Perhaps we should be used to this being the process and all that jazz... but at the moment it's heartbreaking. Ouch.
Thankfully we have the perfect army of very very good friends and the happiness that is created by being the most wonderful threesome there ever ever was.
So, when things get rough... you can well imagine we get pretty darned shiny-happy-faces & super-human-strong. But when we really really fall apart, it's because things are really really worth falling apart over. And you know what... it's a o k to fall apart when its worth falling apart over.
We get back up again.
Buffering...
Phase Z: Basement Suite
We are not just building a Suite to house one lucky ducky, but constructing a beautiful, clean, bright, up to code, and stylish space.
Deconstruction:
To commence asap. Rip it all out (except the exterior walls), and build it all back up. Re-use of original materials is nil here... we'll recycle the unused appliances/fixtures & keep the washer/dryer, but that's all folks. This Basement was shoddily put together by previous D.I.Y.ers, and it's our duty to make her clean, safe, and habitable (if not absolutely fabulous) as a Secondary suite.
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| original walls |
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| new walls |
Suffering from renovation burn-out is taking the giddiness out of this :( Luckily these plans were made while hopped up on new-house-honeymoon-juice. They are good plans. We shall stick to them.
Walls will be reconfigured to tidy the electrical and accommodate moving the existing ducting (accomplishing headroom & hiding the main support-beam for the house). At the moment we top out @ 5'5" due to the beam/ducting: no natural light dingy dungeonesque ohHai furnace! Yah... so those new walls are kinda important to creating a hi-end liveable space.
Changing the layout also makes the flow of the suite better: bigger Bathroom with linen closet, open Kitchen-Dining area, walk-in closet in the Bedroom, walled-off Sump and Utility/Laundry, plus a "Bonus" room (to discourage double-occupancy we will not label it as a 2nd "Bedroom").Soundproofing & fire-rating with dense Roxul & suspended 5/8" drywall on the ceiling/other division walls (Laundry, Sump).
Some windows to be replaced (to meet egress requirements) and some filled-in so as to compliment the changes in walls/ducting.
Giddyup.
Oh! On windows: My sister dug down around their Project basement windows, cut out bigger deeper window holes (for new sunny windows) and put in deep window wells. Made a huge difference. If you're doing something similar, I could put you two in contact.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I still miss you. Mik