drooling over the Restoration Hardware Bistro collection for long enough dammit!

This is the Bistro tissue holder in polished nickel. I really like that the paper just slides on the end. Nice design!

This is the new toothbrush holder with a stout porcelain cup. As much as I love the design, I gotta say it's expensive, and the cup was sold separately! As with all the pieces, the toothbrush holder is mounted to the wall with 5/16" anchors that work in drywall or plaster. These are very sturdy.

This is the double hook. For some reason, my old double hook had a mounting plate that covered two holes that had been used in the past. The new bistro hook lined up perfectly with the two original holes, leaving the previous holes exposed. I'll patch those when I get around to painting the bathroom.

I also ordered a 30" train rack to go above the toilet, but it is backordered until May. I'll post pics when I get it installed.

New "Before" Pictures Unearthed

I have a shortage of pics of the house in it's pristine "before" state, but I did find a couple hidden away in an obscure folder on my laptop. This is the dining room after the new light fixture was installed, but nothing else had been done at this point.

Here's a view of the original "wet wall". As in the dining room, I had already installed new overhead lights before I took the picture. Those wall cabinets were the only two original cabinets. I tried saving them so I could donate them to The Rebuilding Center, but they were built into the house and had to be destroyed in order to get them out. The blue paint in the back of the cabinet is actually the plaster wall; there was no back to the cabinets.

Here's a view in the opposite direction. The Big Chill refrigerator was the first thing we bought when we moved into the house. It set the tone for the remodel we knew was on the way. I can't believe I actually considered keeping that awful beadboard.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Can you tell? Do you need a hint? OK, it's 102 degrees outside. And we don't have air conditioning.


That's right! All of the dining room windows are painted shut! That means the only way to get any airflow in this house is to open the kitchen windows and the two small casements on either side of the fireplace. I consider this undeniable proof of global warming. Not even a crazy person would have painted these windows shut 20 years ago if it was this hot! I know what my next project will be.


In more window news...

This actually happened last summer. I came downstairs one afternoon to find this:


That's a hole in the original, wavy glass picture window in the living room. At first I was convinced we were victims of a drive-by shooting but a thorough search revealed no projectile. The working theory is that the neighbor kicked up a rock from his lawn mower, but I have my doubts. It's more likely a b.b. hole from the punk-assed kids across the street, but I have no evidence to support that theory, except that we have some punk-assed kids living across the street.

Kitchen: The Plan

We went back and forth several times trying to decide just how extensive of a remodel we should do on the kitchen. At first it was paint the cabinets, tile over the masonite, and put down a new floor on top of the old one. But for just a few extra bucks you could... You know the story.

Here's what we ended up with:

• All new cabinets
• Hex tile countertops
• Subway tile backsplash with a strip of mosaic glass squares (my wife's favorite)
• New "Big Chill" retro refrigerator
• New sink (with a garbage disposal!!!)
• New faucet & plumbing - no more galvanized plumbing going to the kitchen, yipee!
• New floor - Marmoleum click-tiles on original subfloor; only had to remove 3 layers of old flooring.
• New (old) vintage stove - 1940's O'Keefe & Merritt
• New Vent-a-Hood 9" Excalibur range hood
  
• Removed old utility chimney
• Removed dumpy old pantry
• Added new GFCI recepticles around countertops; two outlets in a kitchen will NOT cut it!
• Under and over-cabinet lighting
• New lights over the sink
• Replace ceiling fan with vintage Schoolhouse Lighting fixture
• All new door and window trim