Friday, December 30, 2016

The Year Long Basement........Chapter 2 - The Vision

Like everything, it started with a vision....

So where were we.....ah yes basement stripped and prepped and ready for talented uncle Jeff to get started. So essentially here's what we wanted to do.  The basement is long and skinny and has along I-Beam running down the middle.  It's great for support (needed actually, there goes my construction genius again), but terrible for function.  The two supports for the beam are write in the middle of the room and basically limit what you're able to do and/or stick around them.

Enter my sketch/plan of what we wanted to do.  Basically we wanted to maximize storage for the boys toys while maintaining a flexibility for later should the space's needs change.  Also with only having the two boys bedrooms and the theatre room downstairs not being functional for guests we wanted to include a murphy bed so they would have their own personal space.  By nature most murphy beds fold down vertically however because of the beam and placement of the bed we had to go the horizontal route.


Before picture for reference:



Again harkening back to my construction knowledge we discussed that beam.....forever!!! Without the guidance of Kim or my mother in law, but with Matt watching my boys upstairs.....my father in law and I literally stared at that beam for almost two hours trying to figure out what to do with it.  From wrapping it in wood, to plaster, to adding a faux beam on the other side to make it balance, the decision came down to.....paint it black to match the other part in the theatre room.  

Remember Matt, my right hand, leg, brain, etc.....yes the man can literally put up drywall with his feet all the while entertaining two little ankle biters who worship the ground he walks on.....carpeted or not. 


So here it is all stripped down ready to go.  With a snap of a finger and an on your mark set.... Jeff was off!!! 








So here you can really start to tell where the closets/bench/bed take shape.  I never realized how much calculations go in to something like this.  In school math was always my forte and came easy to me, but it was more book smart.  Jeff and dad dill could walk circles around me putting what I learned in school to practical application of which I just gave the blankest, my brain isn't functioning, stair you've ever seen.  

In keeping with what I mentioned about storage you can see below the bench was more storage in addition to the closets.  This is great for the boys to have toys they can still get to without having to file request forms to said parents to get things off the top shelf.  I've found it's a great way to earn their allowance money back....twisted I know. 



As quickly as you scrolled through those pics is as quick as Jeff got it framed in.  So here's the skeleton.  From this point on is was up to us to get it ready for the finish out.  

One thing I was happy about was cleaning up our desk area.  The desk is going to the right of that sliding barn door and I wanted to have little to know wires there if possible.  You'll notice in the pic below the rats nest of modem, cable, ethernet, extension cord and on and on.  That will go behind the wall of the sliding barn door almost beneath the stairs.  It was a great way to hide the wires but still make them easily accessible for IT support to get ahold of (read: me)


So now the fun begins.  Fortunately I have other guys way more talented than me at roughing an area out.  ANJ Electric (relation that depending on the day may claim me or may not...jk)  Helped get my lighting up and running.  We went with 5" can's because I wanted a different look and 6" seemed to big and 4" .....well bigger is better right???  The insulation crew was awesome to work with as well!!! My friends from CII (Central Illinois Insulation) did the work for me.  They did Bat(sp?) on the walls and spray foam around my baseplate to mitigate the cooler winter temps.  Tim Wagenbach owns and operates CII and is very easy to work with.  I'm biased because he's a good friend of mine but I also know his work ethic and customer service are second to none.  

Also in this pic below you'll notice the beginnings of the creeping stage.  That's the ship lap...unloaded from the truck.....reloaded through the back window of the house.  I bet I did 60 flights of stairs bringing that stuff down.  Needless to say I'm glad it's done but this was a pain to have to shift this stuff all over the place.  Again construction negligence on my part for not waiting to order it until later......or was it the fact that my wife generously reminded me quite frequently of her fear that we wouldn't get it quick enough.  Husbands and wives I'll let you chew on that for a while. :)


Here we have two 4" can's that are on their own dimmer switch.  I did this with the intent that should someone stay over they have kind of a nice little bit of light while they lay in bed rather than having the whole room lit up.  You'll notice in the pic below as well that there is access on the back side of this wall.  I did this intentionally for flexibility down the road.  Again everything was done with future changes in mind and this was one of them.  Rafters were left open and accessible from the other side as well in case we wanted to add speakers or more lighting to the ceiling or even a projector. 



Now you can really see the rats nest...


This is the night Matt and dad dill helped throw up the plaster board.  We went with plaster because the rest of the house had it so I just wanted to maintain continuity.  Good thing I did because I smacked that ceiling a million times with 2 x 4s that would have destroyed drywall and put a nice red tint on my face.  





So here you see visqueen all over the floor.  Temporary hockey rink????? No.  Dad Dill wisely recommended we do this before the plasters came the next day.  That entailed moving that lovely ship lap all the way up against the wall and taping this stuff down.  I politely and respectfully challenged my father in law asking if that was really necessary and in his patience of Job temperament he said I could do whatever I want which is father in law code language for just do it because she's my daughter and that's all that needs said.  So..... we have plastic. :)  Good call because they schmucked (is that even a word.....I think it's german) the plaster on and absolutely covered my floor in it.  Yet with Dad's kind advice it cleaned up real nice Clark. (*cue the Eddy scene from christmas vacation)




One thing I did forget to mention is the lighting above the washer and dryer.  I actually had ANJ set it up as a motion light so that it only turned on when I (AHEM) Kim came down and opened the door to do laundry.  You can see it's tucked behind the header now. 


Ok at this point I can pretty much exit stage left becuase this was all my wife.  Not only did she paint the ceiling late at night but she did this......primed every board front and back of this ship lap for almost 2 or 3 weeks straight.  My only contribution is those highly stable, well built drying racks.  If you look closely you can see her through the crack on the left.  It took me forever to find pictures where she wasn't in them.  She is very vain with her picture taking and I have to remind her about the biblical virtue of humility. 



Here we go now on to the final rough in stage.  This is where Matt pretty much split the workload with me 50/50.  I could not have got this done without him being there.  It was long and tedious and when you give a type A guy who is OCD a laser................for everyone else it's painstakingly annoying. I apologize to nobody. God made me just the way he wanted. 




There's that laser.....



Up next....the rough in finished and the basement takes shape.




Friday, December 23, 2016

The Year long Basement....Chapter 1

Let us begin.....wow I feel like I'm writing a novel. Although with all of the twists and turns this reno took on, maybe publishing it wouldn't be so bad.....and here we are publishing it on the internet for all to see.  FYI to the 2 people that will read this, I'm not a writer.  My animated mind just can't make it to my fingertips to pen the odd thoughts of humor that run through my mind on a daily basis.

Let me just start by saying this. I. DON'T. KNOW. CONSTRUCTION. I'm in sales, I mean c'mon I talk...... for a living.  I don't put nail to board, drywall to stud, wire to light....no I talk for a living.  I mean basically my "talent" or "gift" or whatever you call it is rooted in the the verse that God says I must tame.  All that to say, my fellow construction brethren....mad respect bros or sis' in the modern case.  The talent each of you have in taking a blank canvas and making something custom out of it for a client is awe inspiring. Not only can you make the creation come to life but all the while you listen to the homeowner with a smile on your face while inside you are thinking this person is COMPLETELY NUTS.

Enter my construction crew lineup.

Jeff Rose - Uncle of the Bride, best trimmer west of the Atlantic.  No Joke uncle Jeff made this vision / 8.5 x 11 sketch of mine a reality. I recommend to him anyone because his results are only one thing...Perfect.  Word of caution, don't let the below picture fool you. :)



Dave Dill a.k.a. Dad, papa (to the boys), the guy that essentially signed on the dotted line to let me marry the most beautifully created creature that walks on two legs (outside of Jesus) my wife. :)  In all seriousness Dad Dill's skills are second to none.  He's a farmer/master carpenter....the guy that basically built his own house so well that if a tornado hit it, it would classify the Dill house as an F5 for damage done to the tornado.  He builds things right, and reinforced. Everything he is in engineering and construction...I'm the opposite. *Sidenote - I made sure Kim knew of my lack of talents in these fields and the crazy girl still said yes at the altar.



Matt Slagel -  Oh where do I even start.  Matt is, simply put,  my right arm, brain, leg, eye, ear, nostril....I think you get the point.  He's one of those blessings God gives you in life that you're privileged enough to call your best friend and my boys have adopted as their favorite "uncle".....which even Matt would tell you he has earned.  Thursday night dinners wouldn't be the same without him, and there is no project I've done that he hasn't had his hand or input in.  This project was especially fun as we worked late into the night sometimes while having our beloved cubbies games on in the background, and we all know how that ended. :)



Brent Dill - My very chatty brother in law.  This man speaks like no other so before you go striking up a conversation with him think twice, maybe three times.  In all seriousness Brent blew me away with his talent.  My father in law is a perfectionist and has a God given gift of natural engineering.  His mind works in ways that blow people away project after project, and when Brent finished my pet project I gave him I could instantly tell that his talent and eye are the same as Dad's.  I approached my BIL about doing a custom desk for us after I couldn't find one in a store I liked that I could afford.  He had recently begun deconstruction of the old family farmstead's corn crib and we both agreed to try using some of the old 2x12s from there to make the desk.  Wait till you see how it turned out.





Will Zeller - a.k.a. Dad.  You need paint, varnish, glossy, or matte, he can paint it for you. He's old school so the materials and workmanship he employs just aren't as common as they used to.  I asked dad to paint out finish out wood pieces for our project.  You know the crown, baseboard, closets and a couple pieces of wood to cover up the gaps.  Just a couple pieces of wood I told him.  Sooooo remember when I was mentioning my lack of experience in the construction field......yeah pretty sure I barely lived to see the basement finished after all of the wood was dropped off at my dads shop. Credit to the man, he didn't have a heart attack what with it being 10x more wood than I told him, the middle of July and 100+ degree weather.  No no no my dad loves me through and through and got the job done......at the expense of me being removed from the will of course.

I gave him two pictures, yes I'm biased but the first shows his true servant heart.  If there is one thing that he's taught me it's to serve without grumbling or complaint and always give your best.  The second picture is his hidden personality of which when he is wearing the pink skull candy beanie he means business. On this day it may look like he's helping us move in and set up our bed with that metal support but really....he's just playing air guitar. :)





Any who, now that you know theses all stars let's get this party started.

Since my intro was so long and many of you have seen some of these pictures I'll make this a brief review.  Basically we live in a 1900 square foot ranch with a cool vaulted ceiling for our great room. The downer though is that our basement wasn't a full basement.  Still drives my father in law nuts to this day why they can't dig out the extra 7X32' section and call it a day.....buuuuut such is life.  Our basement is a typical ranch style basement.  Long and narrow and broken into four sections.  There is the great room that you see here (section 1)  as well as the theatre room which is through those french doors (section 4) Sorry no pictures of that space.







Then there is the storage room (section 2) which is behind the angled wall to the left of the french doors in the pic above. The plan here was to remove the angled wall, square it off, remove the drop ceiling, center table, and storage rack with all of the the random construction pieces from previous owners projects to give it more height.  This was a fun "organization" project because it gave Kim more space to store her home dec stuff.  It was only after I was done that I thought....why in the heck did I just give her more space for that.



Lastly, there is the laundry/under stair storage/utility room.  Mom Dill, or as I've always called her "Momma" thought it would be a good idea to move half the wall back about 3 feet to give us more depth to the room and more space since we would be loosing some from the custom built-ins.  So down the wall came.



My wife is currently freaking out that this picture will be all over the internet and now every one will know that she is *gasp* slightly disorganized..... (Those of you that know her will get this.  Those of you that don't.....continue on)

Now that the prep work has been done time to stud it in....