Caution! Men at work!

Er, in this case, WOMAN at work. Now, that's not totally true. Scott put some muscle into a bit of demo and framing for me, and he's going to do the electrical, but so far it's been 95% me. And I'm not griping, I'm bragging. Pride is sometimes a problem for me...I'll try to tone it down now.

We had our first of two plumbers over yesterday to check out the basement and give us an estimate on roughing in the bathroom plumbing. (That's something else I won't be doing on my own. And I'm considering hiring a drywaller, too. Some things just aren't worth the trouble.)

Here's the good news: the main waste drain in our house is downhill from where we're putting the bathroom. This means a few things. First, we won't need a pump to get waste to the drain. Second, roughing in will be cheaper than we had originally thought. We will get the first estimate back this afternoon and another on Friday or early next week. Then we'll have some actual numbers to work with.

Here's the bad news: in my head, I was imagining the bathroom being impossible and, thus, me getting to turn the basement into a workspace for myself. A workshop, to be more specific. A non-garage place to build, finish, and refinish furniture. Ahhhhh...but my dreams have been dashed by my good luck, so it's back to the garage my mind must go (and back to the driveway for our cars).

I'm trying to be smart about this -- I assume (though I haven't looked it up) that a second bedroom and full bath will add more value to our house than a workshop. But, if a potential buyer were a woodworking kind of person, the shop could theoretically add significantly more. The chances of that, though, I would guess are not nearly as good as a potential buyer wanting more bedrooms and bathrooms. So there you go. Practicality stinks.

Here's how the remodel is going so far. I've ripped out the carpet and padding and given both away via Craigslist (not to the local landfill, hallelujah). I've scraped off the popcorn ceiling (and haven't come down with mesothelioma, yet...we'll get back to that in thirty years). Scott muscled out the header from the old doorway to the basement in order to get a more continuous ceiling from the stairway into the basement hallway. I framed in the new ceiling in the hallway and the hall closet, leaving us with the minimum hallway clearance of three feet, but still a sizeable (eight feet wide by two feet deep) closet for more basement storage.

Today I go back to Lowe's to pick up another load of ten foot 2x4s and then I'll get on with framing the new basement bedroom door. Wish me luck.

The view coming down the stairs. There used to be a doorway at the bottom of the stairs.

The new closet is framed in on the left. Standard 6ft opening, thankyouverymuch.

My beloved closet from another angle. That beautiful little desk will be repainted (the kids messed up the paint on top) and moved upstairs to Scott's new office once the guest furniture has been moved down to the basement.

Home of the future bathroom and closet. The blue painter's tape is helping us get used to the size and layout. Closet to the right, then wall, bathtub, 30" vanity, then toilet.

The corner where the door to the mechanical room used to be. Now there will be a toilet! And I put in some vents for our nitpicky tankless water heater -- it needs plenty o' fresh air.

 
Psst...it's done! Check out this post to see how it looks! 

Trash to Treasure, Brynnie style

"Mom, is that chair going to the dump?"

"What chair, Brynn?"

The sun was shining in my eyes, I was barely awake, trying to rush the girls to school...I had no idea what she was talking about.

"That one, Mom. Right there, by the garbage can!"

"Oh, that one? Yep, looks like trash."

"Mom, Nate (as in Berkus) would save it! He'd fix it and make it beautiful again. Will you please pick it up on your way home?"

And so I did. Because I'm a sucker for indulging my kids' passions, and one of Brynn's passions is Nate Berkus. Or, at least Nate's decorating style and his charisma. She desperately wants to go see his show in New York, but unfortunately, his website clearly states it's 18 and up only.

So I walked home with Libbie's leash in one hand and this dirty, rickity, dog-chewed chair in the other. Yep, I'm sure the neighbors think I'm nuts.

The chair sat in the garage for a while before Brynn and I were able to get our hands on some free syringes (thank you, Walgreen's pharmacist!) to shoot wood glue into the joints. Once it was stable, Brynn sanded off most of the old finish and I sanded off the parts she missed. And the dog chew-marks.



Then one day after school I took on the chair as my own. I didn't want to, but I couldn't help it. I had fallen in love with it, too. I asked Brynn's permission to work on it, told her my plan, got the plan approved, and went to work. While she watched...of course...Nate.

I sprayed the chair with Krylon "Celery" high gloss paint, sanded the edges to let the old white paint and bare oak show through, stained the bare wood to bring out some warm honey tones and then I coated the whole thing with Krylon clear coat.

Callie and Scott worked on weaving the new seat until they ran out of webbing. Brynn and I finished it up a few days ago, making the chair a whole family affair!

And I think the chair is beautiful.

Renovation A.D.D.

I am sure it is clear that I am having a hard time sticking to working on JUST the basement these days but, I tell you, if I have to spend more than a few days down there at a time, I might go nuts. Especially when the work involves popcorn ceilings and dimensions that may or may not be big enough to fit a standard-sized bathtub. Don't even ask.

So this weekend I took another small detour and built this. It solves the "I've got NOWHERE to store TP!" dilemma that our powder room has been facing for years (and years and years).

I also painted the powder room. Goodby garish red, hello soft and soothing grey-green.

The red was so awful I couldn't bring myself to take before pictures. Trust me, it's much better now.

Fore more details on how I built the tower and the finish...just in case you're interested...check out my brag post on Ana-White.com.