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COMPUTERS
"No matter how much you have, you can always use MOR"
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| My Basement Renovation:
When we decided to move to
Cambridge,
we started looking at re-sale homes but found most of them to be
unacceptable
for a number of reasons. OK, perhaps we expected too much, but you need
to understand that we loved our house in London, so we were spoiled to
some degree because of that. After an exhausting 3 month search, we
decided
to have a new home built that had a very
similar
design to our London home and I started designing the layout of our new
basement even before the builders broke ground for it. The big
advantage to this however, was the fact that I could convince the
builder to place all the utilities exactly where I wanted them for
maximum use of the area. Originally they were going to place the
furnace and water-heater near the back of the house, which would have
made for a serious obstacle to build around in my planned recroom! The planning stage was quite difficult since the majority of it was done before we moved in. I estimated costs and made overall plans on my computer (naturally), and also decided that I was capable of doing most if not all the work myself with the occasional help from my good friends Dave and Rick, and my brother Jim. Special mention also goes to my brother in Law- Joe because he has a great collection of DeWalt® tools and allowed me the use of his workshop and power tools whenever my facilities and tools weren't adequate. Nothing makes a project work better that the right tools! Thanks Joe, for having a great tool collection! Here is a copy of the overall plans:
After a few months of getting
settled
into our new home and after setting up the work-shop
properly etc. it was time to start the preparatory work. In order to
preserve
as much ceiling height as possible, it was necessary to move some duct
work and overhead plumbing around. Another problem with the original
basement
design, was the fact that all the lights in the basement, turned on by
one switch, and there was only one electrical socket in the entire
basement!
Not sure why builders are so stingy in this respect, since a couple of
switches and some sockets cost about $20.00! As a result, the lights
all
needed to be rewired and we installed a couple more sockets for the
water
softener, central vac and freezer. We also had to install all the
piping
and wiring for our new Kenmore®
Central Vacuum System (which was a moving gift for Angie). The plans
don't
show all this, but there are 3 bulkheads that were built around the
ductwork,
plumbing, support beams etc. and lots of planning was needed in order
to
make the best use of the available space. Here are a few "before
pictures"...
(Yes, I know it was a big mess... most of these pictures were taken
about
2 weeks after we moved in, and boxes were piled everywhere, plus the
kids
kept digging out their toys!!!):
As you can see by the above pictures, there was lots of clutter, kid's toys, computers, furniture and miscellaneous junk that had to be worked around as well, and this was one of the biggest obstacles and made the process last that much longer. The first thing that needed to be done was to remove the foundation blanket that was installed by the builders. These things are completely useless as far as I am concerned, and I asked the builder not to install it as I would just be tearing it down anyway, but in order to pass inspection, it had to be installed. Oh well, down it came and then I could start framing. I used 2 X 3's for the outside walls set away from the foundation wall about an inch. This would allow me to have "plumb" walls without wasting space and still allow the proper clearance for the new Roxul Flexibatt® Waterproof and fire proof insulation. Inside walls were standard 2 X 4's accept for the one short wall at the bottom of the stairs. This wall needed to be 2X6's due to the steel posts that were buried inside the wall. All the bulkheads were framed in 2X2's and left over 2X3's. The framing stage was one of my favourites because you can really see the results of your work right away, and it also allows you to see the rooms take shape. Because there was so much clutter to work around, I did the framing in several steps: outside walls around the perimeter first, then inside walls on one side, then inside walls on the other side. There were lots of things to work around especially in the ceiling bulkheads including plumbing, HVAC ductwork etc. but with each obstacle came a new challenge and eventually it all worked out for the best. After the framing in each step was done, it was necessary to run the electrical, telephone, cable, and (computer) network wiring etc. We also have the added feature of installing THX approved "Monster" speaker cable throughout the walls for the surround sound theater system.... more on that later. Then I would install the Roxul Flexibatt® insulation and vapour barrier, and then onto the next step. Each stage of the framing was completed this way until all the framing and rough in wiring and plumbing work was complete. At this time, I have to say a special thank you to my friend Rick who was instrumental during the plumbing stages. Also of note is the fact that Robbie our son, almost single handedly brought every piece of 2X2, 2X3 and 2X4 downstairs by himself. Although I felt bad about getting his help this way, he wanted to help his dad so badly, but he wasn't old enough to do much of anything else! Here are a few pictures of the basement after the framing/ electrical/ plumbing and insulation stages were complete:
At this stage of the project, we hit our first major hurdle. When I was framing the bathroom walls, it was discovered that the drains for the the shower and toilet were installed in the wrong place. As a result the builder had to come back, dig up the cement floor, and reposition the drains in the correct locations. At first the builder wasn't too pleased about this and refused, but thanks to my powers of persuasion, I convinced them that it was in their best interests to fix a problem that they themselves had created to begin with. It also helped that I had it in my contract that I placed them exactly where I wanted them, and they neglected to put them there. They were contractually obligated! It took about 3-4 weeks for them to complete the task (mostly due to scheduling issues) and during that time "Max" (the "4 legged fur ball" AKA "Mr. Fuzzy", AKA, "Mr Pink Nose", AKA "Mr. Wiskers") thought he had a really big litter box.... since it was difficult to prevent him from using that hole in the floor! Another obstacle that needed to be overcome was the installation of the bathroom fan. Originally I had planned on directing the fan ductwork through the ceiling joists in the bar and venting it out the exterior side wall. This proved to be next to impossible since the foundation extended above grade and was solid concrete about 12" thick! Try putting a 4" round hole in that! The solution was to vent it to the garage where the foundation wall dipped below the ceiling of the basement just enough... The next stage was the unpleasant one ... DRYWALL! Hanging drywall panels itself is easy if you take your time and know what you're doing (and have the right tools of course!) but the hard part was getting the 4' X 8' sheets of 1/2" drywall into the basement. Thanks largely in part to the help of Dave, Jim and Rick, we persevered and 67 sheets later we were ready to go. Hanging the drywall panels took several weeks, because I wanted to take my time and line up all the beveled edges properly etc. but in the end it all turned out quite good. There were a couple minor mistakes, but nothing that a good taping job couldn't fix. In the spring we started taping and since this was my least favourite part of the whole project, it was difficult to motivate myself to keep going at it... plus it was soon summer time and other things took priority, fences, the backyard swing set, our camping trip vacation... etc. Soooo it wasn't until early fall that the taping stage was finally done. All the seams were properly taped no matter how small it was. All of the corners also have galvanized aluminum corner beads and this really contributed to the overall appearance and made the job look quite professional. Here are a few pictures of the drywalling/ taping stages:
The next stage was the quickest, but also the most expensive! Finishing. Once the taping was done, we had to pick out some colours and we chose a taupe shade for the walls and a deep marine blue for the bathroom. I admit that the navy was a bold choice, but with the white trim and bathroom fixtures and oak cabinets- it really turned out great. The taupe walls turned out great too and especially look good with ultra pure white trim. We used only premium quality Behr Paint from The Building Box & Home Depot We chose to install a CCG drop ceiling with sound proofing tiles (for obvious reasons), and although it was difficult to plan, once you get started with it- it's really easy to snap all the pieces together. Planning is definitely the key to installing drop ceilings. Thanks to Jordan Bruce and Alexanian Carpets and Floors in Kitchener for the Carpet- It is a designer carpet (Studio Seasons- Brahms) with deluxe extra thick underpad. It cost a bit more- but well worth it! Wes and his crew of installers were absolutely fantastic, and took extra special care during the installation process! The doors presented the next challenge since we had all these bulkheads running throughout the basement, it became necessary to cut a number of them down. In order to do this properly, I packed up the doors into the Odyssey and went to Joe's workshop. As I have said, the right tools make any job an easy prospect and this time was no exception. I had 4 of the 6 doors cut to size and was on my way back in no time at all. The trickiest door was the one leading to the office since it was a 6" thick wall, and they don't make door frames for this thickness of wall. At least not that I could find. As a result this passageway was completely custom fit. For the bathroom, we installed a stand up corner shower unit from Maxx, an oak vanity from Eurofab and a good ol' American Standard toilet. All the faucets etc. are MOEN and the shower stall boasts a 6 position Waterpik shower head. Again we did almost all the work ourselves except we decided to install ceramic tiled floors in the bathroom and bar area and I decided that some professional help here would be a good idea. Byron who is one of the professional installers for Alexanian's did a wonderful job with the tiling- Thanks Byron for a job well done. The wet bar also has a set of corner cabinets and an upper cabinet, all from Eurofab and a kitchen sized sink with MOEN fixtures and sprayer. From there we just had to make final installations of the light fixtures, door trims, door knobs, baseboards, window blinds, telephone/ cable/ network/ central vac hookups and the Decora electric socket/ switch plates etc. and we were ready to move into our newly renovated basement. Have a look at the final results:
  
All in all we are very pleased with the results- it came in just $367.44 over our original budget. Mostly because we selected better carpet than we had originally planned on, but we also saved a few bucks on other things, and when you consider the money we saved from doing almost everything ourselves, we did really really good! Some Additional features Include:
Special Thanks to: We couldn't have completed this rather ambitious project on our own so I want to thank the following individuals and/ or companies:
Now, I suddenly find myself with extra time... until the next project that is... a backyard deck! Pete Anes |
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