When we moved into our house, the lower level was finished as an in-law suite. In the finished part of the space, there was a kitchenette, a bedroom, living room area, and small bathroom. The other half of the space was a single car garage, shop area, storage space, and laundry area (where the washer and dryer resides in the middle of the shop area).
Ugly steep stairs to the scary basement |
Living room area a.k.a Dog Cave |
First, we drew the plans out on paper, many, many pieces of paper! Let me tell you, it probably took us a month or longer to agree on a layout! Once we had a layout we liked, we used SketchUp to plan the layout with measurements to make sure our ideas would work in the space we had. Once we had our computer generated plans with the measurements, we started cleaning out the basement and making many trips to Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, and the dump!
From our minds, to paper, to reality! |
- Rip out the old bathroom and convert the area to a mudroom, since it is right beside the exterior door.
- Tear down the drop ceiling, which was barely 7' tall and either leave the joists exposed or put back up another type of ceiling that is not dropped so low (Still debating...)
- Take down the cheap, painted paneling in the main living area and hang drywall.
- Tear out the kitchenette to have one large recreation area.
- Replace the tile and carpet with vinyl plank flooring throughout the entire space.
- Convert the back half of the garage/shop into a bathroom and laundry room, which includes putting in a sump pump.
We are totally re-configuring a large part of our basement which is exciting and scary at the same time. We are pretty accomplished DIY'ers...we rebuilt our deck the first year we were in our house, but we have never built rooms from scratch. I hope you will come along on our journey and laugh (and sometimes cry...) with us!
Have you tackled a renovation of this size before?
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Have you tackled a renovation of this size before?
You are seriously a rockstar for tackling this on your own! And I'm jealous you have a basement. We have a crawl space :/ I can't wait to see how things come together!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! It has been a challenge and a learning process. Some days I wish I were rich so I could just call someone to finish it, but I know we will be so proud when it is finished!
DeleteIt certainly has inspired me to complete some of the renovations I have in mind but we've already hit a stumbling block! I was happy to rip a ceiling down in our 1970's home but we had to have an asbestos test which came back positive so professionals will now need to take it down, costing thousands.
ReplyDeleteTraci Romero @ Harris Plumbing
Oh no!!! That is terrible! We were actually really worried about that too since our home was built in the 60's, but we did luck out in that aspect. Best of luck in your renovation!
DeleteSometimes people seem to approach renovations with a more free flowing attitude. That is, they don't put everything down on paper first. They have ideas about what they would like but using software like AutoCad to help them plan doesn't come in the works. I think they end up better off when they have diagrams and all the steps planned out.
ReplyDeleteWilfred Andrews @ LB Plumbing and Heating
Thanks for your comment!
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