Week One of the Basement Project

Well, the professionals at HWC Homeworks have been busy in our home this past week.  They have been working in our basement remodeling and transforming the space.  We also decided to add a 1/2 bath, so there is a lot of demolition and roughing in for the new spaces.


First we had to remove some ceiling tiles...

We were pretty surprised to see some of the electrical issues once we removed the tiles...

And we kicked up some dirt and dust...

It is good to own a shop-vac.


More images of the first week of work:

We have lost a stall in our garage for the duration of the project:

The new 1/2 bath will go here:

Here is that same area after some work.  A lot of work...

Lance from Grandville Plumbing is back doing his magic for us once again...

Roper and Jim are back doing their magic, too...

Look for more updates as the project continues.  The transformation is going to be pretty amazing.

The Kitchen

The kitchen is not done, yet, but it is operational. On Friday, Roper Electric hooked up the dishwasher and the disposal. I cannot tell you how great it is to no longer have to do the dishes in a deep sink. Roper Electric still has to work a few finishing touches to some switches. Persnickity Jim still has to grout the backsplash, install the door hardware and a few pieces of trim. Jim hopes to be done on Monday. Later today, we will head out to pick up a few things for the kitchen. Our next assignment after Jim completes his work will be to move the plates, cups, pots & pans from their current locations to a new spot in the kitchen.



Again, the transformation of our old nasty kitchen to what is looks like today is nothing short of amazing.

Simply amazing...

The photos speak for themselves. Each day we come home from work, the kitchen looks even more amazing than the day before.









That is Persnickty Jim in the image to the left installing the tile. On Friday, he will grout the tile. Today Jim put the trim around the breakfast nook. The pictures do not do the work he did justice.










Jim also installed the pocket door:












And Roper installed all of the lights in the ceiling and a few under-counter lights. Amazing.

Day 6: Appliances, windows and more electrical

Today was a day when little appeared to have been done in our kitchen project. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Jim's major task today was to wrap the four kitchen windows with coated aluminum. True to his persnicketiness, Jim was careful and thorough during his work on the windows. He also discovered that the the frame for one of the old windows was not mechanically attached to the house. The window was held in place by the friction generate between the window and the frame. Needless to say, Jim rectified that problem and affixed the window frame to the house. Yep, we are still finding little gremlins left behind by the previous owners.

Back to what else happened today. At 8AM my cell phone rang and it was the delivery truck from the GE Store. They told me that they would arrive in about 20 minutes to deliver our appliances. True to his word, 20 minutes later the GE truck arrived and they offloaded the fridge, range, dishwasher, beverage fridge and microwave. Our garage is slowly filling up with the appliances that will give our kitchen life. Paul the master electrician returned today, along with his son Matt, to do more work in roughing out the electrical fixtures and switches. There are also yards and yards of electrical wire in stuffed into the overhead of our basement, which Paul & Matt have carefully laid out for when they do the finish work in a week or two. I spoke to Paul about a couple of electrical issues and he seemed pleased with how the job is progressing. He said to me, "This is a large project and I do not want to get behind Jim's work."

Of course, Samson had to check things out during the work today. I took personal day today so I could be here for the delivery of the appliances. To be honest, I could have gone into work this afternoon following the delivery, but I was able to catch up on a few projects that I had been meaning to do for a while. Since I was taking today off, we did not take Samson to doggie daycare. In order to keep him out of the builder's way, Samson will spend the day at Whiskers any day during this project when neither Deirdre or I are home. Today, I kept Samson with me, and I put him in his crate the two times I left the house to run errands. Samson happily went into his crate each time I told him to go there, but the puppy treats helped, too! When I was home Samson had free run of the house and he kept out of the way of Jim and Paul, though he wanted to supervise the work going on in the kitchen. It is just a manifestation of one of his primal GSD instincts: standing guard. Jim and Paul were well supervised as you can see from the photo to the left. It is always good to have a GSD keeping watch on your home.

Day 4: Subfloor and Ohm's Law

Today was a major day in the genesis of our new kitchen. Jim finished installing the new subfloor, which is a precursor to laying the new tile, which leads to installing the cabinets... you see where this is going. Here are a few photos from Jim's work today, as well as a sample of the stuff that is starting to accumulate in our garage.















Now, on to Ohm's Law. For you social science majors out there, Ohm's law states that across an electrical circuit, voltage is equal to the product of the resistance and the current. Ohm's Law is in effect when you flip on a light switch or use your iPod.

Today, Ohm's Law was used by our tried and true electrician to start to rough out the new outlets, switches and lights for the kitchen. Paul from Roper Electric was back and his son assisted him in the first day of work for him to remove the old electric outlets and install the new lights and power sources for the kitchen. Paul is a diminutive man, who works quickly and professionally. I managed to make it home a little early from work today, so I was able to go over the plan for the lighting and electrical outlets.

Below are a few photos from Paul's work in our kitchen:















Tomorrow, Jim will return to start work on the drywall. The entropy meter here on Argentina Drive SE is pegged, but each day we are getting closer and closer to our new kitchen.