Bustin' the Basement

I know I mentioned renos last month (can you  believe it is already October?  When did that happen!?!), and I decided to show some pics of the progress (or lack thereof).  I was wanting the wall to be all down already, and the concrete scrubbed, and maybe even primer finished before October.  Sigh.  Ah well, at least SOME things have happened.

 

Excuse the mess, I still need to make use of the laundry area.  ;)  But no more carpet!  Ripped that out while my husband was moving the electrical panel over 4 inches (to make wall removal easier).

 

You'd think that ripping stuff out would be fun, but my goodness it is a lot of work!  The wood is so very old, it almost feels like it's turning to stone!  And the nails are brittle.  The heads keep breaking off when I attempt to pull off plywood.  The panelling is easy enough to remove, thank goodness.

You can see through the one section of wall now!  I also managed to pull off the door frames that were down here in a way that they can be reused!

That bit of wall that is removed was moulding and rotting.  I have been thinking of just removing that wall completely and put in a proper wall with insulation (they actually had no insulation against the wall that is outside... but they did for the interior wall.  I'm guessing it was more for the sake of sound?).  The entire thing is just... ridiculous.  A lot of what was done here makes no sense, and everything was built so tight that it is really difficult to remove anything.  My parents have come down to help me out (thank goodness, I need it).  We will reuse what we can, but it doesn't look like much right now.

 

 

The plan is to cover that utility area with a curtain, but since I have these closet bi fold doors and the frame, I'm thinking of using them for part of the wall as well.  I may still need curtains for part of the 'wall' anyway, as we still need access to the electrical panel.  Or I'll just use the door... ha ha... a door and a closet door for the utility room.  Wouldn't that be silly?

 

Well, I'm really hoping we can get things going now.  I've done some price checking and figure it will cost about $700 to get the blue R7 foam insulation for the outside walls that need it, the pink insulation, the 2x4s, and the drywall.  Considering what I already thought the price for paint, primer, grout, and the likely cost for vapor barrier plastic and nails/screws, we could probably insulate the basement and have it painted for about $1000.  Hopefully. 

 

Now to buy the stuff we need, finish ripping out the wall, and try to wash the concrete, build walls, etc etc. Funny how the 'simple' project escalated so much.  :)

 

I am just really wanting to make my basement a usable space already.  Really badly.  Wish me luck!  :)