Rebuilding/renovating the basement after the flood (still not bike related)

[Sidecar Bob]

I sanded, primed and painted the doll room and east storage room and put the ceiling tiles back up and I've started preparing the floors for paint.

I had help last weekend. They moved the rest of the drywall and the stack of cabinets to the train room and the boards that go on top of the pool table (originally for table tennis but mostly used as a work surface) are in the hall.

When I turned the cabinets upside down I found that two of the steel cabinets had wood in the bottoms at the ends so I installed casters in them right away, then added wood to the other 2 and put their casters in. I removed the plinths from the wooden ones and replaced them with pieces of 2x4 that I could drill to accept casters.

01 - Cabinets in train room.jpg

Now I can move them easily by myself

02 - Cabinets with casters.jpg

We cover the pool table when it isn't in use but old bedsheets only keep the dust off. I've been sitting things on it while I worked I the storage room but always very carefully. With the ceiling tiles gone from it and the boards downstairs again I emptied the table and installed the casters (same as I got for the sewing room table).
With the boards on top I can use it as any other table while I finish the storage room and work on the rec room & kitchenette.

01 - Pool table casters & boards.jpg

[Sidecar Bob]

It has been a busy couple of weeks. I had more help and we moved more stuff downstairs The new closet has parts of desks, tables &c in it and the cabinets in the train room are about half full too. I was able to move the bike inside just in time for snow to start falling. I could get to the snow blower but couldn't get it out but at least I could get the shovel & snow float (scoop) out.

With that done I got to the casings & baseboards and put the doors in.
The storage room is finished for now. I won't paint the windows & doors until the end (those are the lower casings in the windows) and we haven't decided about shelves yet but we can at least move some stuff in there while I work on the rest of the place. In fact, I've moved more stuff in from my parking space and you can see some through the door, waiting to be moved into the room.
I may eventually change the LED strip lighting too. Those strips only draw about 6W but they are sooooo bright.

14 - East Storage done (for now) 1.jpg

15 - East Storage done (for now) 2.jpg

The doll room is also done for now. I left a gap in the tiles for access to the plumbing and I still need to make a cover for that and I still need to do a bit of trim but that can be done after our daughter moves in (she's living in our guest room - which used to be her room - now).

10 - Doll room finished (for now) 1.jpg

11 - Doll room finished (for now) 2.jpg

Oh, and in between all of that I finished the last of the details in the bathroom, including trim to cover the gap under the shower stall

14 - Finishing touch.JPG

[CYBORG]

You have been busy. And it look great. I should be motivated to do some stuff around My place. But I think I will put if off till spring. (again)

[Sidecar Bob]

Since I have to do so much down there I'm taking the opportunity to do all the stuff I've been putting off for years.
And to put off a whole new set of things (like painting those doors & windows)

[CYBORG]

There are only so many hours in a day. And life is short. Better to do what you like, when you can. Great to have many projects in the wings, and wake up in the morning and be able to pick and choose the ones you want to do, and give you pleasure in doing. Better to enjoy the cycle of life then to be a slave to it

[Rat]

I try to book the odd 'do nothing' day … more often than I used to …

Gord

[CYBORG]

I would love to have a day with nothing to do

[Sidecar Bob]

I get bored pretty fast when there's nothing to do; I love reading but even that I can only do for a while before I get up and look for something to do.
What I don't like is having deadlines.

I don't understand people who think laying around doing nothing is a good vacation. My idea of a good time is getting up in the morning and choosing what I feel like working on that day.

[CYBORG]

same here

[Sidecar Bob]

We moved the rest of the furniture out of my parking space so I can park the bike inside (the car will live outside this winter). I need to do some work on the bike but I haven't felt like working on it so on to the sewing room & office

01 - Sewing room & Office detail.JPG

It's starting to look like most of this part of the basement's story is going to be working on doorways. In addition to the 3 shown on the plan I was surprised when they removed the bottom of the drywall and revealed this
(Northeast corner of the room, looking into and across the hallway

02 - Hidden doorway (before).jpg

I must have known about that 30 years ago but I had completely forgotten (I really wish I had Dad's drawings of the basement) and it would probably have been OK to leave it but I wasn't happy with it so I did this

03 - Hidden doorway (after).jpg

And from the hall after I added drywall in the sewing room side

04 - Hidden doorway from hall (after).jpg

[Sidecar Bob]

The box around the ductwork is overhead as you enter the sewing room and the door always rubbed on the ceiling tiles. Barely. Not enough to do damage but it wasn't right and since I had to work on it anyway I planned to re-hang it at least 1" lower.
I was looking at the jambs with that in mind and decided it just didn't look very good so I took it apart (I had to anyway) and it turned out he had turns out he had made one of the pre-fab jambs he salvaged from their old house to fit the central load bearing 2x6 wall by stretching it to its limit, then adding 1x1 to make up the difference. And using a lot of filler. That was cracking & falling out.
The door jamb I built from scratch for the east storage room (also in the 2x6 wall) came out OK so I decided to build a new one here too. This time I set it up with a 1" gap below the door so that I don't have to extend the bottom of it and that left 1.5" between the door and ceiling.

05 - Sewing room door hung.JPG

I dealt with the extra thickness by adding door stop, stepped back from the 1x6 more or less uniformly around the whole opening

06 - Sewing room door jamb.jpg

And while I was doing that it occurred that it would be much easier remove the jambs from the rest of the doorways and move them down to the concrete and fix the drywall above than to leave them where they are, extend the doors and make filler blocks to go below the jambs.

After they removed the raised floor the doorway to the office looked like this. I think he may have moved the doorway after he installed the floor between the walls but whatever the reason I had to take it all apart and make it right

07 - Office doorway (before).jpg

And here it is with the framing fixed and the jamb & door lowered. The gap is only about 1/2" but I think I'll leave it like that

08 - Office doorway (after).JPG

As you can see I've cleaned out some of the old joints and put up some of the drywall. I need to do some wiring before I go much farther so there won't be any pics of that.

[Rat]

I sometimes get tired just reading your posts … so I just sit down and read a book …

Gord

[Sidecar Bob]

Thanks. I usually only get a few hours in most days so you might not get as tired as you'd think......

[CPOTED]

Sorry to hear about the basement. My wife Jan and I have had that happen twice ... one time each in two different states, Nfreakin'J and Noga.

In Nfreakin'J it was caused by a broken washing machine hose and didn't get discovered until the wife went down into the basement. It happened in NoGa because the dumb-bunny who built our home put the line that feeds an outside faucet between the insulation and an outside wall. 2 years later we had a hard freeze. Much damage to finished basements in both instances so I can commiserate.

[Sidecar Bob]

We've had small floods over the years like the time someone left a rag hanging over the side of the laundry tub and it fell in and blocked the drain so when the washer emptied into the tub it filled up; I added a standpipe so the washer can drain even if the tub's plug is in and later on installed a floor drain that ends open above the basement floor drain. And even a few times when sump pumps failed.
But this happened at just the wrong time of year when the snow (& ice from the storm that took the power out) was melting but the ground was too frozen to absorb it. The sump pump had been cycling steadily for a few weeks before the power went out.....
In a way it was a good thing it happened because we found the cracks in the foundation and we got rid of the raised floor (not to mention I got to move that wall to enlarge the train room).