Basement Development

So, we finally got our basement started (back in September, I know, I am behind) after 2.5 years! We originally requested a quote from a local couple to do the basement before Sophia was born but that didn't pan out and we decided to find another contractor. We first met with them in April/May and then spent the summer reviewing and revising our plans. We were very specific with what we wanted: bedroom, bar, play area, living room, bathroom with a sauna, storage room, more bookshelves and laundry room.

This will be the living room/bar/play area. Since I am always cold and getting heated floors under carpet was too expensive we thought we would put in this sleeper floor. It is 2X4's on the side with styrafoam insulation in between, an air gap above the styrafoam and plywood. Since our basement ceiling height is 9ft, we could afford to loose those 3.5 inches. There is already a noticeable difference in temperature, it is actually warm down there, yeah!!!!

The concrete part with the big hole is where the sauna will go and it will have a different floor. This side gives you a better idea of how the sleeper floor is put together.

For some reason when we built the house and had a rough in for a downstairs bathroom done, they forgot a drain. So 'the guys' had to jack hammer holes into the floor to run the pipes, somehow Sophia managed to sleep through all that noise!!!

Fast forward two months and here we are...the drywall was put up last week and there have been guys here the last few days doing the taping, mudding and sanding, messy!

For a neat feature, we decided to do a dropped down ceiling around the living area with upshine lighting. I love it!

Since the mudders weren't finished yet they left their tools around and Tyson couldn't pass up the opportunity to walk on the stilts. Sorry about the bum shot, but it really was the best quality picture I took and Lindsay will enjoy it:)

Max beside some of our niches...they back onto the sauna wall and the wall where Tyson is will be all bookshelves with a little surprize!

This will be the bar area, trust me, it will look way better with cabinets:)

The bathroom with a few gaps...if you look closely you can see the humidifier (white semi circle in the middle of the picture) through the gaping walls. The corner with be the shower and beside that a vanity.

The new laundry room with a sink! Our machines are stackable so they don't take up too much space and I can finally have a laundry sink...

We also ditched our hot water tank for this, a Rinnai system. I love it, I love it, I love it!!!!! Our old tank was only a 40 gallon and I ran out of hot water almost everytime I had a bath! It drove me nuts. With this system, the water is only heated when it is needed (future energy savings) and the hot water will never run out. It was a win-win for us as we had the extra space where the tank used to sit to make our laundry room larger.

Guest bedroom...so far the plan is to but in a Murphy bed, we shall see...

Since the floor height was raised up 3.5 inches, our last step was a little strange. Max had trouble stepping off (I was surprized it wasn't me, the klutzy one) so we figured we needed to do something to make it stand out a bit more. Ta-da! A Max Vorobiev designed landing. It serves the purpose and looks really neat.

I'll try to get some more pictures of the rest of the house posted soon (because we are crazy and doing some minor renos upstairs too).