August's Final Project - The Basement

The main project of the three Jonathan's Dad worked on while visiting in August was our basement. We had a large unfinished laundry room with full view of the water heater, boiler, circuit box, etc. I grew to dread doing laundry. Who wants to kneal on a dirty, cold concrete floor in a in an ugly room with poor lighting and laundry scattered everywhere? There was also a little pantry in one corner of the room which was fairly ineffective, so we had put metal shelves up in the laundry room as well as a fridge. Finding ingredients for dinner became a treasure hunt, I had to search through 3-4 possible locations for each item.

First step - remove all items from both the laundry room and old pantry.

Second step - demolish the old pantry. Tom managed to do both of these steps the first day he was at our house.

Third step - paint the walls with dryloc and frame out the new rooms. We weren't too happy with the town's rules that the boiler had to be 3 feet from any walls. Lots of lost space. Oh well, we'll probably put all of our water storage in that area.

Fourth step - call in the plumber to rework the locations for the washer/dryer and add in plumbing for a sink.

Fifth step - Tom put in all of the electrical. He also changed the location for the pantry light and added a light in the new "mechanical room."

Here is a picture of the new pantry taken from the doorway.

This is the pantry from the new laundry room.

Here is the edge of the laundry room and a view of the mechanicals room.

And finally, the view from the mechanicals room to the other side of the laundry room.

Sixth step - insulate and attach drywall.

Isabelle helped hand the screws to Grandpa.

Almost done with the pantry!

Seventh step - tape the seams and paint the rooms. Add molding around the doorways.

Eighth step - install drop ceiling.

The pantry ceiling is done. (No, the walls aren't different colors, it's just the lighting.)

Tom and Sandy are hard at work on the laundry room ceiling.

I loved the color that I picked for the laundry room. So refreshing!

Eighth step - install laminate flooring. (And bifold doors)

Isn't this fun?

Almost there.

Look how slippery and fun the new floor is!

Look'in good. But wait, what's this? Tom and Sandy are leaving me? Nnnnooooo!!!!!

Ninth step - paint and install baseboard molding.

Tenth step - assemble laundry room sink. (still need to have the plumber come back and install it for me).

The pantry is done! Hooray!

Now this is a room I can work in. :)