Things fell off the blogging cliff for a while here. It’s amazing the things you’ll cut out of your life when you are under a mountain of stress and deadlines. Showering and leg-shaving are always among the first time suckers I cut out when I need a little extra work time. {Don’t judge me.} But at a certain point other things get cut too…and unfortunately over the last few months, blogging about our basement project has been one of those things.
Today that changes.
Partly because some of you have asked. Partly because some of my family probably will never see this amazing redo in person {due to an impending move}. Partly because I’m crazy impressed with the skills Derek and I have shown. It’s been like living inside HGTV. {That’s still a thing, right? It’s been years since we’ve had cable.} Maybe I should say it’s been like living inside This Old House Magazine. {My current fave reading material.}
As to avoid sensory overload, let’s all refresh our memories on where we started. When we moved in, we loved our house. There isn’t an abundance of square footage, but that’s okay–it’s just two people and a cat–so we don’t need too much space. But from the get-go we knew we planned to finish the basement to add a little more living space and a second bathroom.
We got settled and for the first 18 months of life in Practically Canada used the basement for storage and laundry only. A lot of storage. Storage of all the things I just couldn’t part with–even though they wouldn’t fit into our 1200 square foot abode…because “Someday we’ll have more space and I know we’ll be happy we saved __________.” Storage of my vast collection of seasonal decor and craft supplies. Vast. It looked like this.
It’s embarrassing to show this to you. But we did the best with what we had–and I’m pleased to admit that I’ve parted with/used up quite a bit of what you see in the photo above.
There were a few weird walls up, some wood paneling, crazy wiring and two “work benches.”
We didn’t get lots of water in our basement…but on occasion {after heavy rains or when all the snow finally melts in spring} we did get a little flooding around the edges. So. We cleared everything out and took down all the walls to expose the foundation. Then we hired Innovative Basements to do some waterproofing for us. We have been so happy with the results–pricy but worth it. Totally worth it.
Innovative basements puts a drain around the edge of the foundation {jack hammered and placed into the floor}. Then they cover the walls with vinyl-plasticy sheeting. If water comes in, it drips down the plastic, into the drain and is pumped out.
This all happened last summer. {Yes, a full year ago.} Really we wanted to be working on this sooner. But there was that whole back surgery thing. Followed by the need for a new roof. Having a finished basement will be nice–but we refuse to go broke over home improvement. So we put this project on hold until we saved up a little more money and gave me some time to heal.
Flash forward. While I was still struggling with a back that just refused to feel better–we started in on the basement. I helped plan. Derek did the heavy work. I pulled out nails and staples. Derek and manly friends started framing walls. Sometimes I held a stud in place. Sometimes I got really cranky because I wanted to help–but couldn’t.
Through medical and spiritual intervention, my back has {finally} started to improve over the last month and a half. {God is good!} So I’ve finally been able to help a little more…not with heavy lifting. But I can do a lot more than before and I’ll take it. I’m so excited to be feeling better that I can hardly keep myself away from the project. I’m currently writing this post from the coffee shop–where I’ve been working all day–because if I were home, I’d be itching to do something in the basement.
I’ve been learning so much through the process of working on this space. I’m collecting skills like 90’s kids collected Beany Babies. Love it.
So there. That’s part one. And I know it’s not the pretty reveal you might have been hoping for. But I’ll post more. Promise. I’m also getting a wide angle lens for my camera so I can get nicer photos of the space. So far they’ve all been snapped with my phone {like that isn’t obvious…} Stay tuned and check back. I’ll relive the stories and awkward moments for your enjoyment.
Have a beautiful Thursday.
Amy
