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!

Josh is Demolition Man

The basement overhaul has officially begun! Josh has taken great joy in trashing our basement and getting all the nasty fake wood paneling and such out of there. He has hired someone to help him refinish everything and they have gotten right into it. Literally, the day Jamie (our contractor) came over to look at the space, they talked for about an hour and jumped right in. So, the basement has been almost completely gutted out. I mean, we are tearing out walls and starting from scratch. Hopefully we can add a bathroom and a finished laundry room down there, which would be absolutely awesome. I know at least there will be a play room/family room area for the kids, an office for Josh and a little workspace for my "crafty" things. It will be soooo nice to have that area livable, but not so sure what we are going to do for storage now...guess we better get rid of some stuff. Here is the first installment of pictures, I'll have more soon since the giant, and I mean giant, trash container got her today. Monday, the waterproofing men are coming to start their part. Stay tuned...