Basement Part 2: Demolition Derby

Now that you've gotten a tour of our subterranean digs, how about a plan to help it all make sense? Below is (or was) the existing basement layout. Red dashed lines show walls/doors to be demo'd, purple dashed lines show existing furniture to be relocated, and blue dashed lines show existing plumbing fixtures.

And here's what we'll be doing to the space. Green lines represent new construction, relocated plumbing fixtures are in solid blue, and relocated furniture is in solid purple. To give you an idea of square footage, the old living area was 7.5' wide and will now be almost 10 feet wide! I'm sure that doesn't sound like a big difference but you can tell when you're in the room, believe me. It's 16' long in both cases. But check out that new, rectilinear storage room! And a washer and dryer that can be accessed without busting a yoga move - nice!

Of course, despite all this work there are two pimples that can't be cleared up. One is the random closet on the right, which houses our gas and water meters. We were not even going to attempt to move that one. The other is the wall that juts into the new family room alongside the utility tub. Depending on how much we can move the drain line, we'll try to minimize that bump out as much as possible. Right now it's showing the worst case scenario.

Our first move was to take out the drop ceiling. When we did, we found there was an entirely second ceiling on top of it! We took out all the old electrical but decided to leave the old ceiling panel system since it was attached to the floor joists and thus not taking up coveted height.

Next came the diagonal wall of the bathroom. Here you can get a sense of how much it crept into the storage space.

We worked our way around and removed the sink and toilet.

Then we spent a decent couple of hours prying the shower stall out of its home. No joke, I think the previous owners used at least 5 tubes of liquid nails to hold it in place. The general construction of the bathroom may have been questionable but this shower was going nowhere!

Ahhh! That's better. Everything's gone except the tile, which was comin' out next.

Matt plucked off the tiles with a chisel and hammer type deal to then prep the floor for Jim the concrete cutter. Moving plumbing in a basement is not exactly easy, it turns out.

So with all of that, the basement was cleared out and ready for some new construction. As a parting shot, take a look at that concrete floor with its many layers of paint (layers of construction became the theme in our basement, we decided). Every morning we come down to find more of it flaking off as it dries up. It's like a Midwestern girl's skin after a vacation in Florida: red, peeling, and not so hot. Trust me, I know.

Pete the plumber should be here any minute. Finally, we're putting things in instead of taking them out!