Still Here
September 20th, 2006 | by Todd W |Yeah, I know…a bunch of posts explaining the lack of posting is just as compelling as you can get in the blogosphere.
I’ve just been stupid-busy lately.
In November of 2004, my nicely carpeted and finished basement - my dream room…that place I had spent many years dreaming of and yearning for, ‘flooded’. No, I didn’t have six inches of raw sewage, but there was persistent water infiltration beneath the carpeting, resulting in a completely water-logged carpet and pad. My investigation revealed this had been going on for a very long time, probably longer than my ownership of the house.
So, with two kids in the house and concerns about mold, I ripped out the entire carpet and worked on the water problem. It turned out to be more of a landscaping/gutter/drainage issue than any serious defects with the foundation. But for the past two years, I’ve lived with a bare, concrete floor and a couple of very confused cats who tried to claim the entire basement as the world’s largest litter box.
It hasn’t been pleasant.
So a few weeks ago, I finally set the Restoration in motion. Ceramic tile was purchased at a bargain. Paint was identified and brought home. The old carpet tacks were removed and all furniture relocated. I was on the road to recovery.
And then the project scope kept changing on the fly.
While I’m at it, I thought, I should go ahead and cut out some drywall by the drainage problem and just make sure it’s all clean back there. So I cut a small patch. Then a larger patch. Then I found rotting studs. So the patch expanded, and more rotting studs popped into view. Now these aren’t load-bearing studs, so the problem isn’t enormous. Replacing them shouldn’t be too hard, but it takes time.
So, since I’m ripping out both drywall and lumber, I turned my attention to the closet in the corner, which happens to contain a stub in the floor for a toilet. Maybe I could rip out the closet walls, frame it larger and put in a small bathroom? How hard can it be? I’m already tearing the place apart. A little more demo can’t make much of a difference.
And then there is the ‘library’. Maybe I could rip out one wall there and extend the finished area back into the unfinished ’storage’ area? All it would take is a little drywall and one new wall. Hmmm.
And then there is that drop-ceiling I’ve never liked. I’m going to have a nicely tiled floor with a cheap drop ceiling? How can I make space for the ducts and pipes and get drywall up there? How hard can it be?
Thus my idle time is consumed.
I have pictures for posting later. The Basement Project will be an ongoing thread here, and if it is anything like the kitchen sink story, you’ll want to stop back from time to time.
