Remodel Junkie Bliss...For Now

Anyone who knows me knows that I am someone who likes to make plans.  Now, if you know anything about my life - my plans never pan out the way I want them to.

So plan #1 - Brian and I decided a long time ago that we would rent our apartments/duplexes/houses for a while until we were ready (and had the money saved) to build our dream house. I never wanted to buy a house before then because I knew that I wouldn't like parts of it and I would have to do some major remodeling.  I grew up around remodeling and knew how much of a pain it is to remodel a house while we live in it.

Change of Plans to Plan #1 - Brian and I bought our first house this past March.  Now, the reason for buying the house is because we wanted to move to Lee's Summit to get closer to Brian's new job and still keep me somewhat close to Oak Grove.  Well the houses/duplexes that are for rent around here are crazy expensive for what you get with it.  Also - no landlord really wants an 85 lb lab/rot mix in their place. Way to go Jack for being so big. So we started looking into buying a house - a month and a half later we signed the papers for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house.  Here's some pictures of what it looked like then:

Front of house

The back of the house with the deck.

When you first walk in the front door, you have the dining room all the way back and the formal living room is closer.

Kitchen

Breakfast Nook right off the kitchen

Standing in the breakfast nook...looking at the actual living room and the stairs that go up to the main master bedroom/stairs that go down to the basement.

Hall Bathroom

Bedroom #1 (there is another that looks pretty identical but we didn't take a picture of it.)

2nd Master Bedroom

Bathroom for the 2nd Master

Upstairs Master bedroom

Attic access from the upstairs master - EVENTUALLY this will become a big walk in closet

Bathroom for upstairs master.

So these areas are still pretty much the same - just now filled with our stuff.  Now for the good part - the basement.  The basement was originally divided into two sides.  The finished side and the semi-finshed side.

The finished side

The semi-finished side (divided into three rooms)

Now, when we bought the house - I knew i wanted to make some changes the the basement....

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #1:  On the finished side, take down all the mini walls they put up because they made the space seem smaller.  Open it up and patch in the carpet (the sellers left us extra).  On the semi-finished side, take down all their mini shelves. Then put a door on the farthest room and tile it to make it the dogs room.  Then get rid of the walls separating the other 2 parts of that room and it is now one big storage/laundry room. Bada Bing Bada Boom  - easy right?? So we get our keys to the house and head up that night to start some demolition.

Basement Remodel Problem #1:  It just so happens that these walls are here for a reason.  Reason being - there is a beam support column hidden in that wall. Oh shit.  Well by the time we had found this out - we had taken off all the trim and put some major damage in the walls.  Well that led to...

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #2:  Still knock out all the stupid walls in the finished side and just have a column in the middle of the room.  So we continued demolition.

Basement Remodel Changes #2: We decided we didn't like the idea of the column.  It would look dumb.  So my Dad gives us some advice - he says...why don't you just open up the whole room?  Yeah, you will still have a column, but it will give you a lot more space.  Now - if you don't know, my Dad owned his own construction company for years...and he remodeled our house over and over again for the majority of my childhood.  As Brian would say, "when your Dad says it will be simple, easy, no problem, or will take no time at all,  that actually means that we are in for a ridiculously long process that the rest of the world normally wouldn't attempt unless they are on some serious mind control meds." This time - Brian was right. But being naive and hopefully for a freaking awesome basement...we replied "SIGN US UP!!!"  So we continued the demolition....

Now, to get the full picture here - you need to realize that as we were making all these decisions - we were moving in at the same time.  Now our move wasn't planned for 2 more weekends but as impulsive as we are, we decided we wanted to move in that same weekend we started demolition.  So as my mom helped me pack up our place in Grain Valley, my Dad, Brian and Brian's Parents were at the house setting up the fence for the dogs and moving the washer/dryer connections into the basement so we could wash our clothes.

Needless to say, when my mom's facebook status stated that she was "past exhausted"  after that weekend, we couldn't have agreed more.  But that's when the real work started.  Here are some progress pictures.

Building the new walls for the future laundry room

Adding Drywall

Mudding and Taping = WORST THING EVER

Painting the Laundry Room

Tiling the Laundry Room

More tile = INSANELY PAINFUL TO THE BACK AND KNEES

Adding the washer and dryer and the cabinets (dogs kennels are now on the opposite wall)

Painting the downstairs living room.

 Getting closer to the end..........................................

CARPET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this looks like a very simple process...it wasn't even close.  But it was totally worth the work.  It may have not been our original plan or close to it.  It may have taken much longer than we planned but now we are finally enjoying the benefits of our hard work in our new awesome laundry room and basement fun room. :)

So the only thing left to do is refinish the ping pong table and fooseball table to make them black - but that can wait.  We need a break from finishing off things. So very minimal things to do in the basement. 

Next project - the closet in the upstairs master so we can move in up there and then have a guest bedroom.

Bottom line - we love our house and love the time we have gotten to spend together changing it. This remodel junkie has had her fill of remodels for a few weeks. Now we get to enjoy the payoff of our hard work.