The Framing Begins

The day after the floor was poured the framing began and in a little over three hours George and his guys has nearly finished off the framing. All the have left is the front wall with the windows and the staircase.

We Have a New Floor and it's Level

First thing Thursday morning George arrived with his crew and a concrete truck ready to pour the new floor. After the plumbing ground work passed inspection George leveled the dirt floor (filling in around the new pipes and sump pump.

Revised Plumbing and a Sump Pump

The plumbing ground work inspection was on Monday (and we passed), but the weekend before George made a few updates to the plumbing. The setup looks a lot better now and more straightforward. Here is the new layout before George added the back water valve. The shower is the closest followed by the toilet and sink.

Digging Done, Drainage Done, Inspection Waiting

The dig out was completed yesterday. They cut a line in the floor parallel to the back door and remove the remaining concrete and dirt.. There will be a small step up to the utility room.
 

We Gained a Foot

To our surprise when we came home last night, George had nearly finished the dig out and instead of removing six inches of concrete and dirt he took out a foot. That's right, we went from having a finished 6'10" clearance to 7'4". The guys did an amazing job.

The Real Demo Begins

My contractor, George Soto (Soto Construction), came over by himself early Friday morning to knock out the remaining demo. He just needed to remove the wall and some framing under the stairs. Day one went well and was for the most part uneventful. I wish I could say the same for day two.

Before:

The Plan: Basement Renovation

We are endeavoring on a major renovation project that is beyond our capabilities, so we have found a contractor to help us renovate our unfinished basement. The plan is to clean out the basement (currently our catch all storage area) so we can add a full bathroom, a few closets, and a new living room. In an attempt to save money on this project we are planning on acting as the project manager and have decided to handle the designs and permit process ourselves. Wish us luck.

We haven’t signed a contract yet with the contractor, we’re waiting for the permits to be finalized so we can them included in the SOW. The hope is next week I can go back into the permit office and pay some exorbitant fees and walk away with a beautiful permit, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Torrential Downpour

During the torrential downpour last week I decided it would be a good idea to look around my basement and make sure it was dry. It’s a good thing I did because I found some water coming in at the base of the basement door and at the back corner of the utility room. Looks like I need to make some repairs. First I need to replace the old door sill and threshold with some pressure treated wood and sealant. Second I need to patch the leak in the brick in the utility room.

Its a No Go on the Half Bath

So I've been getting central air conditioning estimates from several vendors, but I'm not ready to make a decision on that so I will have a follow up post on that. The downside of this process besides the high cost of the estimates is that it has come to my attention that I wont be able to add a half bath to the main floor. The space I was planning on using is too small to meet code. This means we will have to start thinking about adding a basement bathroom. Possibly using a Saniflo macerating system. I'm still exploring other options, but as far as I can tell from the internets this is one of the best options if I don't want to rip open my concrete floor.