Basement Renovation Project {After...Finally!}

And I'm finally in the home stretch...whew Like seriously I'm so glad this is nearly complete as I've just been completely exhausted most days, and sometimes so tired that I don't even recall driving into work and returning home, only to wake the next day...heh

So anyway, here are a few after pics, and while its not entirely complete, this will have to do for now. Honestly all that's left; is to install the transition strips between the carpet and laminate flooring {$50} and a door {$70} which I plan to buy into with each check every 2 weeks, but neither are a high priority atm. Trying to save a little money with each check, and I don't make much either, so its tough with all this going on. Oh and install spindles on the steps/railing, but I've already got those, so no cost but time.

Its quite the radical change though, from what it looked like down here. I'm loving it, both my Labs are greatly enjoying it, and the few family members that have seen it prior and now are astounded.

I recently spent about $90 on a ton of shelving for my clothes, books and other items, plus another $120 to finish off the 200ft wooden fence I've been putting up in our back yard during this time also, when the weather permitted. {Its been raining and semi-cold a lot so it took awhile to finish, but I got it done 100% today...sorry no images yet}


Below are a few after images and above some of them 'in thumbnail' are a before image for maximum effect...hehe:


Kunae enjoying the newly laid carpet and massive open area...



The steps area before ~













Looking toward the sliding doors. Its unbelievable how much space there is now... ~









Now remember how horribly messy and cluttered this area was not too long ago. Don't forget the shelves that appeared as though they'd fall at any moment...heh:













And there we have it...one massive basement renovation. Though as I said above I'm not quite done, but the remaining is only cosmetic items that'll get done in time, when money is available. In the last few days, I decided that I'd love to have a bathroom with shower, toilet and sink down here so I don't have to go to the 2nd floor every night. After discussing it with my step-father and of course he was ok with it, I plan to add that down here sometime in the coming months.

Recall where that basement door was that I moved, anyway, the framing is still there and after removing more junk I moved into the furnace room, there is plenty of room to build a 6' deep by about 10' wide bathroom into that corner, with plenty of remaining room around the furnace still. I'm going to start working on that soon enough, but of course that'll cost more money I don't have entirely yet, but I'm working on it, plus I plan to get as much free stuff from Craig's List as well to help lessen the cost. I'll be sure to post images once I get started too.


However, before the bathroom, my next major project will be building a 15' x 14' ground-level deck immediately outside the sliding doors; with which to cover up the majority of ground that after 3 years of trying to grow grass there, I've given up! Its just a mass of dirt, and after rain its a mass puddle of mud, and with 2 Yellow Labs, and brand new carpet I'm tired of dealing with it.

I've already got most the material for it too. I've been buying up a ton of the culled lumber from Home Depot every Mon at 85% off. This lumber is usually warped fairly badly or split in some cases, but nothing a bunch of 3" deck screws can't straighten out...heh I've gotten about $350 worth of pressure-treated lumber for less than $30...no complaints here! I'll be sure to start a thread on it with images of course in the near future...rest for the next week or so is now imminent!

Cyas~!

Congratulations Khalus! It looks superb and I bet it feels good to have finished it.

nice set-up, btw hide the wow boxes.

LOL, yeah I know right. I should just toss them out since they're from the last account I sold and I don't plan to ever play again. Maybe when I need more space on that shelf, but I havn't been buying any new books or getting into new MMOs lately.

you could print up some awesome artwork and hang them up, i did that with my old wow boxes. i print up warhammer 40k artwork to size and hang them up it looks awesome.

Its an idea for later, cause if I did that I'd wanna go to a print shop and do it right on high quality poster board, or on lesser quality and frame it, and the frames would cost too.

There are some neat images of many games I like, that would look good hanging up, but maybe later once I've caught up on all these projects.

Oh yeah, I have some really horrible news to post about, that got even worse today. Last week when I turned on the A/C I thought that the drainage hose was too close to the wall and had seeped into the paneling on the walls and then into several of the boards of my new laminate wood flooring.

It was negligible then, cleaned it up and didn't bother to investigate further, until today. I stepped on the section of carpet in the corner of my desk area near the support pole and it was soaked, I flipped out, and was like how the crap did water flow all the way up here from the furnace drain, plus I hadn't had the A/C on since.

So I delved deeper into the furnace room and discovered that a one of the small pipes hanging down {one of those sticking through the wall in some images under my desk} from an old bar sink had corroded and is leaking. More than one large drop every sec.


Anyway, turns out that the damage has spread and pretty much all that new laminate flooring along the wall and up to 2' out is soaked ~ thus resulting in being warped and bent out of place. Thankfully its mostly all under the desk and hard to see unless you get near floor level. We're planning to fix the pipes tonight and then I'll get in there and put some heavy weights on the worst parts with a fan on them to see if I can't flatten it out a bit.


This really sucks because of all the work I put into and considering the location, attempting to fix them would require me to uninstall my new desk and pull up that entire floor on this side of the wall. I really don't want to do all that, so hopefully attempting to fix them shall suffice. On the bright side though, this laminate didn't cost very much, so I'm not out much...it just really sucks!

Grats on finishing the reno and sorry to hear about the water problems. On the + side looks great ^^

Alrighty, the leak has been fixed. Now to run the fan all night and hope some of this floor flattens back out a little. Doubting it, plus it'll prolly take several days or a week before I see any results.

le sigh...

That's a real shame after all your hard work - fingers crossed your repair idea works.

Well, my weights and air drying isn't working. Havn't noticed a bit of change and thus it appears as though it'll be forever warped.

Once it's fully dry I'm gonna get in there with a sledge hammer and block and try to beat it as flat as possible. Its already ruined so whatever is what I'm thinking atm. As long as I can make it look somewhat better than it does now.

I did notice earlier today that it has spread further, and I can feel immediately under my feet for about 18" its warped a little higher on one boards seam. This really sucks!!!


After all this, I really wish I had gone with the ceramic tile instead, which was my original design choice. And if this gets even worse or I can't fix it a little, I may just tear it all up and go with tile afterall eventually. Unfortunately that'll cost me another $300+ which I'd rather spend on the bathroom I'm planning to build down here...

Wd using some sort of dehumidifier work to at least get rid of the remaining moisture so it doesn't spread? (Or is that what you've already done?) At least you'd only need to replace the stuff that's already warped then. Don't know why I even said the above - my knowledge of diy is and how to dry off areas is about the same as Spongebob Squarepants.

LOL, nah just used a fan, but it doesn't appear to be spreading any further for now. However, I do have enough spare pieces of this floor to fix all of the damaged parts, and I may be able to do so without taking my desk apart, but it'll be more time consuming and slightly challenging.

Might do that sometime this weekend or next.

Nice job.