{Basement Remodel: Before and Demo}

As many of you know, we purchased a new (to us) home in May of this year.  The home was built in 1909, but had been updated over the years and is really in good condition.  The previous owners had begun a remodel project in the basement prior to getting the word that they would need to move, and move quickly.  Due to the circumstances surrounding the previous owners' need to move, Jon and I were able to get an amazing deal on the house.  One catch would be that we would have to finish the remodel project, but we figured we could handle that, since we had built out Bethany's room in our basement back in Missoula.  Once we got into the project, we realized that we needed to almost gut the basement again, though, in order to really make the space functional for our family.

While I was in the process of forgetting to be a good blogger and get some good "before" pictures of the space, Jon was in the process of being a very good demolition man.  Here's what I do have:

The first space and major project to tackle was the space that would eventually become Gabe's bedroom.  For some reason, there was a big space built out behind that stud wall that we decided was wasted space.  This wall was removed and replaced with a working closet and desk area for Gabe.

The next space to encounter major work was this space, which would eventually become Bethany's room.  As you can see, the washer/dryer hookups were also in this space, so we had to work out a new solution as to where to put these essentials.  We decided to move the wall that abuts to the bathroom, and put the washer and dryer in the bathroom, where we can hide them behind some accordion doors if we want to.

All through this process of demo and remodel, we found some "interesting" things along the way.  Here is just one example.  As we tore out the wall that housed the washer and dryer hookups, we realized that this flex tubing was running behind the wall to the out door vent.  Not only is this a HUGE code violation and scary, scary fire hazard, but you can see that the tubing was ripped, and therefore, all that hot, moist dryer air was venting...You guessed it...directly behind the wall.  Fortunately, we found no evidence of mold, so we let the area dry for a few days and then rocked it back in.  

This space was our last big change up.  The furnace room.  When we started, it was a full room, with wasted space that *could* have been used for storage, but really just created a huge closet in the middle of the basement.  We decided to take out a couple of walls, and turn this big, cumbersome space into a smaller, more manageable space.  You'll see final pics of how we made it work in a future post.

So there you have it.  The beginning stages of our basement remodel.  You'll see some great pictures of the process coming up soon, including some lovely ones of my amazing hubby covered in sheetrock dust.  :-) 

Stay tuned.