Redesigning my basement

Pants has gotten moving on demolishing our basement and it started to become apparent to me that I have no vision for what I want to do down there. We might be mere weeks from painting and we're starting to talk about furniture and such and I have no idea where I want to go with any of these things.

Considerations:

• We have a large brown brick fireplace that we love and which will be staying, unaltered. I will try to post a photo tomorrow.
• Although there is one largish window, it's still a basement. I think we need to keep it light.
  
• I have kids, ergo, the carpet will be a bit darker shade and all furniture decisions must weigh that factor.
  
• We have little money and Pants is incredibly cheap. My mother has offered to purchase a daybed for the basement so they can stay here when they come.
  

I've been looking for something to build an idea around and the best I've found is this painting. I like the blues and greens and browns and I think it gives me a lot of options for incorporating shades of those into the room.

Better ideas? Better art? Anyone? Help?

P.S. - the barn door and track is gone and has been replaced by an actual door leading to the well. Pants has also gotten the entire drop-ceiling down, but has discovered that the can lights were never secured to the studs, they were just resting on the ceiling tiles. Brilliant.

Hey, that's me!

I listen to MPR a lot now. So I've been listening regarding the stimulus bill and the new proposal for turning around the mortgage crisis. I'm all for progress and I believe in Obama, so I'm pretty happy about both on a moral level.

And then, as part of the mortgage bill, they described this little benefit:

They want to adjust the rules to help homeowners who have "done the right thing" with their mortgage and who would like to refinance to take advantage of the current low rates, but find themselves "underwater" on their mortgages, or owing more than the house is now worth because of falling home values.

Which is us. We bought a house we could afford and put down over 20%. We are current with our payments. We would love to refinance into a better interest rate, but we owe more than what the house is currently worth.

The only caveat is that they will only be helping people whose mortgages are owned or secured by Frannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Dammit!

For once, I thought we were actually going to be able to take advantage of a specific government program that isn't just built into the tax tables. They were describing me until we got to that part.

Dying for a Big Mac

Yes, I would have done anything, shagged anyone, for a cheeseburger and fries this evening. Not having money is the best diet I've ever been on.

Yesterday, to my dismay, I discovered that the bank had taken $200 out of our main account to cover a $10 overdraft on my personal account. My own fault, I know. But $200? And today my main account overdrafted before I could get $150 moved back over.

We're just starting to get our money in order and I have to throw away another $60 on bank fees.

So no cheeseburger for me. I spent $.65 today, total. I have $6 left until Thursday because I put all the rest of my cash in our account, which is actually far more than I'll need if I bring lunch and coffee like I did today. Weird.

Plus, my mom is having my uncle call me about the framing since he just finished his basement the same way. The real question is, can I frame the wall with the ugly 70s bracket shelves and build in nice, classy looking bookshelves in their place? I mean, while still insulating appropriately and not spending a billion dollars?

The result

The insurance company has totaled up the removed trim, the small section of removed drywall, the 2 pine boards that were ruined from the ever-so-attractive paneling, and the bench that I agreed to remove myself and be paid for. If we replace it, there's an extra $1000 in it for us. It's custom, you know.

With all of the structural payments, we basically covered the deductible plus $300. I haven't been paid yet for some receipts and we haven't put in our losses for personal items yet, but it's not exactly enough to re-frame and insulate three rooms of the basement. On the bright side, I didn't have to put the deductible on a credit card, either. Plus we still have payments coming to replace the flooring.

So. Can anyone give me some instruction on framing a few walls? I think I can figure out the insulation and drywall, but I'm not sure where to start with the framing. And if anyone wants to come over with a sledge hammer, I have a bench and some closet walls that need knocking out.

More good news

See that over there? Yeah, over on the left. That's the built-in bench in the basement. The one we hate.

And do you see that stuff underneath it? The fuzzy blue stuff? That would be very old, very wet blue shag carpet and padding.

Not the carpet that we knew was down there. The lighter blue berber carpet that went up to the bench. No, this is a fresh hell that the bench was built over the top of. Apparently, at some time in the distant past, the carpet was replaced and instead of removing all of it, they just cut it off in front of the bench and laid the new carpet right up to it. Which means that the build-rite they laid as subfloor was also an afterthought from the original design.

So the contractor is coming tomorrow afternoon to view it and write up an estimate to have a carpenter come and remove the bench so they can remove the wet carpet and padding underneath before we end up with mold.

A pain in the butt and another call to my boss to beg her to work at home, yes. But, we hated that damn bench and were going to tear it out and pay the square footage to have the carpet go all the way up to the wall. Now it's covered.

Plus, I'm hoping we know what the deal is with the walls tomorrow as well.

Here we go

This may be a premature discussion, as we don't yet know what will be considered a loss in the walls here or not, but here we go.

Just as we are getting our money on track, we are tested. We are ultra-serious about not spending money that is not for absolute necessities, emergencies, or being directed to debt, but we are presented with an opportunity.

Our basement is not insulated. It is "finished", but when the previous owners finished it, they put paneling up over the cement block. There is no insulation in our walls downstairs, at least not on the bottom half of the wall.

We now have an opportunity, at little cost to us, to upgrade. The carpet has all been ripped out and will all be replaced under our homeowner's insurance. We don't really know about the walls yet. But the question is, do we spend the money, probably $1-2000 to put up new studs over the old walls and put in insulation?

I'll put up a poll, but here is what you would need to know:

• The money spent will most likely have to go on a credit card.
  
• The additional insulation will lower our heating and cooling bills considerably.
  
• We don't use the basement much because it is so cold. Pants and I sleep down there, but that's about it. We might gain the family room back as usable space for our family by doing this. Handy in a Minnesota winter to have additional space to keep the stir-crazies at bay, for sure. Also, there is a gorgeous wood-burning fire-place down there that we don't use because we're never down there.
• My parents would be able to stay here when they come with little or no trouble at all, instead of renting a hotel room or staying somewhere else.
  

Progress - with updates

The mitigation guy is here and progress is being made on the basement. First thing he did was start cutting out the carpet in the main room. It was difficult to stifle a giggle. I told him he could take anything down and cut anything out that he needed to.

Update - mitigation guy has cut out most of the carpet downstairs and left several giant fans and a dehumidifier to dry out the walls and wood. He mentioned that our paneling is over drywall and that's usually bad, so it would probably have to come down. Heartbroken? Not so much.

I started removing bins from the well area earlier today to see what could be salvaged and what was toast.

Completely dry inside:
The wedding bin, containing invitations, favors, napkins, etc.
My high school bins, containing diploma, awards, keepsakes, etc.
Pants' father's saxophone
All of the Christmas decorations that weren't actually on the tree, including the girls' ornaments and the Christmas angel.

Damaged:
Pants' mickey mouse ornament bin, but only the original boxes which seem to have absorbed some of the damp.
Pants' old D&D bin, which got some water in it, but not much. Pretty much everything is intact.

Toast:
All of our luggage.
The Easter bin, which has a foot of standing water in it.
An entire down comforter
My entire file of UReg's with all of my college newspaper articles
Pants' keyboard
Pants' rocket and microscope slides
Two boxes filled with jewel cases and DVD cases (actual discs in giant cases)

Unknown (Items I haven't viewed or salvaged yet):
The 5-gallon buckets of paint for the girls' rooms and the outside of the house.
Pants' foot locker (standing on end on the floor) and another tote bin full of his keepsakes and Eagle Scout stuff.

Not Wednesday, just wordless.

The 25th mile

It's Christmas Eve. We are having MIL and SIL over tonight for fondue (yes, people still do that), so everything must be done by then. Mostly, it all was when I left this morning.

I picked up the basement this morning. The tree is up, the furniture moved, and there are just a few things that need to go out to the garage. There are presents under the tree.

I picked up the livingroom this morning. All remaining presents (wrapped and unwrapped) went into a bag in the hall closet. All wrapping paraphrenalia went into another bag set in the livingroom. Remaining presents (only 4 or so) can be wrapped later tonight after guests go home.

Groceries were purchased last night. Except oil for fondue. What can I say, it wasn't on my list. Must stop back at Cub and get oil and $10 gift card for dice game. Forgot that too.

We are finally happy with the furniture arrangement in the livingroom and will probably live with it for a while. Basement is nice too, moved children's table down there, although we still need to move the BF coffee table out to the garage. It will fit back in the livingroom, but Pants is afraid the children will end up with brain damage. Probably right. Girls' rooms are mostly clean and organized, have weeded out much of the crap that collects over a year (plastic junk, McDonald's toys, 4 inch creepy-looking dolls, etc.), plus two of the larger toy items. Must do more weeding after the holidays, but can't think about it now. Bathroom is clean, including getting on my hands and knees and scrubbing the floor.

Hmmm. Kitchen needs work. Both sinks full of dishes (of the dirty variety), counters completely covered with stuff, floor likes like it hasn't been cleaned in months (ahem). I hope Pants gets on that today.

All additional decorating is done and house looks cute and festive, but not like elves crapped Christmas. Tasteful.

So, really, all that's left today is vacuuming the entire house, cleaning the kitchen, clearing some crap out of various rooms that needs to be put in the garage (including the hutch, since we are using the buffet now for the BFTV). Pants and I have done about 20 loads of laundry in the last 2 weeks and are discovering that we don't have enough space to hold everyone's clothes. All drawers are bulging, all closets packed full. Anyone have another cute mid-century modern dresser for free for me? Anyone?

In the end, I got what I wanted for Christmas. A little Christmas excitement for my kids. A visit to Santa (after 3 hours in the mall). My girl's first sled. A Christmas tree. A warm home that looks like people like living there. I mean warm feeling, not temperature. Maybe I'll wish for that next year.

Still on my wish list? New tires for the Scion. New phones for Pants and I (2 weeks and counting). A basement remodel (and bathroom, kitchen, plus an addition). An insulated garage for Pants's man cave. A TV downstairs that's hooked up to the satellite. A garage sale soon so I can get rid of half the crap in the garage. A brilliant idea for a lighting system in the well so I can see what we're storing. A new shed. A slab next to it to park the truck in the winter. To sell the Intrepid (or give it away, or pay someone to get it out of my driveway). Cheaper daycare. To potty train the kids. To lose 40 pounds.

Wait, we're starting to hit a different kind of post.

And the snow keeps falling, falling, falling, falling...

Wanted to get the kids out to see Santa today (I know, 4 days from Christmas, SHUT UP), but the snow just keeps coming and I don't know if it's a good idea to drive to the mall.

So we're back to cleaning and decorating for the holiday. I will be posting separately about doing Martha on the cheap, so I'll leave that one for now.

Pants is out snowblowing to stay ahead of the inches. I took the girls out to play in the snow earlier, but it's pretty cold out and Meimei is too small to walk through the snow in the yard. I put her on the Tot sled, but that just caused a fight because Kitten wanted a ride too and she's too heavy for me to keep pulling. So we went back inside despite a wicked fit, courtesy of Meimei. And now I can't find the old bottle drying rack to put their hats and mittens on. I was really proud of that idea, too.

Oh well, back to the grind. My husband described our house as an "eyesore" this afternoon, so I guess there's some work to do.

Closet dilemma

So, my new poll is in regards to the useless closets in our bedroom. Here's the background you might need for an accurate vote:

• We have a clothes rack in the office that holds the bulk of our clothes.
  
• Only one section of the closet trio has a bar. One has a low shelf. The last has nothing except a basket with blankets in it.
  
• With the closets intact, we each have 18-24 inches of clearance on our respective sides of the bed. If the closet doors are open, Pants has much less. The bed also has a very square footboard - you can imagine the bruises.
• A full remodel to make the office into our closet and master bathroom is years away.
• The carpet does not go under the little closet divider walls, I'm sure. Might be bare cement under there, for the glorious decisions we have unearthed so far.
  
• Do you think we need a permit to tear down, or just to put back together?
  

Oh, the leaves

We had fun trick or treating - although we didn't go to a lot of houses and things got a bit manic toward the end. Kitten was wandering in a drunken stupor from house to house and Meimei was running like a crazed monkey. She even tried to turn back to some houses we just finished at. That's 2-year-old logic - hey, we know they have candy, why move on to the next one?

Saturday we started raking after Pants nearly broke the mower trying to mulch up the backyard. Apparently we have to stay on top of it a bit better next year. I should have some pretty groovy pictures when I locate the camera.

This evening we started bagging the leaves. Worst. Job. Ever.

Let there be light

So Pants spent the last 2 days trying to fix Meimei's ceiling fan so the electrical box was strong enough to hold it. He finally got it up and put together tonight.

Upon surveying the scene, there was insulation everywhere. On every surface. See, we have blown-in insulation, not the nifty roll-out blankets. And it has been ungodly hot, so Pants had the fan on in there. And as the insulation fell out of the ceiling in buckets, it was nicely spread across the entire room by the fan. Yay.

So I vacuumed every surface in the entire room. Changed the sheets. Did everything I could to get up all the fiberglass before Meimei went to bed. I hope she doesn't wake up itchy.

Oh, and I found out that the damn thing only takes those stupid little candle bulbs. Grrr.

Moving up the list

I realized this morning that the upstairs bathroom remodel needs to move up the list.

It's not the green sink, tub, and toilet that bother me, the leaks, the flecked laminate countertop, or the 6 gallon flush (although we've been meaning to fix that anyway).

It's because this morning I brushed my teeth while Kitten stood on a stool and brushed hers and Meimei stood at my leg begging to brush hers too. This is cute today, but will be hell in the coming months and years.

I wish this meant just tearing out the vanity and having a plumber come and split the pipes and hook up two sinks instead of one. If it was this easy, I would plan it as a weekend project. Like this month.

But no. The floor is tiled up to the vanity but not under. And the wall is tiled about 4 feet up with a cutout over the sink (we assume for the mirror). So tearing out the vanity will at least leave a hole in the floor tile, if not the wall as well, although we don't know. The space involved means we have to either do something very creative, put in two small pedestal sinks, or recreate this look from Ikea (which I love).

To work with the space we have means we have to either live with the ugly, uneven floor (and possibly wall) or redo all the tile.

I need to win the lottery.

I hate balloons.

Just put the kids to bed, but they are screaming because I wouldn't let them bring the balloons they got at dinner. I was completely tense the entire ride home thinking Meimei would pop hers any second. I think they may meet a grim fate this evening in the garage. Damn restaurants that think it's a great idea to give out balloons. I hate you all!

In other news, I have an external ear infection (aka Swimmer's Ear) which apparently is accompanied by horrific vertigo. I got ear drops today, but not soon enough to avoid having to leave work early today because I couldn't string together a coherent thought besides, "Please, stop the spinning." Hoping tomorrow is better after 2 more doses of crap-killer.

Pants's truck was broken into and his satellite radio was stolen. And by "broken into," I mean he left it unlocked in our driveway. Still ballsy to come right up to our door and take it, but yeah, it was open. Guess we'll keep the cars locked from now on.

I think I figured out today, being at home in the afternoon, why it seems so stinking hot in here in the evenings. We were thinking the air was going kaput, which would seriously suck, but now I think it's just a combination of our poor insulation and windows, the massive amounts of heat coming in the patio door and the bay window in the afternoon, and setting the thermostat too high during the day and not giving it enough time to cool down for the evening. I'm going to adjust the thermostat settings and look into some low-e film on the patio door and windows and see if that helps. We already bought another ceiling fan for Meimei's room to keep her cooler at night (Kitten has one that runs almost constantly) and I may get a stand fan for the living room. Hopefully that will get us through another summer on the old unit.

Red-faced

So, my main cabinet problem has not been finding decent cabinets that fit my idea of what I want downstairs, it's been finding ones that are a) deep enough (at least 14 inches), and b) not horrifically expensive.

I swear to all of you that I looked on Ikea's website for what I wanted and didn't find it. And lo, last night, there it was. The cabinet I have been searching for: cheap, tall, with doors. Thanks for all the input, folks.

Now, I was going to get a countertop to mount in between, but it will stick out. I will most likely just get a nice piece of plywood and put a piece of molding along the front. I can integrate a power strip into it so we can put the computer on it. Thank god for flat panel monitors! (Is that blasphemous on Good Friday?)

Which bodies are you stepping over?

For my "personal development" at work this year, I checked out a couple of books from the AT&T Lending Library. The first has been about creating and presenting change and showing the need for change. Their main point is that numbers and data alone won't sway anyone, that you have to appeal to their emotions and sense of urgency. You have to show them why, not tell them.

One of the stories in the book was about effecting your changes quickly and getting it done while the energy level was up. The guy said his realtor told him that he had to get everything done on his house in the first 6 months or it wouldn't get done at all. "You'll just start stepping over the dead body in the living room. You will learn to ignore it."

Hmmm. How true.

My dead bodies so far:

• The room with the door that goes into another room before exiting into the main room.
• The barn door contraption in the basement.
  
• The uninsulated hall closet.
  
• The shed that is falling down.
  
• The non-functional kitchen.
  
• The bathroom that is accessible only through the laundry/furnace room.

I could go on.

Where are your bodies?

Warning!

From the snowblower manual:

Warning! If running this engine in temperatures over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, use of 10w30 motor oil could cause the engine to require more oil than usual.

Um, if it's 80 degrees, I think I'll just let it melt off the driveway. Thanks for the tip.

One down...

Kitten's room, formerly ours, has been cleared, painted (ceiling and walls) and moved in. A huge shout out to the dude giving away 5 unopened gallons of paint on Craig's List in Sherwin Williams's Innocent. Now we have enough to do Meimei's room too. Also a huge thanks to MIL for being so excited about the switch that it nearly forced us to just get it done already (and who helped immensely and kept us going when we wanted to be done for the day), and to SIL for bringing pizza and watching the kids while Pants finished adjusting the new snowblower and got the driveway done. And to both of them for bathing the kids afterward.

Of course, Kitten is losing IQ points as we speak from sleeping in a freshly painted room, but we can discuss that when she fails 1st grade.

Stop me if this sounds crazy...

So, MIL mentioned that we should move Kitten upstairs into our room and we would take her room. Both of us kind of brushed her off, as usual.

We're actually considering it. It solves a couple of issues - Kitten's room being so cold and not wanting to set up the space heater now that she's free to roam around. Taking down the hall gate and just closing the bathroom door and letting them roam in and out of their rooms (which we can't do today because the cat's food is in our room). Getting the toys out of the livingroom. My reservation was the closets, but duh, we can just get a $20 rack from Target.

Because moving into Kitten's room would not be the final destination. We talked tonight about building the downstairs into another bedroom, so it would basically be a hallway, Kitten's room (which would open into the hall instead of the half room), the office, the master bedroom, and the laundry/bathroom. The master would be built around the fireplace and would encompass the area under the stairs as one closet and the area created by the hallway as the second closet. We would tear out the bench to give us more room. And because it's stupid.

We could use the downstairs space that never gets used today. We could have a guest room. We could have a toy-free living room. We could dress Kitten in something less than a parka for bed.

And we could have a bedroom away from the TV, away from the kids, with a fireplace.