Posts from March 2010
2 days till demo
This Saturday we are having a party…a demolition party. It will be like a barn raising, except the opposite.
And when you’re demolishing the main habitable spaces of your home (while living in said home), there’s a lot of preparation involved. In fact, we have spent the last couple of months getting ready for this epic project and we’re optimistic that Saturday will go smoothly!
The living/dining room is nearly empty. The couch and lamp will go to the basement and we’ll move the piano to the center of the room and cover it with plastic. (Unless someone is in the market for a piano…and will move it.) Monday night we moved the TV and media components to…
…oh yes we did. Typically we’re anti-TV-in-the-bedroom, but sacrifices were made. We figured that with the [fill in the blank] months of remodeling ahead, it would be nice to balance the craziness with some movies in bed (which sounds way more appealing than watching movies in the basement). Despite my initial reluctance, Kyle insisted on installing the surround sound as well. Netflix, you’re welcome.
We’ve also been collecting materials! When you’re in the depths of remodeling, having the necessary materials on hand is a time and sanity saver. After compiling our master list, Kyle purchased most of the construction goods from the nearby big box store and ordered the framing package from a local lumber yard.
MDO for the new living room “ceiling” and insulation for the vaulted ceiling over the kitchen.
Tonight, Kyle is building a ramp! The majority of demo will be lath and plaster. It usually comes off the wall/ceiling with surprising ease, but it’s ridiculously heavy. The ramp will be part of a system that involves loading contractor bags into a wheelbarrow and then out the door, down the ramp and then up another ramp and into the dumpster. Did I mention we’re getting a dumpster? Things are about to get real.
Stay tuned for more details in the coming days, including a demo party recap and a tour of our new “basement apartment”. Kyle and I are downright giddy about diving into this project and we can’t wait to see how the space will instantly transform post-demo! To see past posts about our big plans, click here, here or here.
the final days
It’s been a quiet week on the blog, but only because we have been very busy! In addition to hectic work schedules, we have been finalizing details, ordering materials, tweaking budgets and making large quantities of granola.
Friends, demo day is coming.
chezerbey bathroom on apartment therapy!
A big thank you to Apartment Therapy for featuring our bathroom remodel on Friday! You can see the post here.
ode to billy
Goodbye billy. You served us well, but it’s time to move on…time to abandon the beech veneer, the verticality, the chipped particle board from nearly 6 years of carrying too many architecture books. For this next phase of life, we’re going low slung and horizontal. And maybe real wood. You understand, right?
But as a tribute, let’s reflect on the good times.
Our first Seattle apartment, our first billy composition. How excited we were to have an IKEA 20 miles away instead of 700! And I really think you loved your bright blue accent wall.
And then in our rental house, we split you across a framed opening and high-fived at our juxtaposition between old and new.
For your final appearance, you graciously flanked the piano and gave some warmth to a rather blah space. You didn’t even mind the shims that we had to put under you or all the drilling, banging, jacking and hammering that made you wish you were fastened to the wall.
Billy, you were a trooper and we had some great times together. We wish you a long life that is free of teenage boys rooms or encyclopedia collections.
how to turn a crawl space into a short basement
As we continue to pack away the living room and kitchen and haul things to the basement, we’re reminded of how lucky we are to have our short basement.
Huh? Short what?
Two years ago we converted our dirt floor crawl space to a heated and sealed “short basement”. [See the whole process here.] We wanted to take advantage of the valuable square footage, but didn’t want the headache and expense of digging out tons of dirt and underpinning the existing foundation. So after some necessary structural enhancements (including new beams, posts, footings and a new concrete retaining wall) we poured a new concrete rat slab over the compacted dirt and vapor barrier. A rat slab is thinner than a typical slab and yes, meant to keep out rodents (fortunately for us, that’s not something we’ve ever encountered). In addition to a sturdy structure, this project created about 350 SF of instant storage!
But let’s go back in time first. This was the state of our crawl space when we bought the house:
And this is what it looked like mid-construction as Kyle dug out dirt for the new footings. Yes, that’s a pick axe. Hardpan is not your friend.
Here are a couple slightly distorted, stitched together photos of its current state:
One of the best parts of this space is that is houses our high-efficiency gas furnace as well as the main trunk line (neatly tucked up behind the beam that runs between the stair and the furnace). This means that we have no duct work below the joists in the main basement space, a great benefit since head height is already limited. After the furnace was in, we installed a series of interlocking rubber floor tiles (another craigslist find!) to protect hands and knees since crawling is still the primary mode of transportation. Next, it was time to get organized.
Since our house has no closets (besides the IKEA wardrobe that we installed in the bedroom), we keep all of our infrequently used belongings in our short basement. Despite the crawling part, we developed a logical, organized storage system of rolling plastic bins that can easily slide in and out for quick access. As we complete the main floor and begin to implement our long list of creative furniture solutions, we’ll move some of these out of storage hibernation.
Short basements may not always be the best solution, but for us, it was a way to take advantage of 350 SF of space that already existed. Additionally, crawl spaces are typically unheated spaces that must be vented to prevent unwanted moisture. By converting our crawl to a heated, insulated space we add to our houses’ thermal mass which means our heating system doesn’t have to compensate for cooler air under the main floor.
