Basement --ceiling

Thanksgiving was a good day to start on painting the ceiling. 

It's a dark grey. 

The difference between painted and not yet painted. 

So what did we learn after 5 hours painting and 3/4 of the basement ceiling to go. Detail painting on the ceiling is not easy.

 

Friday we went out and bought a paint sprayer. 

Our backs, shoulders and neck were tight and sore. We'll give it another try with the sprayer in a few days.

Basement redo --The crack is fixed.

Woo hoo!!

Crack fixed 

(This is the before) 

(After)

 

So to fix our crack ( floor to ceiling ) they chiseled out the crack, opened up the floor to the drain tile. Sealed the crack, put a special plastic barrier along the wall and leading into the drain tile, sealed that, and then filled in the floor to the drain tile.  Done by a reputable company, that comes with a lifetime warranty. The company specializes in my states foundation repairs. Besides the crack being gnarly, all looked well, when he got into the drain tile -- it was still intact.

 

Video on the type of repair we did. 

 

Now we have 2 weeks to wait for the cement to cure. (Dry) Then the electrical and drywall will go back up. 

We will only be putting up drywall over 2 outside walls. No more small little rooms in the basement.  

So during the 2ww ( week wait ). We are cleaning!! They put up plastic to contain the dust, but that space has a nice layer. Then the poured concrete wall needs to be washed, so it can be painted(sealed) .  Get the dinginess off it. 

If any time left. Prepping the ceiling, and potentially paint it. 

We also have to go purchase all the materials for the wall construction. 

Basement ceiling

We bought a small sample of some paint for the ceiling.

A) Do we like the industrial look
if yes

B) Do we go light or dark on the ceiling
 

C) Do we go black or dark grey.

With out further adieu 

To see what it looks like against a white wall

It's a steely grey color compared to the nasty wood.

 

 

Unless something else major pops up, going with the painted ceiling ( in the steel grey color )

Why redo the basement

I don't think I showed you the real reason why we had to tear apart our basement.

Just found the pictures on the camera.. ( most pictures I post are from my phone )

The river flowing thru the basement, a week before this picture was under carpet.. and not as "visible" to us.. and was covered by a table, and generally you don't feel wet carpet with shoes on.

the wall normally didn't look this gnarly.. but I started hacking at it when it was "leaking"

 

 

Nightmare..

 

 

 

So the lovely rivers from the wall, are why we had to tear them down.. discover the " crack" , fix the crack, and now.. do something with it.

Basement Ideas post 1

So with nothing pressing at work, and a lazy Friday afternoon attitude. I've been doing some basement idea searching.  We have no formal "plan" or "vision" so looking at all possibilities now.

Like the sliding door, not doable in our space.

 

 

Cute, but seems really crammed

 

One of the big issues in our basement.. what to do with the ceiling, does it look weird to just leave it open.

 

Now I'm loving the idea of a fireplace in the basement

 

 

I like the painted ceiling.. husband would never go for hanging lights across like that.

 

Now I like the finish on the floor, the pillars, the ceiling painted.

Do you think the walls are originally like that or faux finish to look like that.

 

I kinda like the dark ceiling.. with light colored walls.

 

 

We want to do something like the curtains here to block off our laundry area when guests are over.

Dark thick curtains, floor to ceiling.

 

 

 

 

Thoughts, love to hear them in the com box.

 

 

 

Our basement redo

So if you recall earlier this year we dealt with my grandma's basement flooding and renovation.

 

Guess what we started on now... drum roll please.

 

 

Our basement.

 

Not because we have nothing else to do. Not because we have buckets of $100 bills to work on this.

Because the person we bought the house from decided to disguise a crack in the wall, behind a finished wall.  After our very moist spring, we kept find the carpet wet in the finished part of basement. So we tore the carpet up, to keep the mold at bay. Then we noticed the river coming from the wall, which trailed to the floor drain ( formerly) under carpet.

 

We had a basement water proofing company out, who gave us some ridiculous quotes, but until we tore the wall down, we wouldn't know what we were actually dealing with.  

 

 

Before Walls coming down, carpet around floor drain already out .

storage area, we will miss you.

Laundry room ( wall was chopped up, when water to the floor drain got out of control )

So once we had some free time, and the help of a contractor, we dug into the drywall and discovered this lovely crack in the foundation, that someone else "tried" to  hide.  Thankfully instead of having to install new drain tiles ( what the waterproofing company initially was wrong with the basement --without seeing behind the wall ) we just have to have some fancy crack repair done.

This was the lovely "crack" that was hidden behind the wall

First view of basement

basement current state after wall came down, which forced the ceiling and all walls down

sorry garbage men.. nasty drywall had to go somewhere.
 

So before the foundation fix, we have to clean/paint/sanitize the wall, as it has some residual of the constant leaking.  Once the foundation fix happens, then we start on redoing the basement. It's going to stay open now, and not be so compartmentalized as it was made by the previous owner.  More pictures to follow as we progress.

Our biggest fight disagreement  is what to do with the floor. Carpet is not a good solution anymore. With our history and that basement, it needs to be something that can be easily mopped up. Contractor suggested tile. Tile is $$ for the amount that has to be done. ( I can see why a contractor would suggest it though, more $$ in his pocket ). 2nd suggestion was epoxy on the floor, 3rd linoleum 4th is like a faux wood, glue down stuff.  

The 2nd disagreement will be what color to paint ( ha )  now that the walls are down, and staying down. We actually have daylight coming in from 3 windows..  So it won't be so dark and dungeon-ey as before.

So our basement will stay mostly open.. with tables that can be set up for parties. Hoping we can swing.. new furniture upstairs. and our leather couches upstairs will go down. We already have a big screen TV for the basement, we have a wine fridge, and pop corn machine..

To make the most of the space, we will hang some sort of curtain system, to hide our laundry area, when not in use.

When I have the mock up ready, I will post.

What have you done in your basement ? I would love to hear what you've done to your basement.