It wasn’t our intent to start remodeling our basement this year.  It wasn’t our intent to do as much to the kitchen either, but it really was  a cheap kitchen remodel for an *almost* complete redo.  Right now our driveway is cracked, the house looks like it needs to be repainted and there are a few windows with rotting sills. There’s always something with home ownership.

A friend, a master carpenter, was laid off his job this summer.  We had been waiting for his schedule to free up a bit for him to have time to finish off our basement.  It’s a win-win for both of us.  We get someone we trust to do the work and do it well, and he gets some money to pay for pesky things like mortgages and car payments.   We just have to make sure there is an abudant supply of Miller High Life in the fridge. 😉

Our basement is much too large of a job for us to do ourselves.  It requires real knowledge of carpentry, electrical and plumbing.  We’d rather have it done right, and apparently we have to do it now.  We are both a bit worried about taking out an equity line in this economy, but this is the time to do it.  Materials are more readily available and people are happy to have a customer and the work. 

Vern took a look at it, and we have a better idea of what needs to be done.  The roughed-in plumbing for the bathroom was done wrong (SURPRISE!! Oh wait, not quite shocking!)  That will require additional work.  He has a good idea of how to moisture seal the walls so they don’t allow mold to come in, which is an issue with our basement.  We were thinking of heated tile floors, but it’s not really economical so we will do a few other things to make the floors more comfortable.  The guest bathroom will be heated floors at the request of my mother. 😉

I’ll keep you aprised of the work.  It will probably take awhile just due to the nature of getting stuff done and waiting for an inspection and then quick get stuff done and then waiting.  Ah, so much fun!  I got the initial permits this week, so now we just need to get the materials delivered.

The first step is moving things to the garage.  That is sure to be way too much fun.  I can’t wait.  Really.  My back is going to be killed by Monday after hauling all that stuff out this weekend.

Right now it is completely unfinished.  Nada has been done to it during 25 years.  A blank slate if you will.

The plan:

• Wine cellar
• Craftroom/guestroom (it will have a murphy bed in it and cork floors)
• Recreation room with a wet bar, just off the wine cellar, and a gas fireplace
• 3/4 bathroom
• Exercise room (just basically finishing off the walls and adding some rubber mats to the floor)
• Utility room – will just be closed in with some walls.

Since I love the tuscany color scheme, I’ll probably be doing that down there.  It will be a more sedate color scheme than the kitchen, though.  It will be more creams, rusty browns, oranges, slate blue and aged greens.  Basically a fall color palate.  It’s warm, cozy and inviting.

*****

Growing up, Brian and I had much smaller houses.  Most of his life, Brian lived in a single-wide trailer, and then in the old farmhouse.  The old farmhouse I lived in was a decent size, not huge but not small…and you could just about see outside in a few places!  Bats were frequent visitors in our rooms at night.  After my parents lost it in foreclosure we had a three bedroom (should have been a two-bedroom) one-story bungalow, and my room was smaller than the nursery (Anya’s room) probably by about half.

A part of me thinks that finishing the house is a bit of excess.  It’s not as big as the McMansions that are all over our area, but still bigger than what we were raised in.  I am happy that it will be turning the space into a more usable area, though.  Also…it will (hopefully) keep those bugs out.  Also…I won’t have to sew in my comfy fleece outfits in the summertime while I’m down in our COLD basement with my toes freezing off.  That will nice!