At Home Alterations

Basement Update #21

Authors: Mike and Katrina

We need to have a talk about how long this is taking.  We're now 19 months into our renovation that I thought would take 6 months.  It probably would have taken 2-3 months if we hired it out.  In June, the time of our last update, I told Katrina it would be done by the beginning of December so we could have a Christmas pa...

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Basement Update – Drywall!

Authors: Mike and Katrina

We never did get good pictures of just the drywall on the walls.  The basement was a disaster right after it was hung and we moved on pretty quickly to making piles of wood, doors, sawdust, and left over drywall.  By the time we cleared out all the clutter, the walls were already primed and we were on to different projects.

...

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Moving 4,280 Pounds of Drywall

Authors: Mike and Katrina

Exciting news, we bought and hung drywall.... 5 months ago   Sorry for waiting so long to tell you.  Its not you, it's me.

The general contractor we've been working with... I realized we've never said who, it's Dube Construction and I'd recommend them to anyone in the Minneapolis/metro area - email us for their number! ...

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Time and Money

Authors: Mike and Katrina

The basement has been a huge renovation and keeping track of the budget and timing has been a task in itself.  For the sake of anyone out there planning their own basement renovation, we figured we'd sit you down and have a talk about how much this might cost you and how long it might take.

Budget

I've decided there are...

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Spray Foam

Authors: Mike and Katrina

My friend, Jason:  What kind of insulation is this?
Me: Spray foam.
Jason: Like... Great Stuff?

Haha, yes.  Can you imagine me spending days going through can after can of great stuff to insulate the entire basement?  No, this is the kind of insulation that comes from a truck...

Down a hose and through a window...

and into...

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Inspections News

Authors: Mike and Katrina

The last few weeks have been a little stressful as we've finished each stage of the basement rough-ins and had them inspected.  I had a gigantic fear that the inspectors were going to say I did something massively wrong, like using the wrong kind of wire for electrical or something, and would have to completely redo the...

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First movie in the home theater

Authors: Mike and Katrina

And I use the word home theater very, very loosely.  Alternative adjectives include: "Renovation Theater" and "camping-chairs-on-concrete-next-to-a-pile-of-wood theater."  Needs a picture?  Agreed, but first, some back story.

 

Last September we decided to change the floor plan in the basement living room to mount the...

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Lets talk laundry

Authors: Mike and Katrina

We've been doing a lot of work on the laundry room lately.  So much that it seemed post worthy!  In the last year we've oh-so-slowly and painfully:

  • Demolished the wood paneling and furring strips that held it to the block walls
  • Rerun the electrical that passed through this room in conduit with new, grounded, wire.
  • Built new
  • ...

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Why not just rewire the rest of the house while we’re at it?

Authors: Mike and Katrina

I'll admit my initial time estimate of six months was a little naive.  We're 12 months into the basement reno with at least 6 months left.  Partially, I just had no idea how long everything would take but also, we just keep adding projects to the list.  I hadn't initially planned on doing anything to the laundry room... th...

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Due for a basement update

Authors: Mike and Katrina

We've been holding off on an update until something "big" happens in the basement like finishing framing or finishing... anything.  We can't finish plumbing until we have our bathroom fixtures picked out, can't finish the electrical until the plumbing is done, and we can't finish the last bit of framing until electrical is...

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