The new bedroom: summary to date

So, we've only been planning for a year to finish off a bedroom in the basement of the original house. The plan is that since Krassimir does not get himself into bed anyway, that he doesn't need to have an accessible bedroom as much as Bogomila does, so she will get the room he and Owen are in right now (the only one on the main level of our home) and they will move into a new one in the basement.

Matt and Owen started digging the window well for the egress window, and building the retaining wall around it back in the summer, but then other projects in the yard took over, and Matt and I could never get beyond cleaning stuff out of the room itself. For years this was my sewing room back when I had a custom sewing business - I had all three of my sewing machines down there, as well as racks in the rafters for hanging fabrics and partially completed draperies, boards for test mounting and stringing roman shades, and a lovely, large 5' by 12' table with a 4" grid across the top of it that Matt made for me for cutting and laying out fabrics.

At one point a few years ago we finished off the stairwell a little bit, putting up a wall instead of just the curtain that his grandparents had there (you can see it in purple on the left of the photo below), but the rest of the room was just concrete floor, painted block walls, and rafters above. Very 1939 basement.

So, this is what we have to work with.

 Once we got travel dates and realized that the girls were really going to be coming home in late January instead of late February, we realized we had to kick it into gear! So...Matt proceeded to spend every hour at his desk finishing up a project for work that has been the bane of his existence since it began. That project was finally sent out on his birthday, December 21st.

The next day he was down to work in the basement. First step was to build a temporary wall just outside of where the new windows are going to be installed to support the joists when we cut out the wall they are currently supported on.

(This is the same photo I shared from last week's post on the first day Matt got going on the work. If it looks familiar, it is - it's just such a good shot of that stage in the game.)

 Next step (which thankfully came a few days after we had a day where the high temperature was 20 degrees below zero...Farenheit!) was to cut out the block. Chad's always up for a project, despite his own many projects that he's got running, so he came over to help Matt with the work. Nice, too, since this is the kind of job that's nice to have two people working on!

 Some left over 1.5" rigid insulation fills the hole at the moment, and Matt went to work building the rough framing and the new header for the opening. Because this window is on the front of the house, and if we're going to go to the work of putting in a finished room in the basement, we wanted it to be a nice window, so the boys will have two egress sized windows in their room, which, since it faces south, should really make for a pleasant bedroom, even though it's in the basement.

 This is a shot of the area under the stairs. You can see the other side of the purple wall. Owen's been dreaming of making this into a really cool bed space, so we're going to kind of custom build a platform into the area that's just the right size for a mattress. This is the kind of thing my sister would have drooled about as a child - probably still would, now! There are going to be a few quirky angles and transitions to deal with to make this space work, but hopefully it should be worth it, and since the labor is free, I think we can pull it off.

 Below is the view from Owen's bed cubby toward the new window (still hiding behind the temporary wall - Matt figures since there's room to work around it, he'll let it stay there to let the new concrete reinforcing the empty block cavities around the window cure as long as they can). The window opening itself is still filled in with rigid insulation because of the setback with the wrong size windows.

Since then, Matt's been framing, framing, framing, occasionally calling either me or Owen down to help him hold furring strips up to the existing joists. Framing is always such a rewarding part of any project. One day there's nothing, and the next, there it is!! Here you can see the treated bottom plates around Owen's closet. (Owen's, because Krassi and Reuben share clothes, which we keep upstairs because that's where they get dressed! Krassi also doesn't have as many Nerf guns as Owen does...) I love how the flooring underlayment and an old upholstered chair are sitting in the space of the closet while the walls get built up around them!

And now there are walls around the closet! (This means the chair has been moved out. Don't need that stuck inside the closet!!)

Matt continues to work at the room every day, with a routine that follows the little girls' nap times. Build when they're awake; work at his computer when they're asleep.

Three weeks from tomorrow I leave for the girls...will it be done??? Or will the boys be sleeping in the living room? Only time will tell.