Buried Alive!

Okay, so smooth, white, clean walls don't exactly fit with the whole "dungeon" theme, but when you lift one of these sheets overhead to screw it into the ceiling, they're so heavy and awkward that you feel like someone's trying to bury you alive! So it is sort of dungeon-like, right?

For those of you asking how can Spencer work while holding big, heavy objects overhead -- well, I invited my friend John over for the task. He's 6'4" and had plenty of muscle to hold things up while I shimmied them into place and then set them with drywall screws. Two nights of sweat and labor and then the ceiling was 90% finished.

Doors

Mary decided it was time to split the dungeon up into different rooms, so Knox and I brought home five doors from Home Depot and then Mary, Kristin and I put them in their places. I was concerned that closing off the different rooms might make the whole basement feel smaller, but it has had just the opposite effect. Each room feels more complete, and the whole basement now feels like a bunch of different-purpose rooms rather than one large construction project.

Cables, can lights, and switches: Oh my!

I found out about this Home Wiring book on Amazon.com. One of the reviewers claimed that this book taught her everything she needed to know to wire her whole basement.

I was skeptical. But, we had priced out a small two-room job to local contractors, and they quoted me $100 per recessed light. There had to be a better way...

So, I got the book from the library, read it and re-read it, and then got to work. Two weeks (and lots of trips to Home Depot) later, we had pulled out all the existing wiring in the basement, replaced half a dozen old receptacles, learned to differentiate 15amp and 20 amp circuits and arc fault/ground fault issues, ran 500' of electrical wiring through all the walls and ceiling joists, relocated 3 incandescent lights to our two storage rooms, accidently cut (and then restored) power to the exterior lights in front of the house, installed 18 recessed lights, a 4-way switch paired between two 3-way switches (so that the boys can turn on the stairwell lights from their bedroom, the bottom of the stairs or the top of the stairs), two interconnected smoke/CO detectors, 29 receptacles, a bathroom fan, five wall sconces, vanity lighting, new circuits for the bathroom and workshop, and a subpanel to handle the new circuits.

Not surprisingly, I was a bit nervous for our electrical inspection. I had used every electrical know-how I had in wiring this basement. If something (or tons of things, more likely) were not "up to code" how would I know how to fix it? I certainly didn't want to put all this time and sweat into the wiring, only to have to call an electrician to bail me out at the last minute. Alas, my worries were in vain. We passed with flying colors!

And, learning how to do the work myself brought the cost of each recessed light down to...
$5.35!

Above is a small sampling of the electrical gadgets and gizmos that made their home on our dungeon floor over the past few weeks: can lights, cables, sconces, baffle trims, receptacles, wire nuts, etc.
Here's a bowmaking workshop / airplane hanger in progress...20 amp circuit for running drill presses, grinders, etc. All protected against ground fault currents.

Recessed lighting between the studs. Each of the boys hammered in the lights above their future beds.

Here's one of my handymen drilling a hole through the framing for running a new electric cable. Sure, it looks a little scary, but we shut down power to anything we worked with, and none of us were ever shocked.



And, since we didn't have enough room in our 40-year old electric service panel (above), we installed a new subpanel that gives us a few more openings for the basement remodel, and future additions (hint, hint)!!!

Old Desk + Elbow Grease = Sweet Bathroom Vanity

See that old desk stuffed under the stairs? Rather than grant it freedom from the dungeon, we decided to give it a "life sentence" as a new bathroom vanity.


WARNING: Pictures below contain images of desk demolition and reconstruction - may be inappropriate for some viewers.

Shower Time!

Before we started this project, we thought our basement floor was perfectly level. Well, after 40 years of holding up the house, the floor isn't quite what it used to be. So, we put our shower pan on a base of mortar so that we could level it up before installing the walls.

Here, the hot and cold water lines have been plumbed into the mixing valve, and the lever handle is attached. We tested it out and (for some strange reason) we all jumped out of our shoes (almost) when the water shot out of the spout up top!?

Framing Bedrooms and Book Nooks

A collection of framing photos...

Here, a tool called a "plumb bob" helps us transfer a point on the ceiling down the the floor in the exact same place (good for keeping walls straight)

Here's my miter saw that we used to cut all our studs.

The beginnings of the boy's bedroom.

The creepy area under the stairs (thanks to our boys' creative idea) will become a book nook, complete with pillows, a wall sconce and it's own light switch.