Priming took us one REALLY long day, it was a lot harder than painting. The mud sucked up so much primer so it was very tedious. My job was cutting in all the corners and the detail work. Scott with his tallness did the ceilings, and then we both rolled. We had planned to do two coats but ended up using about 7 or 8 gallons of the 10 we had. We did one very thick, thorough first coat and called it good.We both felt old and sore afterward. The girls were good to kind of take care of themselves, but Calvin was another story. It was a juggling act with quite a bit of whining involved.We let it dry and then took a trip to Durango for paint. I had a coupon for Sherwin-Williams and it is my favorite paint. Scott picked out his man cave Bracing Blue, and I picked out Rainwashed for the family room. We got beige ceiling paint to match the rest of the house, and put up two coats of that.All in all, it was another 10 gallons.We had to get extra just in case since we live so far from the store. I started again with the cutting in, which seemed to take forever.
Scott in his closet
The corner where the wood stove is going, slate for the hearth
Family room with all the painting stuff
It is hard to see the color, but it's there
Painting the kids' playhouse was fun, it is pretty cramped and I ended up with primer in my hair from hitting the ceiling a few times, but by paint I had a system worked out. Two coats of each of the colors. We extended the color into the little hall that was already finished when we built the house.
Tile arrived on a big truck all the way from Georgia. I had looked online, at Home Depot and debated a lot of options. We knew we didn't want carpet down there. I pretty early on was set on the wood look tile. It is relatively new and I just loved it. Totally durable, safe for basements and gorgeous. Then I had to pick out a color, and at that point we had no paint or anything else to jump off from. I found the tile an a website called
BuildDirect.They will send you 5 free samples and have very good service. So we got the samples a while ago.
The samples we got, so hard to use a tiny square to imagine 900 square feet!
Kept looking and then they were nice enough to send five samples of the same tile we liked most so we could see more of it. Unfortunately there are not many pictures on their site with finished rooms. I just decided to go for it. Usually the thing my eye is drawn to first ends up being the best anyways. But it was still a little scary to order that much stuff without actually seeing it. They called to set up a delivery time and it went really well, we were home and ready.
Our friend\contractor went and got a forklift to help, but then it died in our driveway. So they got another forklift and I guess it died,too. So the men were out in the cold fixing forklifts for about an hour, fun! But there was the tile finally! I got a box and took it down to check it out and I really, really love it. It has texture and looks like barn wood. It is grey and brown and just gorgeous. What a relief! Tile will start going in Monday.
We got 2 foot lengths and 3 foot lengths and hope it goes in like hardwood.
Scott got wooden doors for his man cave, and we picked out stain on our Durango trip. It turned out just the color we wanted, they are really
pretty manly looking.
Doors are now hung and have one coat of polyurethane.
Scott installed the lights and got them hooked up to switches which is so awesome! We were working in the dark a lot and had to use a flashlight to get food or anything out of our storage room. We have the can lights as well as a few fixtures I picked out. Nothing fancy but they are pretty and Scott doesn't hit his head on them, so yay.
We even got face plates on them! Not a big deal to some, but to us it is so nice not only to have this part of the project completely finished, but to have the basement electrical the way we want it after so many years. Now the trick will be getting used to all the switches!
We were working with ONE plug in the basement this whole time. We had a power strip running the TV, DVR, DVD player, sprinkler timers, and then had to plug and unplug for the air hockey table or to vacuum or whatever. We had run an extension cord from the outlet, up into the joists, through the holes and down again to our deep freeze. Now the deep freeze has its own outlet! and we have outlets everywhere and they work. It's a good thing.
We re-installed the little door to the kids' area
It has a dead bolt on the outside. We only put in this door for ease of access to clean,etc, but generally will not use it.
Another problem was how to light the playroom. We didn't want a bulb that could get hit or broken during any craziness. We also didn't know where to put a switch, and no matter how much I gently remind, kids do not turn off lights well. So we got an indestructable (hopefully)LED light that is wired into the wall, and a motion detector switch. We mounted it so it won't go off if you walk past, but if someone goes in there it goes on. After about 4 minutes of no motion it turns off. We are so happy with it. So far it is green in there, I plan to add chalk board paint after the tile is in and the paint has cured a bit longer.
Another little annoyance that happened when we built and were not here to supervise, they moved the furnace and changed this closet in the girls' room to a weird monster size. It was super dark in there, so while we were wiring anyways, I requested a light for them. We took a light from the storage area and moved it here. It is also awesome. We are so grateful we have been able to make this happen with a ton of work by us and friends and family. February 1st is coming quickly and hopefully we will be all settled back into the basement by then. I am definitely ready. Can't wait to see the tile go in next, then just trim and the wood stove and moving furniture!
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