I've Got the Power

This morning Jon and I set out early to purchase some trim needed to finish trimming out the doors in the basement. However after stopping at Elverson Supply and Lowe's we came out empty handed. Apparently nobody makes trim the same way they did in the 1970s. So we came home and went with plan 2: electrical work and baseboards. Jon demonstrated how to wire an outlet for me then let me loose, wiring the rest of the outlets in the family room/office area. 

This is what the outlets looked like when I began: 

 Jon took some shots of me working for proof that I do indeed (occasionally) help him out:

 Step one: connect ground wire with a pig tail. 

 Do the same with the other wires, put the caps on them. 

 Stuff the wires back, strip the tops of the pigtails and then make them into hooks.

 Attach the hooks onto the socket, screw it into place, and make sure it's level.

 The family room's outlets are all ready to go! 

Below is a shot of Jon working on the baseboards. This afternoon Dave Harkins (from church) came over and helped him with some gardening outside, so I was working solo for most of the afternoon. We will all know who to blame if our home goes up in smoke. Now that I think of it, we better install smoke detectors now!

I'll post pictures of the trim and baseboards when he is all done with them. Progress is happening - slow and steady! I'm hoping that we set a date to have the carpet installed for more motivation to get this basement done before Baby Mountz makes an appearance!!!

Painting the Basement

The past month has been a busy one for Jon and the basement now looks almost ready to live in. Once again I have the easy job: choose the paint colors. However, I also had to decide on the carpet for the living area which took a good few weeks. I ultimately decided on a darker brown, which I will have to show you after it is installed. For the walls a light, warm tan was chosen. The name of the paint, "Tempered Gray," is decieving since it definitely is more brown than gray. Nevertheless, I think I like it. It is difficult to portray colors through pictures, but here are some pictures of the basement walls.

 I decided to paint the trim a bright white:

Here you can really see the recessed lighting we installed a few months ago:

 The color next to the fireplace.

After the first coat of paint, Jon decided it would be best to replace the windows in the living room area and in the laundry room before progressing any further. Omar and Jon tackled that project on a Saturday afternoon. It's amazing how much of an improvement the new windows are!

In the laundry room I wanted a cooler color while keeping it light. So I went with a color called "Bay Waves." You really cannot tell from the picture below. It has a blue hue.

So now our goal will be to do the trim, frame out the windows, finish installing the doors, paint the doors, install the carpet, frame out the post at the bottom of the steps, tile the laundry room floor, and I'm sure more.

Drywall!

Having drywall up makes the basement seem like a different place! Jon initially started the drywall task with my wonderful laundry chute closet - which I have gladly been using for the past several weeks. Since this photo he has added a ledge to catch the laundry about 3 feet from the ground as well as a shelf on the wall to hold extra supplies. 

 Jon enlisted the help of his dad and his brother, Dan, to help work on the drywall. It took a lot longer than he thought to install, but he is very glad to now be working on the spackeling. Here is the few from the bottom of the steps looking into the "office" and bathroom. You can almost see the soffit towards the left on the ceiling.

 The family room portion (Ok, so Jon hadn't quite finished hanging in here...it's done now, though!).

The laundry room:

 Jon installed a small heater for me in the laundry room. I'm excited for heat!

 Our recessed lights. For the time being Jon has regular (cheap) light bulbs in there until we finish off the lights. 

The magic maker in action!

I'm getting really excited about having the basement finished. Yesterday I ordered the carpet so now I need to settle on a paint choice before Jon finishes sanding and priming. Lots of decisions!

The Basement

When we moved into our house in 2010, we decided to renovate the basement in 2012. However, due to flooding in the spring of 2011, we had to move up the planning. However, it is now 2012 and we're still renovating. Therefore I suppose we got what we wanted!

We gutted the basement, starting with the hideous carpet.

Then came down the ceiling and paneling.

To remedy the water problem Jon rented a jackhammer and, with some help from his family, dug a ditch around the entire perimeter of the basement.

After spending weeks on digging, Jon put some stones, a black cloth material, some drainage pipes, more rocks, and a plastic sheet over the ditch.

Our new sump pump! Jon dug a sump pump pit, drilled holes into the walls so that water can reach the sump pump, and added halves of PVC pipes to run the water from the wall to the ditch.

Concrete came next. The tubes are for our washer and new bathroom.

Framing has begun!

I helped out a bit. Jon would measure, I would cut, and he would install.

While we slowly framed, Jon did a lot of plumbing in order to be able to utilize the most possible space with the ceiling and to add the bathroom. Below you can see the new PVC for our washer and laundry room sink.

In the past few weeks and months our furnace cracked so Jon had to put framing and plumbing on hold to fix that problem. It took a lot longer than we thought and resulted in replacing the entire heating system. He installed a Buderas along with a new oil tank in our basement. Currently Jon is spackling the drywall. I'll have to run on down and take some pictures for the next post!

Adventures of a Laundry Chute

One of the many perks to this little home of ours is our laundry chute. In the hallway which leads to the two bedrooms and bathroom there are two closets: a coat closet and linen closet/laundry chute.

Due to the new layout of the basement, Jon decided it would be best to move the laundry chute to the coat closet, dumping the clothes right into the soon-to-be laundry room. So the work began! First, he pealed up the carpet from the closet floor and cut a hole. Below the hole there were electric wires so Jon had to move those. Then, he disassembled the old laundry chute and reinstalled it in the new location. Thankfully, the closets are mirror images and everything fit in great. He finished off the other closet by covering the hole and installing the piece of carpet from the coat closet. Looks good as new!

Since this picture, Jon has moved the coat hanging shelf higher and I've painted everything white (the walls were a light greenish color). In the basement Jon has the closet framed, but will soon be putting up the drywall and eventually installing a door. Progress is a wonderful thing!

The Kitchen: from the beginning until now

Our kitchen was a nightmare when Jon moved in. As mentioned in a previous post, there were three types of wallpaper in addition to horribly stained carpet, a tiny oven, and a refrigerator that did not work. After spending several hours stripping the wallpaper, our next project was finding a new refrigerator. Once we brought the fridge home, we realized it was too tall for the cabinets. So, time to get busy.

Jon, who is always looking to make more work, decided we might as well make it a day project and open up the back walk and push the refrigerator the extra two or three inches back.

There was also a soffit above the cabinetry that Jon removed in order to move the cabinets up. Basically Jon removed the soffit, unscrewed the cabinetry 98%, asked me to help hold the cabinets up, removed the last 2% of screws, pushed the cabinets up, reinstalled the screws, and we were set! After some touch up and a few layers of paint, it was as good as new.

Next, we painted the room blue. Oops.

The next project was removing the carpet and putting in new floors. We wanted to keep the floor light, and Jon came home one morning with bamboo samples. He was very enthusiastic with the option so I consented. Similar to the wall color, I wish I could go back and rethink my choice. Basically I like my choices much better if I use inspiration pictures off of the internet. Here is the carpet with some bamboo laying on top.

So, here is the floor before, during, and after:

In this after shot you can see that we began working on yet another project: making room for a new oven. Our first oven, which came with the house, was a mere 22 inches (I believe). We were wanting a middle of the road oven hopefully looking to find a good sale. Finding a 22" oven proved easier sad than done. Jon actually found a wonderful deal purchasing a floor sample at Lowe's. The only negative: it was 27." Therefore Jon needed to expand the cabinet opening and piece back the cabinets underneath and above the oven. This took weeks. Running the electricity for the oven revealed to Jon the next project: rewiring the entire electrical circuit. Anyway, back to the oven.

Out with the old, in with the new:

As seen in that last picture, Jon went ahead and removed the soffit from across the top of these cabinets which also called for putting in a new, shorter lamp above the sink and replacing the stove fan. Then, we painted the ceiling (we=Jon :).

Jon also tried his hand at more cabinetry by creating a cookie sheet slot under the oven to the left. You can see the open spot three pictures ago. I'm really please with his work.

Since these pictures, I have painted the corner cabinet (white), Jon has fixed the shelf that was to the left of the oven and I painted it white, the back door has been painted, and so has most of the trim (I have to do the windows and the doorway to the basement). After those quick fixes, we just have to find a dishwasher and replace the countertops. That will probably be in two or three years. .

Paint Selection Woes

After spending hours and even days scraping the wallpaper from every wall in this house, choosing a paint color seemed oh so very important. Our bedroom was the easiest for me. I wanted a beige that would coordinate with our bedding. So Jon and I picked out paint swatches, weeded out the ones that were too dark, light, or green. Then we went to Macy's and compared the color samples to our bedding and went with "Oatbran." It's a shame they did not come up with a better name.

When it came to painting the living room and hallway, I knew that I wanted a light brown that would go well with a white trim. I decided on going with a paint family I knew I liked and chose the lighter color on Oatbran's paint strip - "Woodrow Wilson Putty." So far these two rooms are my favorite colors.

My least favorite color hands down is the kitchen. I do not know why I felt so convinced that I wanted the kitchen a light blue, but I did. So it's a robin egg blue. Not my proudest moment. About 3 months after it was painted I realized I had made a very bad choice. Jon says we need to wait until the rest of the house is finished before we begin fixing our mistakes. He also claims he likes it. I think he just likes that the work is done on it.

In the bathroom I just painted the walls white. What other color would go with the pink tile and blue sink, tub, and toilet?

The most recent room I painted was the second bedroom. Currently it serves as our office but when the basement is finished it will be a bedroom. I really wanted a deep green, but soon realized the room was too small and I was not daring enough. So I went with a color inspired by a room on younghouselove.com - "Celery Sticks" by Glidden. I picked up the paint swatch from Home Depot and had Lowe's color match it. We like the quality of Lowe's paint and the store is conveniently located 5 minutes away in case we need to pick up more paint. I am pleased with how the color looks next to the newly painted trim and windows (which are white). Now for choosing fabric for the curtains and little stool I am putting together for the room.

Currently I am mulling over what colors to choose for the basement spaces. I'm thinking a warmer color for the laundry room and perhaps a cool light gray or something similar for the basement. All hypothetical. I'll concentrate more on the choices when the drywall is being installed.