Two Wheeled Tales: MORE Basement Progress!

What the hell? How can there possibly be more progress on the basement?? This has always been the project that refused to be completed! This has always been the project that gets (re)started every January, only to be pushed (back) to the back-burner in Feb when I can start riding again! This is the project that has been on-going in one form or another, for years!

Is it possible that this will be the year that actually sees completion of this stupid frikkin’ project? May-be…Mayyy-be…

So let’s get on with the status report, eh? I’d forgotten that I needed the plumber to come in and do a couple of things for me before the walls go up, so I talked to him and he’ll be by on Monday to take care of that.

Then I talked to the plasterer (who’d stopped by and gave me mad props on the insulation job, I might add) and he said he’s having the wallboard delivered on Tuesday. He’ll have his hangers get that put up on Wednesday and Thursday, and then he’ll be in on Friday to get going on the plastering. Sweet!

Pics!

The pellet stove is going into the far corner. You can see the chimney hole has already been cut into the foundation, up near the ceiling. Ambient lighting is wired into the surrounding ceiling, against the walls. A nice sectional and a couple of end tables once everything is done and this’ll be a nice cozy place in the wintertime!

A nice long stretch of open area here. Not sure what will come of this, but for now it’ll remain open. At the least, I should still have some room for a bike or two in the winter time…

This is the shower – doesn’t look like much, I know. In fact, it looks rather narrow in this pic, but I can assure you that it’ll be plenty big enough; the measurements are; almost 4’ wide and over 5’ long. It’ll all be tiled, too. Nicey nice!

And here is where the main event shall be; The BAR!! You can see the wiring on the right side, mid-wall. The bar top is going to mount to that wall and will extend 7’ to the left, and the wiring will come in for a mini fridge and assorted decorative lighting.

In the back, toward the right side, there’ll be some shelving and also a sink (everything is plumbed in – the hot and cold feeds are tough to make out in this pic, but they’re there, directly above the drain pipe (covered in duct tape), in the corner, about a foot and a half off the floor.

The set of shelves that are built into the wall (on the left) are actually a pretty ingenious idea by Gary, my carpenter. They’re framed into the rectangular box you see around them, but that whole assembly is sitting on supports inside the wall, and is fastened to the wall itself with just 6 screws. Remove those screws and the whole thing pops out – giving easy access to the septic line if I ever need to have it cleaned out.

Lastly, the manhole cover on the floor covers the ejector pump setup which was needed for this basement project, and which was put in…oh….let’s go back and look…holy crap! May of ’08?? (See, I told you this project has dragged on and on!)

In fact, I went looking through old pics and here’s a reminder of what the basement used to look like. Egads!!