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....
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