It has been one crazy year of projects at our house! While we don't consider them to be major projects, somehow they are all only partially completed. And in the midst of all of these partially complete projects, we have decided to take on a doozy- gutting our entire basement! Okay, so we didn't really decide to do this...we had to do it. More on that below.
Our 1st project this summer: updating the kitchen. We were fortunate to have new cabinets when we moved into the house, so luckily we were able to avoid that gigantic expense. We have slowly been updating our appliances. Our fridge had started to leak water on the floor. Pieces in the interior of our dishwasher were breaking off and rusting. We found a great deal on a stove and were able to Craig's List the old one. We have HATED our sink since the day we moved in. And with the kitchen update came a mounted microwave which equals more counter space! Other than the appliances, we knew we eventually wanted to get new counter tops and put in a breakfast bar instead of the weird lower level counter that previously existed. Rylie sped up this process by climbing on the lower counter up to the higher one in the couple of seconds that I was looking in the fridge. Pictures are below...
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| The kitchen when we moved in- nice blue vinyl floors |
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| Another angle |
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| The first project in the house- new laminate floors |
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| The kitchen as it stands today- new countertop, appliances, and backsplash |
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| No more microwave in the corner by the fridge |
New cabinet hardware, new lighting, new trim (it was mangled in this process), add a sideboard for extra storage, window treatments
So yeah, we have a ways to go. However, this more recent project, "the doozy", has added years to our stay in this house, so we have plenty of time to accomplish those above.
2nd project this summer: Painting the exterior of the house. It was green....and so ugly with the pinkish stone. We were lucky to have our parents do a TON of the painting for us. For some reason I was holding a garage sale the same weekend. Not by choice...pretty sure this painting project was delayed a few weeks and landed on the same weekend as the planned garage sale. We also painted the shed...finally a matching color. I didn't upload a picture of that.
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| Front before |
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| Back before |
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| The front after/finishing painting |
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| Back after |
Yet to be completed: Paint all the window trim white. Finish off the new post in the front with trim. A little thing called landscaping around the entire house.
And finally, the basement project. We loved the basement when we first moved into the house. It served a great purpose for two kid-less people. But over the past year, we have noticed more and more dampness to the point where we were emptying our dehumidifier on a daily basis. We also started noticing signs of mold. Not Good. We also started seeing stairstepping cracks in the foundation of the unfinished part. Also Not Good. So we called a contractor to have them look at it...a couple contractors actually. The news was pretty much what we expected- we needed to put in a whole new drainage system on the inside and dig out the outside to seal up any cracks that had formed. Yippee. In order to do all of this, we had to empty out the contents of our entire basement. And taking it a step further, Dan decided to pull out all of the drywall and pull up the tile as well as we new there had been water underneath. We wanted to get rid of any sign of mold. We already had plans to refinish the basement bath and take advantage of its size by creating wall to wall cabinets for more storage. So we went ahead and gutted that area too.
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| The basement prior to moving in |
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| Another angle |
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| Mid-packing |
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| Found this guy behind the drywall |
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| The bathroom mid-demo |
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| Accent wall coming down |
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| And it's down |
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| We had to remove at least two feet of tile for the contractors to do the work |
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| Drilling down into the cement for the new drainage system |
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| What our back room looked like prior to this news |
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| Prior to the work |
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| Mid-work |
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| Finished new sump pump and back up |
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| A dark look at the partially dug outside |
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| Our basement in its current state |
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| Another angle |
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| Looking into what was the bathroom (notice the new cement) |
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| Bathroom |
And once again our dining room has a new purpose. It was a den when we moved in, became a wedding supply storage room, then a wedding gift storage room and finally our dining room. Now it is once again storing the majority of our belongings from the basement...the garage is storing the bigger items- the bar, cabinets, etc.
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| Den |
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| Dining room- somewhat recent picture |
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Dining room today
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Yet to be completed: EVERYTHING! There are so many things, major and minor, on the check list, but basically, we are going to epoxy the floor of the unfinished area and paint as well...try to make it into a place where I like doing laundry. Rebuild the shelves and move storage back down- in a
slightly more organized manner. In the main room- put up drywall and new insulation (luckily I know a guy in this business). And from there we will finish the bathroom first and slowly but surely finish everything else. The goal for all of this: May 2012.
While it wasn't the best news we've ever received, it was something we had to do for our safety and to eventually be able to sell this house. We'll just be here a few more years than planned, which is OK because we love the house. Another positive is making the basement into an area we can use as a family. There will still be a "man-cave" part to it, but it's also going to be a more kid-friendly space as well. We're planning on doing wood floor and carpeting, now that we know there won't be water issues. There will be a place to go with toys! And of course still a bar and pool table.
