House { The Journey Is Nearing Its End
When we moved into our new house the basement was finished, or rather was once finished. It had wood paneling, 1950s era linoelum flooring, and an awesome fireplace. But the panelling was damaged by the great Rochester flood in the 1970s, and so the bottom six inches had a discoloring, the walls were covered in soot from the fireplace, evidence that the fireplace needs work. The linoelum was no longer shiny and in many places was chipped and had started coming up. It also had not been used in some time and the spiders had taken over and turned into something similar to Shelob's Lair. Every trip down was a quest, with the phial of Galandrial and 'Sting' by trusty flyswatter. It also had a smell that hinted that a cat's litter box had once been there (which is not good if you own cats, as they tend to go where others have gone before them). It was in short in sad shape.
Twelve months ago we decided each of us had a need for more space in our home offices, nerdwife for studying, and me for my game hobby and a place I can work from home. Originally we were to convert the two smaller bedrooms next to each other into offices, but the need for a home library was greater than the need for an office (we have a LOT of books) and so we moved our offices together. It is not a bad situation, but it also meant that we could not both use our 60s era desks, which are quite large. So thus is was decided the basement was to be remodelled.
In January I dug in and started removing the panelling, a closet, and decrepit cabinetry that once looks to house board games. It was dirty work that require much spider, millipede, and faux ladybug slaying. It took about six weeks of part time work to pull out all the panelling. Behine which I found sooty, pink painted, cement block, and, thankfully, framing adequate enough to hang sheetrock on.
I lost the will to go farther as it was now almost March. It sat like this until June when I took the panelling finally to the recycling center (3 full pickup truck loads). I started researching and cost estimating what it would take to sheetrock the basement. I found it would be beyond what I've ever done, and I didn't have all the tools. I decided I couldn't do it, well I could, but it would look terrible. I'm glad I didn't. We found a great contractor who did the work for $250 less than I had budgeted for a contractor to do and along the way I learned that I would have missed a lot, insulation, vapor barrier, and there was no way I could have made the mudding and seams look as great as he did. I wasn't able to schedule him until after Labor Day, but it was worth the wait.
Once the rock was hung and dry the quest for paint began. Originally I had thought it would look awesome in a dark red like the living room, but nerdwife pointed out that it would have given the 'Nerd Lair' as it was starting to be called a cave like feel as well as making it smaller. She was right, eventually we settled on a very light slate-blue that accentuated the colors in the fireplace brick work. It makes the room brighter and appear larger.
Once the painting was complete, which was, for the first time in my history of homeownership, not a terrible experience. Painting on sheetrock was effortless. A great difference from the 'textured' plaster walls of the old Victorian we had in St Paul, which required special rollers and gallons of paint. Things went smooth and it looked good.
Next step was the carpenting. Originally we had thought about getting carpeting from this company that specialized in modular carpeting, that is carpet in squares that you can lay down indvidually in your own designs. But it was expensive, and time is a factor, as both nerdwife and I have busy lives and jobs. We budgeted some more for carpeting and called 'The Rug Bug' a family run business who had recarpeted our library when we first moved in, they do exceptional work and are reasonably priced. I picked a berber carpet that had a mottled array of blues, grays, browns, beiges, and creams and it compliments the walls and fireplace nicely.
I have made arrangements for a carpenter who likes small jobs to come and give us an estimate on trimming out around the carpeting and fixing/replacing a few doors. I have also contacted a chimeny sweep to come look at both of our fireplaces and fix what is necessary to get them useable. I have also contacted professional movers to move my desk, which nerdwife found at the University of Minnesota Recycling Center and is a tanker desk. It is massive, beautiful and very 60s. It is also 250lbs. According to the guys at the RC, it is called a 'tanker desk' because it used to be used on Oil Tankers and it is heavy so that it did not shift around on the open seas. It is very heavy, so heavy in fact nerdwife and I can only move it a few inches. We decided professional moves, who are licensed, bonded, and insured should move it, because if we did it we would only hurt ourselves and probably the house.
The journey will be ending soon and I am looking forward to it.
6 comments:
Congratulations. It reminds me of all I have to do, to whit:
1. Re-paint the upstairs bathroom.
2. Put another coat of paint on the downstairs bathroom.
3. Pull out the carpet upstairs and lay hardwood.
4. Replace the linoleum in the dining room.
...and I could go on. :-/
“ I want it to be a palace--only I don't think palaces are very luxurious. They're so big, so promiscuously public. A small house is the true luxury. A residence for two people only--for my wife and me. It won't be necessary to allow for a family, we don't intend to have children. Nor for visitors, we don't intend to entertain. One guest room-in case we should need it-but not more than that. Living room, dining room, library, two studies, one bedroom. Servant's quarters, garage. That's the general idea.”- p.519 The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
While quoting Ayn Rand does give me a bit of the creeps, and of course the line about Servant's Quarters is pretty annoying, I felt this kind of approach to a house was not a bad one. Mostly, it was the description of a library and two studies that stood out for me. People of intelligence should have a private place in which to study. More than grand public space, private space is what makes a home liveable. Each person needs their own private space to think, and a public repository of books and media. My own book collection is rather large (although, I think, not quite on par with that of GeistX and Nerdwife), and since books always add a sense of clutter, book storage as a seperate room makes sense to me. A library is a nice room but it is chaos where mostly I want more order.
I remember moving that desk from the truck to the garage. It was not exactly light.
Taping sheetrock is an artform. Not for amateurs.
Sounds like a nice refurb, excepting that I personally regard carpeting as vulgar. To each their own.
I look forward to seeing the finished product soon.
In this case the carpet is necessary. It is nice, low maintenance berber. Otherwise the floor is cold, and more importantly the room is loud. I often watch movies, listen to music, or play video games without headphones and the subwoofer carries, not to mention when I get my bass amp. With the carpet the room is both quieter and a lot warmer, which is nice in bare feet.
Sound deadening is one of the only major things about carpet I like. Rugs and drapes go a long way too, but echo is a pain sometimes. I can see about the cold floor thing, although I'd probably have put down radiant electric heating in the space under tile or wood flooring and then used rugs to soften things up a bit, but then that would probably run up your budget.
Ya need to put up a picture or two. Before and after pictures of remodels are so fun!
Sadly I didn't get before shots. I will see about after.
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