Old News

As I mentioned in a previous post, when Tim was doing the original demo work in the basement, he came across a stash of old Portland newspapers that had been crammed into a crevice (how's that for alliteration?). It's been fun to look through them and see what meaningless drivel passed for news back then, before folks knew about Britney and Paris (note: not the city; that wasn't discovered until much later).

Here's a shot of the front page of an issue of the Oregonian from July 10th, 1921:



We're planning to find a particularly interesting page from one of the papers and have it framed. We've got a fair number of these things, so if anyone is interested in checking them out and perhaps snagging one or two for your Portland memorabilia collection, feel free.

I found this story particularly amusing (click on the image for a larger, more easily-readable size):

Now We're Talking Basement!

Amazing what a little sheetrock will do. Things are really starting to take shape now, kids. I'm running low on witty commentary (some would say my tank was always hovering pretty close to "E"), so let's just get right to the pics, shall we? We shall.

Coming down the stairs...











The rock room...





Feast your eyes on that sweet laundry area!...



And of course, being the lush you are, you are drawn finally, inexorably, to the wine room...





Check out that cool bah! (That's Bostonese for "bar").



Yes, that's our washer and dryer, and no, they won't be living in the wine room. I can't have Laura disturbing me by washing my clothes while I'm trying to drink.

Pictures, Round Two: 3/11/08

Yes, I have done a less-than-stellar job of keeping pace with the progress of work in the basement. But just think of how much cooler that's going to make things look.

At this point, just about all of the framing and insulation is done. Most of the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC work has been completed too, with the exception of the finish work. Basically, the big things left now are flooring and sheetrocking. Then comes the real rocking! Grrr!!!

Ahem. Anyway.

So here's what you see now when you come down the basement stairs:



That big white box holds the fridge that will be going into our wine room and holding all manner of tasty adult beverages. Those other big white things leaning up to the right are the double windows that will look from the hallway into the music room. Speaking of music room...thar she blows!



That's the view from said window looking into the music room. Those big green bags are leftover insulation (feel free to hit me up if you're in the market).

This is a shot from the far corner of the music room, looking back out into the hallway:



And this is a shot from the other corner, where the exterior door is:



Mmmm...you can almost smell the guitar solos.

Anyhoo, proceeding on down the hallway:



Those little doors on the right are the under-the-stairs storage area. On the left is the small room that will house our laundry basket and hot water heater.

What's that? You want to hear more about this magical room? I'm sorry, some things are too personal, even for a blog.

OK, OK, fine. Here's a little taste:



That brown rectangular thing extending down from the top of the picture is our combination laundry chute and cat evacuation route. It'll look more majestic when the laundry basket's in there.

And of course, what's a laundry closet without a laundry room:



I know, I know, it's a little too much excitement for one post! OK, calm down, deep breath.....phew. There. All better? Alright then, let's continue.

Proceeding down the hall past all things laundry, you come to the wine room:



That shot is taken from the end of the room closest to the door (which is on your left in the picture), about where the bar will be. Aaaaaaand from the other end:



There'll be a table coming out of the wall and some chairs right about where that shot is taken from.

Oh, and one last thing, just because it's cute/funny/mind-numbingly boring:



This is the storage area under the stairs. That little wooden box that looks like a cell at Guantanamo Bay will actually house a litter box for the kitties. Precious!

Pictures, Round One: 1/29/08

Here are the first round of pictures from the basement project. At this point, a good chunk of the framing has been completed.

This is the top of the stairs leading down into the basement. This area will hopefully get a bit of a face lift with carpeting and a new paint job. That exterior door will be cleaned up a bit as well. Oh, and hopefully a fancy new lighting fixture. Not that we don't love bare bulbs:



These are the bottom of the stairs as they lead down into the basement. You can see the framing there on the left. Laura had the fine idea of widening the stairs at the bottom, which we're planning on doing:



There's a little bit of an open area here when you get to the bottom of the stairs. We're probably going to build some cabinets here for storage:



When you get to the bottom of the stairs and take a right, there'll be a hallway. On the left is the music room doorway:



Here's a better look at the music room. To the left of the doorway is the 2' x 5' window that Laura will use to gaze in wonder at the creative process:



Here's a look at the inside of the music room. The door and window are off to the left. That door on the right is the exterior door that comes out under the porch. That dilapidated workbench that my bike is leaning against just found a new home last night, thanks to the wonders of Craigslist. I posted it in the free section and got about 6 responses in an hour:



Walking past the music room, the hallway will dead end at the wine room. It'll be long and narrow (about 7' wide), and filled with wine. Just so you don't think we've gone all snobby, though, we're planning to get a Kegerator too:



This is a shot of the wine room from the other end. The washer and dryer will be in their own little room next to the wine room. There'll be a nice cabinet with counter top and sink at the far end of the wine room, and a bar in front of that. The sweaty workout clothes will be relocated:

The Plan

We have a plan. A plan for our basement, that is. In fact, here it is now:

The right side of the drawing is the front of the house. The music room will be roughly square, with a notch taken out of the upper left corner for the small room where our furnace, hot water heater, and laundry basket will be. (We have a laundry chute on the second floor that drops down to this basket; and yes, it is totally sweet.)

The wine room will be long and narrow. We plan to have a bar in there, plus a nice sink/countertop area. And booze. Did we mention booze? Oh. We did. Sorry.

There'll be a small laundry area for the washer & drier (and litter box). The rest of the basement will be a hallway and some storage space at the bottom of the stairs.

Our thanks to CAD Monkey for the lovely job on the plan.

Welcome

I am not a handy person. Laura, my better half, is not a handy person.

Now, don't get me wrong. I can change a light bulb with the best of 'em. Heck, I even changed the handle on our front door, a task that required the use of no fewer than 3 or 4 different tools. In general, however, me with a hammer in my hand is an idea on par with lighting up at a gas station.

With that in mind, we recently approach our good friend, the handsome and talented Ken (note: not the doll), to aid us in our quest for a fully finished basement. God bless him, he doesn't always make the best decisions, and good thing too, because he said yes!

Now, those of you who have seen our house may ask, "Why do you need a finished basement? You've got plenty of room in that house!" I will forgive for a moment the impertinence of your question. There are a few answers:

• Laura has a crippling fear of spiders. The combination of Portland, OR + an unfinished basement = Spider Disneyland.
• Eric has an abiding and embarrassing love of making loud music, as Laura and our neighbors can attest to. While Laura and said neighbors have been gracious beyond all reasonable bounds in regards to this public nuisance, finishing our basement affords Eric the opportunity to have the sound-proofed music room that he has coveted for years.
• Laura has also spearheaded the effort to make sure that our basement plan includes what we have been grandly referring to as a "wine cellar", but in reality will be a "room where people can drink". Yes, we acknowledge that this makes it similar to every other room in our house. But did we mention it's in the basement?
• And, last but not least, we can finally put the cat litter box in the basement, out of sight from polite company and visiting dignitaries. The basement has been off-limits to the kitties thus far, due to their propensity to go down there and lick strange substances on the walls.
  

We thought it would be fun to capture the progress of our basement project in pictures. Then a thought occurred to us: are we really prepared to deprive the world of the excitement of following along with us on this wild and woolly home-improvement journey? No, we said! We are not made of stone, after all. So, here for your reading pleasure is a chronicling of one couple's journey from wine cellar-less cretins to hip urban sophisticates. Forget everything you know about....I don't know, stuff.