Basement Remodel: Part II

This part of the remodeling took place sometime in April after Easter and Josh had just started to get everything out of the lower level and placed upstairs in our front living room. Which means yes, it has been sitting there for 2.5 months waiting for me to sift through and decide what stays and what goes. I just don't have the energy right now. Once they make some headway on getting everything said and done, I'll probably move into high gear, but for right now it doesn't have anywhere to go anyways! So on to what the boys have done thus far. With the stairs done and out of the way and the clutter removed, the framing began to take shape with us deciding how we were going to divide up our new space. We decided to have a "family room" area right when you come down the stairs--the wall was torn out half-way to add light from the stairs. Then Josh's office would be in the back behind the stairs and a craft/sewing room for me on the other side of the laundry room. There is going to be space to potentially put in a bathroom, but I don't think we are ready to do that yet. We might have to save a little more money to get the "roughing-in" done. I'd like to finish the laundry room as well, but that is also put on the back burner. So...we have the framing of all the rooms and the ceiling is prepped for drywall.

Above is Jaime working hard and the laundry room cleared out and ready for the wall that is going to make my craft room.

These two are the duct work getting framing/cross-bars for drywall and then the corner of my craft area getting 2x4s.

Finished wall making the laundry room/storage into two spaces.

Basement Remodel: Part I

This is the first of many posts about our venture into the world of basement finishing. Technically, our basement was finished when we moved in, but everything was kinda done "jankety" in my book. The paneling was old and painted over and needed to come off the walls and there was water damage due to many STL storms over the past couple of years (which apparently the previous owners never had a problem with...yeah, right). So in a fit of rage one day after a mini-flood, Josh decided to pull out the water-logged marble shag carpeting and then left the basement to sit, untouched for about 3 years. Then come our children...Thinking we need more space of kid-friendly things and family time, Josh jumped right into getting the ball rolling on this basement fix-up. Since Joshua is so good as demolishing things, he took out everything and Jaime, whom we hired to help, tore out walls and framed it back up again. So here are some pictures of that beginning stage.

The above shots are showing the stairs being turned over and redone and the horrible plaster that was on the wall coming down the stairs. What ever possessed the people to finish the basement walls like this is beyond me.

These show Jaime's "work area" and him finishing up the stairs. Nothing like progress!