Remodel Mondays – A new basement

The home remodel project is moving so quickly now, I can barely keep up! The first part of the extravaganza was to do some demolition on the outside of the house, so the basement under the new addition could get dug.

This is the east side of our house. This will soon just be the middle of the house. Our dogs love to sleep under the spruce tree on the left of the photo. That was one of the first things to go… They are going to have to find another place to sleep next summer!

First, John climbed on his tall ladder and took all the gutters and soffit off this side of the house.

Then it was time to attack the Bedford stone. (Anyone interested in buying some slightly used Bedford stone? I know where you can get a deal!)

This took quite a bit longer than he thought it would. Partly because he mostly had to work after work, in the dark. He’s a better man than me – no way you would catch me up on a ladder, playing with a chisel, in the dark. Okay, he had flood lights, but still, no ladder for me. I stayed inside where it was warm. And light. And not on a ladder.

I did come out an help him wrap this side of the house when he was done taking the stone off. (Really, anyone need some Bedford limestone? It’s cleaned, sorted, and stacked on a trailer!)

Then the boys came with the big toys. They brought their excavator, and started digging. Then it rained, and the basement turned into a mudpit. So we were stalled for a few days. (Poor spruce tree. We will miss you.)

They waited until it dried out before they went back to work. While we are experts at getting machinery unstuck around here, I don’t think we could have gotten an excavator out of this mudpit. Once they were back to work, they wasted no time getting the exterior drains placed, pouring the concrete for the supports, and putting in a bunch of gravel. This will keep the new basement from getting muddy! The section of gravel after what looks like a dirt dividing line at the back is going to be our walk-out patio. The rest is (for now) going to be unfinished basement. We’re going to have so much space in the main level, we aren’t sure what we are going to do with the downstairs space yet! But we will use the walk-out patio, I’m sure!

The excavator was still there. I think he was just having fun playing with the dirt. (Anyone need some dirt? I know where you can get a good deal on some clean fill!)

What projects are you working on, or have you done recently? I would love to hear your remodel stories!