Sheesh, Taylor. Get it together.
I know, I know.
You will all be happy to know that you won't be seeing picture after picture of our torn up, damp, dirty basement tonight. The reason is simple: things look pretty much the same. Do not, however, think that this means no progress! Last week involved a lot of consulting and researching and head scratching and clicking and squinting and grunting and moaning. And the result?
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present The Plan!
Big Time Timmy Jim put it together (all of that clicking and grunting and head-scratching was him). Didn't he do a fantastic job? His talents know no bounds, am I right?
Let's do a tour of this basement, shall we? Starting in the top left and going clockwise we have the stairs. These are right off of our side door and currently have a treacherously small landing. Trying to get around the door too get out the door, especially when you're carrying something big and heavy is like taking your life in your hands on a daily basis. So we plan to extend the landing for a little more room, which will push the steps out into the basement further. To ensure proper headspace, we will end up taking out the toilet closet that is off of our breakfast nook.
To the right of the stairs is the new bathroom. We plan to have a full bath with a shower (but not a bathtub). In the upper right-hand corner of the bathroom you see a closet. A rack will go into this closet to house our server and other computery-networky things. This closet will also provide access to the breaker panel. Everybody has a rack in their basement bathroom, right? We're finally going to be normal :)
To the right of the bathroom, you see the kitchenette in the home theater room. We plan to have a fridge and a microwave and a sink. We also have plans for a bar-height table where people can sit and eat at a table and still have a good view of whatever is on the screen. This table will be right along the back of a couch on a platform, aka stadium seating. In front of that and a little lower will be the front row couch (or possible sectional) placed at ideal viewing distance from the screen. Tim's a professional, so he knows all about optimal viewing angles, etc.
The room to the left of this will be a bedroom for guests, although Tim and I might move down there in the summer to keep cool. The space the stairs open into (between the bedroom and bathroom) will be our new laundry area, complete with a utility sink that we can fit a dog in! Dog baths just got so much easier.
Since we're talking about the plan, I wanted to offer a brief word on why. So often with remodels it is easy to become selfish and worry about keeping up with the Jonses, and I really don't want this to be like that. We wanted to make better use of the space we had--get rid of stuff and make room for people. This setup will make it much easier to host people, and much more comfortable for our guests as well. We hope this will enhance the x-box party nights Tim has with the high school guys from church, and hopefully we can use it to minister to and encourage more people.
Since we don't have kids, I sometimes feel left out when people share Psalm 127:3-5 and talk about how "children are a blessing." I know that it is true, but I also realize that not having children is a blessing as well. While we are in this stage of life, we not only want to enjoy it as much as possible, but use our situation for God's glory. We have both felt that God is calling us to "enlarge the place of our tent" (Psalm 54:2) to make room for more people in it, and this basement project is a big part of that.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: our friends have been such a blessing through this process! I have never had a home project feel so... annointed. It's hard to explain, but God really is just making it happen, and it is so cool to see! I am glad He choses to let us participate in His work.
So where do we go from here? Tim has taken this week off work to get ready for Midwest Basement to come, and things are looking good. Last week I listed what we needed to figure out, and here is a little update:
How to remove the concrete under the water heater, and leave the water heater in a place where a new slab can be poured underneath.My definition of the Simple Elegant Solution for this does not involve 2 weeks of cold showers, but we'll see if we can find that solution. Midwest Basement came for a site visit yesterday and said we can just leave the concrete there. Yay!How to remove the concrete under the stairs while still supporting the stairs because, well... we kind of need them.Midwest basement said we DON'T need them... we can take them out and just leave a ladder to the basement for them. This is really good news as well!- How to cut out the old cast-iron drain pipe so we can hook in new plumbing.
- Where our new plumbing needs to go (Simple and Elegant is OBVIOUSLY the desired solution on this) As you can see from the plan above, we are a lot closer. Now we just need to start putting pipes down...
- How to keep from losing our minds. This is still a real concern.
