Dave's Digitals

... Just really want my basement back. And would be nice to be able to relax and enjoy it some too.

Told the Wife I don't want to get carpet until the walls are done, and won't look into putting in a drop ceiling until walls and rugs are in. But time till tell if I can get this done this year? ... Need to get into the Garden today, before the weeds get too much time to flourish. Wife and Son just dropping in another 18 more Zucchini plants while I was cutting grass Saturday. So that helped me some.

Well, taking a quick break... Operation Fireplace is about to start. I started working on the small wall on the side of the Boiler/Fireplace last night, and tonight as soon as I got home went down and cleared the rest of the wall. But I'm about at my ropes' end, moving stuff to the other side of the basement. Not much room left, I believe. ... But once I finish the other 1/4, I plan on weeding through some stuff that won't be coming back onto this side of the basement. I'm hoping to have this side done maybe by the weekend, hopefully not much longer if I don't get it done. ... I still need to find some light-weight paneling to box in the boiler, but I hate that they put it next to the Fireplace. I understand the concept, being able to vent the pipe out with the Chimney, but it's not pleasing to the eye in any way. But should look ok, once I box it back in. The Fireplace was 14' wide, but I centered it, and boxed in some of it to even it out better.







Still debating on whether I want to re-face the Fireplace too. I know that can really make a nice accent to the room, but can get costly, depending on how I want to go about doing it. - We'll see...

Yeah, the Wife said it looks small in the photos too. It's actually 11' wide and 8' tall. The bottom shelf sticks out nearly 2' and is about 1' tall itself. You can see it was used in the past, but we've never used it in the 14 years we've been there. I was thinking about doing it in something like River-Rock, or similar & replacing the mantle that was on there. It was a large 8 x 8? one, but it had seen better days. But yep, some accents on it along would be helpful. I did have some stuff on the ledge, but took all that off when clearing it.

I really need to make sure I log out of the site at the end of the day... Forgot to on Thursday, and then decided to take Friday off to extend the weekend to work on the basement. So was locked out from home.

Still working on things, so still no artwork yet. Friday and Saturday was spent mostly on the basement. Got the small wall done on the right of the Fireplace, and nearly got the larger one done too. But both nights, by the time it was nearing 11pm or so, I got quite tired and felt wiped out, so just called it. ... Sunday I had to take a break, meaning I instead cut the grass, power-wash the screen door for painting, and did the carport itself, washed up my bike some and then around 3pm, say screw it and watched at least a few of the Soccer games on their last day. (Will watch the other ones this week during work) Though it's been getting in the 90's, I don't mind as long as I'm working, but when you sweat just sitting in the house, it isn't fun. AC's been getting some use now, but the basements been fine so far.

Yeah, it's not that fun, especially when the humidity is up as well. But as long as I'm working, I don't mind it as much. But when you're sweating and just sitting down watching TV or something, it's more bothersome.

Well, back in the basement. ... After getting tied up with some other work/stuff over the Winter Season, I've finally been able to get back to spending some more time working downstairs. I also decided to just frame in the entire basement and create a work shop (Wood Working), Utility Space, and keep the one full half for a Leisure Area. (I really like the full openness I had, and will probably miss it some, but think having a shop area would be nice too.) So splitting it in half, and then the one side will be split again, for the shop and utility area.

Decided to strip the stairs down to bare minimum and just rebuild the entire area from the ground up... You can also see how I've had to move all the junk to one section/area just to work. But I've had to do this a few times now, but we have taken time to go through some stuff to get rid of, which will be nice.


After striping stuff down, decided to frame up the stairwell and create a closet underneath, along with new wall and doors.


Also started hanging some of the drywall to get it out of the way, and to also know how much I will end up needing. 


I actually finished up the drywall on the stairs area and full wall behind it, and started working on the door way to the Utility room last night, and should finish that tonight. Then I just need to frame the last wall dividing the work shop and utility section. So hopefully just one more run for 2x4's and drywall. Been picking up 25 or so each trip, and 1/2 dozen sheets of drywall each time. ... Mainly didn't want it stocked up around the place, since I have limited room with all the stuff.

Haha... Yeah, I own quite a few of those myself, along with a bunch of other cool tools. You can't see it well, but there's a full sized Table Saw, Miter Saw, Jig-Saw, etc. on the other side of the couch where I do most of the ripping. But as I'm working, the areas getting thinned out more and more of stuff which is nice. ... Actually double backing up all my stuff on the work computer since I'm scheduled to have it replaced here in just 90 minutes or so. Making sure all my data is saved, as well as removed from the old one. (The one I have at the house will stay as is, only upgrading the one here at work.)