A room takes shape
Kevin has been working his ass off on the basement bathroom, trying to get it as close to “finished” as possible before the wall-anchor guys show up to shore up the basement and make sure our house doesn’t collapse into a crater in the earth. Isn’t that nice of him?
Just starting to frame up the walls
In order to install the shower stall we chose, he’s going to have to move the floor drain a little, which entailed busting up a square of foundation that hasn’t been touched in about 60 years. First, he tried using some sort of diamond-edged saw blade. Then he tried using a hammer and chisel. THEN, he Hulked out and just hammered away at the concrete like John Henry and that’s what did the job. Look at that virgin soil! I should snag some for the garden this year.
the results of a little John Henry action
I can’t wait until the basement is done and we can get to work getting Galaga and Space Invaders cleaned up and up and running again.
walls mostly framed
Can I tell you how happy I’ll be to get a rebate check from our electric utility for all the insulation we’re buying up for the basement?
walls framed, outer-wall insulation up, starting on the drywall
Hey, guess what! It’s hard to take pictures inside a tiny room. It’s turning into a legitimate bathroom, though! Yay!
DRYWALL!
Bathroom ideas
They came out to the house today in order to mark the yard for the holes they’ll be digging in order to anchor our basement walls and finally fix them. Progress! That means we need to get working on that bathroom in earnest, so we’ll have a usable one available to the construction guys while they’re working and they won’t have to tromp around upstairs, letting the cats escape and causing generalized havoc. Might as well come up with a few plans for the space, amirite?
This is probably what we’ll end up doing in the room. Somewhat boring tile floors that are readily available at the hardware store here in town, with grey or black grout (we learned our lesson with bright white grout in the upstairs bath, that no matter how clean it is, it shows EVERY FLAW and EVERY SPECK OF EVERYTHING, cripes), shallow pedestal and toilet, corner shower stall, and white walls. We’re going simple on the lighting fixture, and there will be a little nook alongside the shower where I want to hang bare pine board shelving for towels and toilet paper. We’ll also need a hook for the hand towel (I love this octopus one), and I’d like to go with a wooden bathmat to carry over the shelving theme. Cute, but a little boring.
If I had my choice, I’d go with a nice punch of color on the floor, like these vivid Mexican cement tiles in a bold graphical pattern. Sigh. Kevin will veto, I’m sure of it.
Also, I’d like to do a large, interestingly-framed mirror that’ll run the length of the space behind the sink and toilet, so I’d better start junk shopping for one. Brand new will be outrageous.
Moved!
Sadly, we have been so busy with getting ready to move, moving, and cleaning to update our little website here! There’s not really a lot to say about the move that everybody doesn’t already know from their own experiences moving. The thing I most regret is the fact that we boxed up all the stuff we never use really nicely, and the stuff we need all the time was moved last, which mean it went in piles instead of boxes. That makes it more difficult to wade through, but we’re managing so far.
I’m definitely going to have regular updates from now on, now that we’re in the new house and internet is hooked up, but for now, let’s do a photo dump. Enjoy!
The toilet was made on Kevin's birthday
Testing out a prospective overhead light for the bathroom
Coming together
Installing the toilet
Testing out the new sink
Since the craft room is the least "necessary" room, it's the first casualty to the moving hurricane
Oh, bright white paint, how I love thee.
With all of the pictures, you’re welcome to click on them and see the complete set on my Flickr. Right now, it looks like a hurricane hit the house, so I’ll be updating as we get things organized and figured out.
