When we bought the house, the basement had a bathroom (3/4), bedroom, and large front room. All in paneling and with brown carpeting. It appeared to have been pimped-out as a Greg Brady-like teen boys' residence. And then it promptly flooded (sump pump issue). So we tore out most of the paneling and all the icky carpeting. And proceeded to fix the rest of the house.
We're back now - it's time to fix up the cellar. So, this past weekend we completed the tear-out. It will be a big, varied, and action-packed project. And CHEAP. We've been saving up parts for a while and will be doing this whole project for as little cash as possible.
Here are some highlights from the before and after demo reel:
The shower: it's great that it had one, especially when the other shower was torn out, but it was creepy. I called it the "Dr. Who Shower" due to its phone-booth-esque quality.
Bathroom ceiling. The ceiling in the bathroom was pegboard, painted white. And, when we removed that, there were all sorts of electrical naughtinesses right over the shower. Bad.
The toilet, which was kind of a neat, Art-decoish one. Granted, the pink seat was a bit over the top, but the commode was cool. But it constantly ran (despite many attempts to fix it), it was a big water guzzler, and the door hit it when you opened the door. Awkward.
And here's the toilet, out. We would have donated it to the ReStore but it refused to come out without severe breakage. Perhaps the only phrase grosser than "cellar bathroom" is "draining the toilet in the shower". Do you have the creepy crawlies now? I do.
The sink. Nothing overly insulting about its appearance, but it did not drain anymore and the porcelain was all cracking. Time to go. Note the obligatory razor blade collection - all stuck to the insulation - behind the former medicine cabinet - 3 types! It's like the American Razor Blade Museum back there. Note that some jackass had insulated all the interior walls of the bathroom, and even worse, put the vapor barrier exactly the wrong way so all the moisture was trapped inside the bathroom. Super-duper!
Backing up, this is what the bathroom looked like from outside (note unneccessarily angled wall, which made the door hit the toilet. But why?)
And here it is by Monday morning, a gorgeous blank canvas:
There are three other rooms to be (re?)constructed down there, though the bathroom will be probably the most time consuming:A bedroom in this corner,
A living room will arise from this mess,
And a kitchenette will be at the other end of the living room.And we're off...
2 comments:
This will be interesting. I'm a big fan of that HGTV show where they redo an apartment, usually in the basement. Said apartment is usually revealed as something way nicer than the owner's digs.
Glad you got rid of the Dr. Who shower. People want to shower in dignity.
Wow - the insulation is something else! This is quite the ambitious project and I can't wait to see it progress. I wish we could have a finished basement. Ours is actually designed so that any water that comes in (many times per year) funnels toward the edges and then out the drain towards the sewer. It's pretty clever but would take some doing to get it finishable. Good luck!
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