It may not be pretty

In the late winter of 2010, a young and naive couple stripped their basement of everything it had. It was a glorious time of destruction and promise. Alas, focus turned to spring and what could be had out of doors. The basement sat abandoned and alone, until the following winter rains forced the happy couple back inside.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, what is this some sort of fairy tale? Not in the least. This is reality and when those rains came, we were forced back to earth, with a loud and unforgiving thud. We stood up, wiped the dust off our pants and gave the basement, among other places, a solid look. It's now or never, honey.

Starting with those concrete walls. You might remember that when we removed the framed walls of the former, ahem, apartment, we found a good foot or so of dust which had crumbled from the surface of our 90-year old foundation. Multiple contractors had assured us this was purely cosmetic, that the parge coat had simply flaked off over time, as they are inclined to do. If it bothered us, we could resurface the walls ourselves. By the way, we feel confident that the foundation is indeed intact. We get no water down here, even with these heavy rains. Phew!

Of course, the pimply, moon-like surface of our walls did bother us. Especially since this basement is going to be Mike's studio. Maybe you haven't heard, but my husband lives in his studio, day and night. Even in our tiniest apartment, he holed up in that closet of a studio like a little hermit crab. I would like him to like it down there. This basement also houses our new, awesome laundry room (to be revealed at a later date, it is not ready for its closeup). So I would also like to like it down here.

Let's begin. I started my research of how-to with the internet, which of course made it look SO EASY, little did we know.

Supplies and tools
Quickrete's Quikwall Surface Bonding Cement, bags and bags
Water for mixing
Water bottle for keeping walls wet
Mixing tub
Various trowels
Cardboard to protect the floor

Being pregnant, I wasn't allowed downstairs during this dusty process. So really, Mike should probably be writing this. But through all the cussing, I think I managed to decipher the gist of resurfacing the moon, I mean, our basement walls. First off, it's messy! Second, finding the perfect consistency for the mixture takes some trial and error. And third, application takes longer than you think and is really hard on your wrists, which may require a massage once complete.

{The sludge all ready to go.}

The process is pretty much what you might imagine. Spray walls with water as you go, to aid adhesion. Load up trowel with mixture and push into wall, being sure to fill all crevices, then attempt to spread and smooth. Do this 8 million times until complete. Don't start a wall you can't finish that day, work all the way to a corner before you stop. This is also for adhesion. Adhesion is number one! Keep wall moist by spritzing frequently and allow to dry slowly, over quite a few days. We did this by spraying water on it every day and lucking out that we are in a basement that gets no sun. If the wall dries too quickly, it will crack and crumble making all this hard work null and void.

{West wall before. Yes, that is our tankless water heater that we LOVE.}

{West wall during}

 {West wall after. Oh look, it's Roosevelt! That explains the dusty pawprints...}

Now take a good look at this after. See the ledge and how it's wavy? This is nearly unavoidable, kids. Mike is a tedious, detail-oriented worker and he struggled to get even this amount of a straight line. Of course, he is currently being driven to madness due to this imperfection, there MUST be a solution! I happen to think the walls look amazing.

{South wall detail}

{South wall almost complete!}

I do apologize for the dark photos. As you can imagine, it's hard to get a decent shot with that kind of lighting. And um, don't mind about all those wires you see hanging everywhere! We are on it, electrician starts right after the holidays, permits and all. Once all the walls were smooth and allowed to dry over a week or so, Mike gave everything a coat of Drylock, for the heck of it really. That was followed by some nice, white, no-VOC, satin paint. We are far from finished down here, but this is quite the improvement. I think it calls for victory!

Farewell sweet laundromat

March 8, 2010

This date represents the finale to my greatest nightmare: the laundromat. As of today, I have a washer and a dryer in the house. My two shiny warriors, who have waited ever so patiently in the basement since Black Friday, are at this very moment, happily humming away three weeks worth of grime. I feel serene.

I am grateful. What would we have done these past four months without Launderland and the ever so modest Elmwood Laundry? These being my mats of choice. I would hit up Launderland if I was feeling grouchy, it's closest to home and I could fool myself into thinking I could get it done quickly. It's proximity to Bakesale Betty is an alluring plus, although the line is usually longer than a wash. Elmwood was chosen if time was less of an issue—stopping by Nabolom Bakery in hopes of catching the jug band, or simply strolling down College Ave. to pretend I was having a leisurely Sunday.

Which couldn't be further from the truth. I was in hell. Absolute turmoil. Every single time. Ask Mike. I'd turn into a frown and a grumble all day until it was over, precious hours lost. I despise the laundromat, and there is little that I'll miss.

Except of course, the excuse to purchase a guilt-free Big Gulp at the adjoining 7-11.

What I mean when I say "demo" {PART 1}

It has occurred to me that perhaps I haven't been clear concerning the amount of demo which consumes our lives. Maybe you were wondering, why hasn't this girl picked up a paint brush, done a little decorating, finished off a room? I mean, it's been 3 months already! The sad fact is, now is not the time. Dust rules the land, so does dry rot. There is no point in painting or putting anything out, for within moments it is covered in a white film of debris. All of my pretties are in boxes, stacked in a back room, feeling neglected. At least Mike managed to pull out his record player and 7 inches yesterday, just to feel normal.

What's the matter? You still don't get it? Allow me...

I'm going to start with the basement. Here it is when we moved in, all finished off and divided into three rooms, two closets, a hallway, a bathroom, a garage and a scary room under the porch!

Above is the first room when you come down the stairs, this was sort of a living room.

Through the doorway on the right was a bedroom...

home to a contraption right out of Clue: art disguising access to the dryer vent!

Straight back was the kitchen I've mentioned lots before. We're actually using that fridge right now, temporarily. It's upstairs in the real kitchen (which will be PART 2).

Opposite the sink is a second access to the hallway which leads to the bathroom. We aren't going there for a veerrry long time.

But speaking of the hallway, it holds three cubbies of hidden treasure, mostly in the form of animal feces.

What may or not be evident in all of this is the mess of wires and plumbing criss-crossing every possible surface. We know our seller loved her some tv and telephone because it is in EVERY ROOM of the house. It's all very haphazard. I call it "reactionary design."

During our inspections we found out that some of the foundation behind the walls was shedding its parge coat. What the heck's a parge coat? Well, it's smooth concrete on top of rough concrete whose purpose is mostly aesthetic. We were told this was normal and not alarming. There was also some evidence of dry rot and termite damage. As you can imagine, with everything closed up like this, it was hard to read. After treating for termites, next up was demo, which leads me to the point of all this:

After ripping up flooring (laminate and carpet, egads), Mike tackled the walls.

This wall we hope to remove completely but that's a support beam in the middle (which once was round and had since been shaved to fit inside the drywall!) and the header is the main support for the upstairs. We'll get creative here, I see pillars for an open look. Eventually this space will be an amazing art studio.

Here's an example of the parge coat built up behind the wall. I can just imagine the sound of falling sand as it happened over forty plus years. This was pretty much everywhere, on every wall.

We found artifacts. I've never heard of Burgermeister beer but that name is righteous. I also found a newspaper from 1967. Good clue! What we didn't find, insulation. There is also no heating down here. I'm still shocked someone lived in this space.

Now that we (well, Mike) got all the drywall, time for the framing.

A lot of this was rotten. I have since vowed never to drywall a basement, especially one almost 100 years old. Talk about asking for trouble.

Ahh, this really opens up the space and it feels much less mysterious down here. I was in charge of sweeping up all that dust and I scraped the walls as best I could with a wire brush to remove most of the loose particles. Our goal is to put on a new parge coat and seal it up pretty.

Believe it or not, that was all easy compared to the ceilings. They were covered in plywood attached with MANY NAILS. In fact, we are still tackling this with the hallway yet to do.

At this point, I've vacuumed up the dust, dead bugs and cobwebs. We took 4 trips to the dump (more on that later). Now, after this weekend's great reveal in the laundry room, we need to remove the plywood all along the top of the foundation to see what, if any, 2x4s are rotten. The mudsill is questionable in parts and we revealed rot in some support beams. Time to call in the pros...

Weekend Project | Basement Sink

Overall, I'd say most of the original character has been stripped from this house. The doorknobs, the built-ins, the pink and green bathroom (admittedly, I'm relieved about that one) they're gone. But we still have a few details, the molding, the solid wood doors, the odd cupboard. And down in the basement, this beauty:

Oh, not the stove. That's just nasty. I'm referring to that fantastic, metal sink. This room was once a second kitchen (yeah, I know, someone ate FOOD down here), but now it is being converted into our new laundry room. We've ripped out the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the stove - all necessary actions due to termites, rot, and a ghastly amount of filth. We've purchased a new washer dryer (thank you Black Friday Sears!) and we've gotten a quote from a plumber (whose raised eyebrows at the mention we were keeping this sink only makes me more determined). Now all we need to do is refinish it so it can take it's proper place as the centerpiece of this room.

Yeah, that's bad.

But this is my kind of project. I love bringing poorly treated rejects back to life. It's cleansing not only for the sink, but for my brain. I find this relaxing, active meditation. This is because I'm nuts.

So I started by removing the sink top to get a good look at it. Hmm, this is cumbersome and really dirty. I think it needs to go outside. (Note that every time we pick this up, our gloves become immersed in grease.)

So we brought it out back where I can zap it with the hose. I removed all the doors and drawers, and in the bright daylight realize the cabinet has been refinished before, there is some sadness at that fact. But what relief that they thought to remove the handles before painting, they are in mint condition! Everything else was drenched in 409 and I went to town with the scrubbies.

The sink itself will get a good cleaning and a homemade refinishing. We still have to scout for a new faucet, I think Ace Hardware carries vintage styles.

It didn't take long to realize I was completely kidding myself that I could do this in one weekend. There is a lot more rust than I first thought. It's going to take two days to clean and sand before I can even prime it.

I can't wait to crack open these puppies. That aqua is straight up yummy...