Upstairs Bath

Love, love, love my blue bathroom. I am pleased with myself on how this one turned out and especially satisfied that I thought outside of the box--at least for me. I didn't plan on orange but had a small thought about the color wheel, talked myself out of it, but then found some orange on clearance, and then the fab curtain with orange accents. I decided to go for it. As with every room in my house, still nothing hung on the walls. I'm too non-committal! By the way, this is now baby's bathroom. Still have to touch up some details on the new bathroom downstairs before I take photos.

Fireplace--Finally Finished

Before

After

We finally finished the fireplace. It was very complicated to frame because there were pipes in the way but husband did a great job figuring it out. We got the fireplace from Alpine and they installed it. Father in law had a great tip and we saved a ton of money by having the plumber run the gas line instead of the fireplace crew. Husband and I tiled and grouted. And we finally got the mantle installed (custom built) this week. Now I have no idea what to put there. We tried the painting in the photo but it just isn't the right shape or size.

Totally worth the investment by the way!!

Framing

Step 4: Measure your top and bottom plates (green board--treated wood so it doesn't soak up moisture from the concrete) and cut to size. Next, mark each every 16" so you know where to place each stud (on center).

Line up a stud on each 16" marking between the top and bottom plates. For the basement, we also had to measure how long to cut the studs by finding the lowest point along our wall/ceiling. Upstairs, we kept all the studs the same length.

Use your nail gun to nail each stud into place.

Clean where your wall will go and place glue onto the concrete to make extra secure. Lift the nailed wall into place--remember your chalk-lines? Line up the green board along your chalk line. Use a nail-set (basically a small gun that shoots the nail into the concrete) to secure the green board into the concrete. Use a level to make sure plumb and level with existing walls and/or ceiling.

Basement Update

I'd like to do some more step-by-step updates on the basement, but I've been so swamped that I haven't gotten around to it and I'd like to post some kind of update. I'll hopefully get to this with actual photos within the next few days/weeks.

We are on track to meet our "finish the basement before Christmas" deadline. Our sheetrock mudding and texturing got finished yesterday. Our doors and trim were delivered today. And tonight we plan to tile around the fireplace. The doors and trim came many hours later than we hoped, so we'll likely spend tomorrow installing them (instead of husband doing it today during his day off). We were hoping instead to rent a paint sprayer to spray all the trim, doors, and ceilings. I wonder if that is still realistic? Probably not because I still have to paint prep. :(

Next week we'll be painting the walls with color. We've decided on a light blue; who knows for the bedrooms and the bathroom, though. It is hard to make color decisions, especially when you don't know what you plan to do with the decorating scheme yet! Volunteers are certainly welcome.

Next Friday the carpet is coming. After that we'll simply have to put the vent covers and light fixtures in. Oh, and get a mantle for the fireplace, tile the bathroom, install the toilet and find a vanity for the bathroom.

I can't wait!

Chalk Lines

Step 3: use a tape measure and chalk line where your walls will go (use your plans/blueprints). Our chalk seemed to get dumped out so we have a great big red mess--be careful that the chalk doesn't get tracked upstairs--it can be permanent or semi-permanent!

By the way, framing before plumbers come is way easier! We have a few big pipes that we are having to problem solve some solutions to work around. We also decided last minute that we might as well add a fireplace in the corner (gas). Better to do it now than have to rip things out. If you have any clever ideas of how to work around this pipe, let me know!

Bathroom/bedroom closet wall (with tub box on top).

Prepping for more framing

Step 2 on the basement project: take down all the insulation so we can build the walls. Wow was there a lot of insulation. Reminder: insulation is not comfortable near your nose, eyes, or skin! After we are done framing we will have to cut the insulation into strips and place it between each stud.

Back to Construction

We planned from the beginning to finish our basement as soon as we could. After taking a longer break than we anticipated and finishing projects outside, we finally got started. Step number one was to finish the HVAC, which husband and dad-in-law were able to successfully complete themselves. It turned out great and I even helped fill in the gaps so no air leaked. I am simply amazing! And hurray for DIY projects that save money!