Subfloors and Spackle

The basement reno is in full force. We have been waiting for the Christmas Break to really jump in, although David has gotten a ton done over the last month. As a recap of where we are....all of the framing and drywall is up (except for a few little pieces of drywall). All of the wiring is done and the two interior doors...one for the laundry room and one for the equipment room...are installed. He also moved the sink into the laundry room which was a big chore.

This weekend is all about finishing up the spackling and letting it dry, then sanding it down and getting ready for paint. We will also finish laying the subfloor. Although we could have just put the laminate wood floors right over the vinyl tiles, the floor is a little wonky. The subfloor will make a smooth surface. Also another very cool thing about these subfloor tiles is that they allow air to move under them in case of moisture. Well worth the added expense. Here's what the underneath looks like.

When they are placed down on the floor, they fit snuggly together.

I wanted to give a little "before" tour of the space...but you'll have to use your imagination with these photos. There are basically three areas to the basement and while it's a decent size, it's not huge. The most important part of the area is this nook that is tucked in towards the back. This is where David's office will be. We're storing the basement sofa back there now. It can give you some scale.

The area in front of the office nook will be for the TV that we are moving from upstairs and a sofa. This picture really takes some imagination to see past the junk that we're still cleaning out. The TV media unit will be on the wall on the right where you see all the outlets.

The last area is this corner where we've started laying the subfloor. It's actually a nice big space. Could be good for a chair and some bookshelves...or something. David's building a bookshelf in his office so don't really want more of them, they just collect dust. Will have to think about what goes here. Every bit of our house has to be functional since it's so cozy. That area at the top is one of the last little bits of drywall installation needed.

The stairs will be re-painted at the very end, backs added to the steps and a new bannister. We'll rip off those black treads. The far wall as you're coming down the stairs is cement cinderblocks painted white. It's too hard to drywall this wall and we really don't want to move the stairs so will just repaint the cement. Not ideal, but maybe I'll hang a picture or something there.

One of the quirkiest parts about the current basement is this light that doesn't have a light switch. It's on a pully that you pull down to turn on. It's kind of cute, but not functional. I ordered a new lantern for this area, David made a lightswitch and we'll brighten it up with some new paint.

More to come. Hopefully the next blog will be during painting. Now back to work!