Updates to our basement

Well, this is what Amara thinks of the basement and so do we...alittle drool, pretty relaxed, but a few crazy things like a bowl on your head! Everything has been going so well. Our waterproofing system was put in last week while we were in WI on a short vacation. This past Tuesday, our friend and owner of Precision Decks and General Contracting, Jamey Schurvinske, started on our remodel. Within hours, our basement turned into a real project and by the end of the day, much of the ceiling was already framed. It was so exciting to see things paking progress instead of just demo and removal.

Here's what the basement looked like last night when we got home from the Fire Station. The entire ceiling and all the walls in the main room are framed. Since our basement ceiling is so low, Jamey found 1/4 inch drywall to put above and we decided to use can lighting instead of the old florescent ones we had before.



Our wonderful neighbor, D Smith, is helping us with the electrical. He was at our house until 9 on Wednesday night and and 7 last night putting in the cans, rewiring some areas, putting in outlets, etc- he is AMAZING and Jamey was really impressed with how fast he worked.



The green room in the corner which was and will be our guest room has had little done to it. We decided to egress the basement window in that room as it will eventually be Alaric's bedroom and it allows us to officially use the basement living room, bathroom, and bedroom and additional square footage. Our mason is doing the egress work first and then Jamey will finish the guest room. I forgot to add those pics so I will in the next entry.

Back where the saw is in the below picture will be where our new kitchen counter, cabinet and bar with be. It will be small but will be nice and allow us to not only have the basement be a take-over kids room but also a place for adults too ( the beer fridge will probably end up having more juice boxes than beer but that's OK)

OK, this below picture shows our first bump in the road...it's hard to see so let me explain. Our waterproofers did a great job. On this, the east side of the house, the floor slants down significantly because there once was a floor drain. The waterproofer told us that he was going to build up the concrete some along this far wall and feather it out so it is level with the other end of the basement. Well, he built it up for sure and kinda feathered it out but now there is a ridge, or a big bump along the whole edge of this wall in both the guest room and living room. We used to have a bookcase along this wall in the living room and the bed along the wall in the guest room. As it is now, the books would fall right off the shelves ( there is about a 2 inch difference between the top of the bump and the floor below) and the bed would rock for sure. Bri and I were upset. We spent thousands on the waterproofing system and now we found ourselves looking into self- leveling concrete solutions, different flooring, etc.



Brian called the waterproofing company yesterday and they agreed to come out on Monday and smooth out the bump. Bri explained that it's about 110 square feet that need to be leveled and they agreed to fix it- THANK GOD!



So, that sets Jamey and his crew back a few days with the waterproofers are in doing their work and allowing time for the cement to again cure. We hope the mason can work around the waterproofers too so Jamey can get back in by the end of next week and start drywalling, mudding, etc.

Jamey came in today while I was in Champaign grocery shopping and the place looks completely different again. He installed all the insullation in the living room walls and put plastic over the insullation to prepare it for drywalling.