Welcome to our home … our second attempt at a fixer-upper.

Another update on the basement … which is still the only renovation being completed at our house, so you’ll be all caught up.

The crew had a nice break from our house … and a bit of gorgeous February weather to work on someone else’s deck. 😊 It took the drywall finisher about 2 weeks to complete the work downstairs … on & off.  His schedule was pretty sporadic for the first week, and then we had a couple of conflicts that first weekend. But he was able to put in a few full days during the second week, and completely finish the job on a Thursday. Which was perfect for us … because we used that weekend to paint.

The regular crew wasn’t scheduled back until Tuesday or Wednesday, so we had 4 days to prime and paint. It took a long few days … really just 2, but it felt long. It took me basically a whole day to prime the entire space, and then 2 half days to paint down there. I could have done all the painting in 1 day … but my arm couldn’t take it. ☹

We went with a dark, bluish-gray in the front half of the room (Sherwin Williams, Cyberspace) and a pale, crisp sliver in the back half and the bathroom (Sherwin Williams, Reflection). And they look great. Ceilings and walls are all the same colors in their respective areas.  And, for now, over on the long wall, there is just a line of paint where the 2 colors meet (over by the stairs, the colors break at a corner, so that was easy) … but soon enough, there will be a wallpaper mural in the back half of the room, so no line, just dark paint and then awesome wallpaper.

Laundry is back up and running (since a day or so after that last post), so that was great! But, on a not-so-great side note … when they moved our laundry over to the unfinished side of the basement, they installed new copper piping. To do that, they had to weld it all together. Well, they also welded a few holes in our waterproofing system right behind the utility sink. Initially, we didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary – neither did they. Cue that first weekend of drywall finishing. We got record rainfall in one day. It poured all day long. And then we must have gotten at least a couple of inches that evening into the night. So, around 9:30pm, I decided to go down there and check it all out. If the waterproofing system was holding up to this, it was doing its job – and a remarkable job at that. On the finished side, everything was great. No water. No seeping. No leaks at all. The sump pump was kicking on and off all night. It sounded like waterfalls in our basement, but no water. I went and checked the unfinished side, just to do due diligence. Water all down the wall. Water flowing on the floor to the drain. Water leaking out of the utility sink. Oh no! So, we inspected, and there were a few corroded connections and drain pipes – we knew about these and the crew was planning to fix them, just hadn’t gotten to them yet. But, these cause dripping, not flowing water. So, we looked behind the new piping and saw the penny- to nickel-size holes burned into the waterproofing. And, since there was SO MUCH water, it was flowing down behind the waterproofing (Yay! Great!), and also right out of those holes onto the utility sink and floor and down to the drain (Boo. Bad.). Patrick taped it up and that worked (we have some crazy good duct tape – works on pretty much anything). Anyway, we need to have the waterproofing company come out to fix it so it’s covered under our warranty, but it’s an easy, relatively inexpensive fix. So, they’ll be out next week to fix that … and in the meantime, the crew is going to replace the leaky plumbing. The great news overall is that there was NO water in the basement, except where there were holes in the system – in the heaviest rainfall on record here – so that is pretty great news.

In the middle of all that commotion, we also had the windows all replaced. The house still had the original (*probably) windows down there. They slide open and weren’t very secure … nor were they attractive to look at, at all. We had them all replaced with vented glass block, in the ICE pattern in case anyone is wondering. They look amazing. Like, actually amazing. We’re SO VERY glad we did this step. Plus, since they’re vented and have screens on them, we can open windows down there now! (I didn’t think that this was much of a deal … until I was painting and we cracked the 3 windows on the finished side and there was a descent amount of air flow! It legitimately helped and was pretty nice!)

And even more … we spent a full Saturday and about 3 evenings this past week out looking for furniture (ugh), cabinets, counters, bathroom vanity, a toilet, etc. It’s been absolutely exhausting. But, we are finished. We picked up the bathroom vanity & sink, and countertops this week. The faucets and fixtures have all arrived, and we’re waiting on the bar sink. And, the crew has picked up the bar cabinets and toilet.  The fridge is on order. And it’s all coming together!

The furniture we currently own won’t fit down there. The room is just slightly different dimensions, and we had to build a cabinet around the sump pump and radon system, which didn’t leave us with enough room to accommodate our current furniture. So, back out we went. And, it has been an ordeal (similar to ALL furniture shopping, ever, always). But, we found something that we like, will work, and is going to look good down there. It too is on order.

Another couple of weeks and hopefully, the crew will be finished down there!  Then a few more days to a week and we’ll be finished with our touch-ups (painting, wallpaper, etc.) and just be waiting on furniture to be delivered. It’s rolling downhill from here … the design is coming together and it feels like a finished room. The next post may be a finished basement room, fingers-crossed.