The basement will probably not be "complete" for a while, but as long as there's a toilet, TV, and couch, it's far enough along for us to start using it.  The entire project has been scheduled by predecessors, meaning we complete one project because it's necessary for the following project to start.

The end goal for the basement was always to get the sectional back downstairs.  We did each project in succession basically for a couch.  Since we bought a sectional two years ago, long before we started this project, (although sometimes it feels like it's lasted that long), we had to relocate the couch upstairs while the basement was worked on.  The only space it would fit and still allow us to function normally was in the dining room.

 
For the last 6 months or so, the dining room has looked like this, (the table and chairs were moved into the living room):



It was weird at first, but I kind of liked all the seating.  Not to mention eating my breakfast on the couch.

Even though it became the norm, Mike and I were both itching to get it back downstairs.  So, we decided that we would finish any cutting necessary, including finishing the stairs, and cutting and installing the trim and after the trim was all painted we would move the couch downstairs.  Since we'll never have a completed room without any furniture, I figured I would take some photos to show you the space before we started making it the family room.


      
As you can see I still have some paint touch-ups to do and outlet covers to install, but we finished everything that would be blocked by the couch and figured the rest could be worked around.

As soon as we brought the couch down we mounted the TV.  I convinced Mike that we needed to bring the sectional down before I committed to where I wanted the TV placed.  It literally took hours for me to finally decide on a placement.  It took so long that Mike actually caved in and promised he would build me a TV cabinet for the wall next to the laundry room door.  I'll share my plans for that later.

We finished it all the weekend before Easter and promptly set up the dvd player to watch Skyfall, (Mike's birthday present this year, along with the sunny weather and beach trips since it was during our vacation).

  
This is my bliss people: the cat, my guy (trying to be goofy for the camera), and a movie night with cuddling.  Even with a metal chair and only a couch and a TV, I can already tell this room is going to be used a lot for friends and family, and lots and lots of movies.

Day by day, a fresh start over, a different hand to play...loved that show.

Mike finished the steps over the weekend before we went on vacation, (yes, we've been back from our vacation for a while, but this post has taken a long time to write up).  Notice how I didn't say they were done.  He just finished his part.  We still need to fill all the holes, sand, then paint my little heart out.  Though all that seems like a lot, it's nothing compared to the work Mike did.  He's really my hero.  I sent him so many pins of stairs and paneling, that I thought he was going to block my email.  He took all my ideas, then designed a way to build everything.  He bitches a lot that I'm an architect and he's the engineer, but it's the truth, and it works out for us, although sometimes in the middle it doesn't seem like we'll ever come to an agreement.

The last time I specifically talked about the stairs was way back in November when we replaced all the existing drainage pipes.


It's crazy how excited I was and what an improvement I thought it was.  I mean, it was compared to the set-up we were using:


You may have noticed that since the extra stairs were added, Mike had completed all the drywall and had even built the storage boxes that would be the finished insides.  I posted a picture showing this progress when we textured the ceilings:


There wasn't much that needs to be explained except Mike added new risers and plywood to the stairs and added drywall on the upper part of the cabinet wall and in the closet as well.

You may also notice the beginnings of our built-ins.  Mike started by framing these two new cabinets out.  He also added some insulation between the closet and one of the cabinets.  The reason for this being that the closet will be used to store fermenting beer and wine, (no more first floor fermenting for us!), and we need to be able to control the temperature inside the closet.


For the actual cabinet interiors, Mike built boxes to fit inside the framed out areas.  After sliding the beasts into place, he leveled and added shims as necessary, and nailed every thing in place.  The added piece of plywood to the left of the closet door is the beginning of our faux paneling wall, (see the beginnings of our planning here).


The awesome plan Mike came up with is hidden doors that look to be a part of the paneling, but push open with hidden hinges.  Don't worry, once it's done I'll show pictures that will make more sense.

The hardest part was determining the finishing thickness for all the pieces.  Mike explained it to me a million times, but it was way to hard for me to picture it so I just let me do what he needed to do.  Part of that was routering out the boxes to allow the doors to sit a little recessed so that it matched the rest of the paneling.


The next step to trimming everything out was the face piece along the risers.  Mike had been dreading this piece.  It involves a lot of cuts, and needed to be one continuous piece to look nice.  The best way he determined to start was to cut the easy cuts, then temporarily attach it to the steps with a giant screw to draw the cut lines for the greatest accuracy.


He then got into a dozen different acrobat positions to draw all his lines.  Obviously, I stood back and laughed and took pictures for laughing later.





Once his lines were drawn, he removed the piece double checked the sizes and angles and got mentally prepared to cut it.


Since we were using cabinet grade plywood, we knew we had to figure out a way to prevent any exposed edges.  The only way Mike determined how to achieve this was by cutting each stair piece on an angle.  That way the stair riser would be cut on a 45 as well and no edges would be exposed.  This was the proper way to do it, but also the most difficult, remember this is all cut from one piece so there are no do overs.  Dun, dun, dun.

I wasn't around when Mike cut them, but after I came home I was so impressed with his skills.  I know the man has skills, but when he starts to get apprehensive I get a little worried.  Turns out he's amazing.

For those that have no idea what I was just talking about, here's how it looked after we permanently installed it. 





The angled edges were so sharp that Mike cut himself on one and started bleeding!  He warned me, since I'm usually the clutz that falls up the stairs, and I couldn't help but imagine tripping and falling off the side and cutting myself on the way down.  Needless to say I came up with a lot of excuses to stay upstairs until the stairs were better enclosed.
 
Before finishing the steps and risers he added the base trim up the steps.  We went back and forth on the style we wanted at the bottom, and finally decided on a step pattern, as opposed to angling it with the steps.  To finish the steps, Mike wrapped the risers with plywood, mitering the edges along the exposed side to come to a nice finished edge.  The top of the risers are obviously covered with the step so you can get away with using plywood.


He then placed pre-made hardwood steps on the regular steps using glue and nails, and used wood planks with nosing to create the oddly shaped steps at the bottom and at the landing.  I was out while Mike finished these, so I only came back to the completely finished project, but I have to say I was ecstatic with the work he did.  Not only because there were no longer any safety hazards I had to watch for while walking down the stairs, but they looked so damn good!



To finish out the paneling, Mike added pieces of 1" thick wood to create the "batten".  The doors will be level with the panel in place to create the "board".  If you can't see it yet, you will when we finish painting and installing the doors.  Obviously, we already like and use the additional storage.


The corners came out really nice, and even though it was a pain in the ass, Mike's glad he took the extra time to miter the edges.


We built the paneling to end level with this step.  To cap the paneling and incorporate the steps, we chose to extend the nosing along the wall.  Mike realized we needed something to finish the edge of the drywall, so he cut a really thin piece of molding to cap it off.  


You can see the pencil line from the first draft of base molding.  The typical stair angled base board looked really weird along these bottom steps and we nixed that idea as soon as it was drawn.


Like the rest of the room, the stairs have come a long way, and since they are the first thing you see coming down into the new space, it was definitely worth all the work and inconvenience.

Last week Mike and I traveled to Florida to visit my parents and attend my cousin's wedding.  I could tell you how great it was to be in warm weather while Ohio is firmly stuck in winter, or how nice it was to see my out-of-town family, (and hang out with all my family that traveled down for the celebration), but instead I have much more somber news to share.

While we busted our asses to finish as much as we could in the never-ending basement before we left to go out of town, we were greeted with a 6-gallon-red-wine disaster when we came home at 9pm that forced us to tear out some of the brand spankin' new drywall.

Let me explain, for the wedding Mike's making the beer and we're making our own wine, (would you really expect anything less from us at this point?), so a couple weeks before we left we picked out the three wines we are making, including a awesome sounding Chilean pinot noir.  We made a cute mini-date out of making the wine one night and put it away to ferment.  Red wine needs a warm 72-75 degree temperature so we put in in the dining room closet.  We had a small leakage problem from the spigot when we were making it, but Mike (thought) he fixed it, and monitored it for the next week before we left, (it hadn't shown any more leakage the entire week), at this point I think you can see where this is heading.

When we came home, we checked the house, cuddled the cat, and checked on the wine.  Mike was surprised to see the towel underneath the bucket was soaked.  He was even more surprised to lift the empty bucket.   We immediately knew where it had gone and ran downstairs to be greeted with a scene worthy of a horror movie.  The wine had leaked through the hardwood floors of the dining room closet into the drywall of the ceiling in the beer cave.   Because there was a light there, the wine must have collected, then dropped in large quantities onto our brand new chest freezer because there was wine spatter on all three walls.

Since my first reaction to a crisis is not to grab my camera, but to gather cleaning supplies, I have no evidence of the massacre scene to share.  I think it will always be engraved in my head though. 
 

The ceiling actually didn't look that bad.  I did grab my iPhone after cleaning the walls to take a picture to send to my parents.


While it didn't look that bad, we knew underneath there was 6 gallons of red wine causing all sorts of problems.  The only option we had was to tear out the drywall and replace it.  So, only 20 hours after getting off the plane, Mike had tore out all the damaged drywall.


You can see the wine had soaked the wood behind the drywall.  But the majority of the wine was all in the drywall.


The light will also need replaced since wine and electronics don't play nice.


As for the walls, most of the splatter washed off, but large spots of splatter were stained.  It's hard to see in the photo, but there were large areas on each of the three walls that had dark gray/purple spots.


To get your bearings, the closet is on the right in the picture below.  The left is where the chimney used to be. 


I told Mike it looks like a dead body was stored up here.



Here's the bottom of the floor boards below the closet.


I did get a cool shot looking up into the area where the chimney was.  When we renovate the kitchen, all these walls will be torn out and the floor will be covered.


This photo breaks my heart, Mike never poses for me, so I just snapped around him cleaning up.  He looks so dejected after tearing out the work he completed.   


While it sucked, it showed how great of a team Mike and I are.  When things like this happen, I'm actually pretty calm.  Mike freaks out for a hot second, then we immediately evaluate what needs to be done and jump right in.  It's not to say that we're still not bummed, (it cost us about $78 for the new supplies, and another $100 for the wine), but we'll live.  We've even been able to joke that we didn't have enough practice drywalling and painting, (as if), so this was helpful!

Mike remove the entire ceiling piece, then a small section at the corner also needed to be patched.


Before Mike covered everything back up, I used some Kilz Premium to paint all the wood that had any wine on it.  Was it necessary?  Maybe not, but we weren't risking it.  We let the wood dry out overnight after tearing it all out, then washed everything down, then I painted.  I used some junk brushes and rollers and painted all the floor boards of the closet too.  Our reasoning was to seal the wood in case any mildew formed.  We're confident the wine was mostly just traveling along the wood and was mostly in the trashed drywall, but after something like this you can never to be cautious.

Last night Mike installed the new piece of drywall and the patch at the corner.  One of the worst parts was the corner bead needed to be torn out and replaced to get a perfect corner again.
 

I used the Kilz primer to paint any stains on the walls, and also along the areas that would need to be mudded, (for better adhesion).



Mike plans to mud and sand this weekend.  Which means I'll be able to paint when I touch up the rest of the rooms.

As for the wine, we threw the leaky bucket away and bought a new one without a spigot in it.  The spigot only made it easier to transfer into the glass carboy, but Mike's got enough tools to make it just as easy.  On Wednesday we made the new batch and have already gotten bubbles, (always a happy moment knowing your yeast is active)!

Although we wish we had somewhere better to put it, the only spot in the house is still the dining room closet.  Since the hardwood floor is already ruined, it's not noticeable in the photos, but the boards are all cupped a little, we figured there's no harm.  There's also no spigot anymore, and we're anal about checking it, so we're good.

We've always known we were going to tear out this closet and extend the kitchen, so we're not that bummed.  That's also the reason I've never painted the inside of the closet, you can see what all of the baseboards looked like when we bought the place, eww.


So, there's our lovely vacation coming home horror story.  Hopefully, this is the worst we'll ever have to deal with.  We've also decided that we'll probably have someone stay at the house while we're away, or at least have them check inside everyday, (we have the boys next door pick up the mail and they even take out our trash for us, so they're already keeping an eye on the outside).  Oh, and we'll probably never start a wine batch before vacation, or at least not leave fermenting wine on the first floor while we're away again.  Better safe then sorry.