Basement transformation

So the long project I've been in charge of here, started in November.  Way back when, I was house-sitting for my grandma, while she was in Florida. At the time she was gone for 20 days; to check out her new place down there, do some cleaning, and relax.  

While she was gone, we had an early blast of sub-zero temps here.  Her house is 60 years old. The water valves on her house are going bad & hubs has been trying to get her to replace them.  We fear a catastrophe like, what happened. The outside faucet had a slow leak, which ended up freezing which ran for probably a good day; before I saw water on the inside. Recall at the time I'm 28 weeks pregnant & not supposed to be doing anything strenuous. She has a lot of stuff in her basement.

 

Some quick calls; got hubs over, he had to shut the water off with a big pipe wrench. Went & rented commercial water extractors. Called my sister & brother & a cousin to come over & start moving stuff to the garage.. Most everything thankfully in plastic totes. Ended up hiring movers to help evacuate all the big furniture quickly. The next week involved meeting with the insurance adjustor, professional mold remediation, and removing the moisture in the walls, . Then getting someone in to paint & shopping for carpet.

 

Wall damage (bubbling) and wet damp carpet. 

 

She found new carpet that she liked. The old carpet was blue. She picked out this nice darker brown carpet ( basement carpet, no padding, glued to the floor ) .. The carpet company came out to measure, and informed us that they could not install on the existing floor, because it was asbestos tile. They told her to call the insurance company back.. Which led to another adjustor visit, and 2 weeks of asbestos abatement. ( I was not around --aka health risks  )  Carpet install put on hold. Everything must be removed from basement.. ( EVERYTHING, cabinets, walls )

 

She left for Florida January 1. I assured her she would come back and it would be done at Easter..

Cabinets that were removed, were donated to Habitat -Restore.

 

So I had planned on spending maternity leave, relaxing while babysitting some contractors. Well life happened.. soo in February, with a new cabinet picked out & a layout made, we hired a contractor to install the cabinets, countertop & build a wall. Hubs was too busy to do it himself.

 

We did all the shopping & bought all the materials and had ready to go for the contractor come the end of February..

Took some time to purge all the nooks & crannies of her basement.. bye-bye old crusty paint cans from 1985  ( they were dry.

So first phase.. wall installed.

Moved all the remaining items.. to the other side of the basement. Clean slate..

Daffodil yellow, not my first choice of colors, but hey, not my basement.

Cabinets Dry fitted.   I then painted the walls ( our contractor only worked on weekends ) so I had a week to pain the walls .

I also decided to update the blue on the stairs.. & painted it the tan color ..

Getting ready for the carpet install to commence in March.

So the end of march I took a day off & watched the carpet contractor install.
Wish I could convince her to replace the wallpaper, but she loves it, so hey, it stays.

 

The pole in the middle is the color of the old carpet.. for now it's staying blue..

It doesn't look that out of place in person..

 

The yellow walls are growing on me.. still not my favorite. but.. again, not mine to choose.

The walls will mostly be covered by large objects.. so not that bold in person.

 

 

So while my brother & brother in law, were close by for Easter. I had them help carry down, the larger pieces of furniture.  Hubs & I , well mostly hubs, put together the 4 dining room tables..  This is as far as I am going with putting items back until she returns & we purge some more stuff.. ( her garage is still full of boxes of "stuff"  crafts, holiday stuff, ( every holiday under the sun )..

 

Finished cabinetry,, before carpet installed.

 So yeah, doesn't look like much, but it's what I've been up to since November.. so glad she returns in a week, to finish this up..