From Basement to Rec Room at Breakneck Speed

I haven't blogged lately for a variety of reasons, but primarily because my basement remodel had gone absolutely nowhere. When you combine my schedule with my Dad's (who, like me, never knows what his schedule's like in advance) and my brother's (who, in addition to his day job serves on the church counsel, the church building committe - which has seen it's own remodeling project go ahead in the past month or so, the Plan Commission and Crimestoppers...whew, when DOES that boy sleep), it's been a challenge.

The thing is, I have plans for using the basement this year, and at the top of the list of which is when Santa and his crew come to visit all of my friends kiddos. An ever increasing population of kids really would fit in better in a rec room than in my living room with all the dangers that come along with my glass tables, glass entertainment center, open stairway, etc. Plus, I have other reasons for wanting the basement done. Not the least of which is, at some point yet this year, we are probably going to get severe weather while I'm home, and I'd rather sleep on a couch than on a piece of scrap carpet on the floor - more on this in a future post.

So, three weeks ago this past Saturday I picked up the pieces needed to add another drop for my central vac unit, since otherwise I couldn't clean downstairs. The pieces sat there for two weeks while Dad worked and JT was occupied with about 50 other things on his To Do List, as well as a weekend getaway for a friends "Bachelor Party." Finally, my mother had had enough, and pretty much told the guys if they didn't get the vaccuum piece in, she and I would do it.

A week ago yesterday Dad brought his good friend over and he helped calculate exactly how much wood we would need to stud the outside walls. That night, the vaccuum piece went in. Tuesday, Dad got the wood, and he and Mom carried it into the basement that night. By the time I got home Thursday night, the studs were in, and they'd started the electrical. WOW!!!

Of course, with things suddenly moving at the speed of a Category 5 hurricane, I kept myself busy this weekend. Friday after work was Trip 1 of the weekend to the Home Improvement Store to pick up lighting fixtures, cable and boxes for the TV connections, faucent for the sink (no room for the actual sink in this run) and return a couple of things that we didn't need after all. Saturday brought Trip 2 to the Home Improvement store, on my list this time: Vanity, Sink, and some other odds and ends stuff. Then, it was on to the furniture store to "look" at furniture. An hour later, I had ordered a couch and a rocker recliner. Sunday afternoon brought Trip 3 to the Home Improvement store, this time we picked up the toilet, the countertop, and tile for the bathroom floor. We were going to buy paint too, but ended up going home without that, but with questions for the Drywaller. My spare bedroom/home office is currently serving a third purpose, as holding area for all of my purchases.

Things haven't slowed down this week, yesterday the Drywaller was here and put up the sheetrock in both rooms. Last night, the plumber got all of the connections set up. Today the drywaller did all of the taping, and tomorrow he's going to start spraying on the finish, if everything dries. I have a day trip to Baltimore tomorrow, so it'll be exciting to see how much things have progressed when I get home tomorrow night. They figure by Friday they'll be ready for the primer.

So, here's what should be left by the end of the week:

Buy and install ceiling kit
Buy and install the can lights in the rec room
Install the wood laminate floor in the "bar" area
Buy the Venitian Plaster kit to paint the bathroom and paint (*)
Buy the paint and paint the rec room (two colors - rag painting) (*)
Install the tile flooring in the bathroom (*)
Install the bathroom light
Install the bathroom vanity, sink, and toilet
Find a carpet square pattern I like (at a reasonable price) and install that in the rec room. (*)
Put on the wood trim

To some, that may look like a long list, but given how fast the rest of this project has moved, I have high hopes that this will be done by mid-September. That is, of course, if I can get all of the items with an asterisk at the end done...those are things that require my involvement, and given the fact that my family, friends, and my family's friends have pulled up their bootstraps, I really can't be the holdup now, can I?

Note to self: Put "Request PTO" on the "To Do List"

Oh, and in case you were wondering if I got everything cleared out of these two rooms, the answer is yes (with the help of the parental units)....just don't pay attention to the clutter behind the curtain (or, in the storage room).