Working on the basement . . .

Well, as many of you know we were fortunate enough to find a rental close to the church where Jay serves. It's a cute little 3 bedroom 2 bath ranch house with a full walk-out basement and a gorgeous view of Bismarck. We have been able to unpack the majority of our belongings to make it look and feel like home, but there are still things to be unpacked -- like Cassie's room and the most important school room.

Cassie claimed her sport in the basement and I claimed an area for the school room, but we weren't too sure how we were going to make them happen. Cassie had arranged her furniture and we had purchased one of those portable thingy thing for her to hang her clothes on. Well, we've been here almost two months and poor Cassie is the only one who has not been able to completely unpack her bedroom.

Well, Cassie is excited because the time is approaching that she will get to unpack ALL of her things. Due to some VERY generous individuals, we received some money that is allowing us to finish Cassie's room, the school room, and some other areas in the basement.

Jay's parents arrived Friday, Nov. 6th and the work started on the basement Mon., Nov. 9th. Jay and his dad, Doug, have been working very hard. The priorities included 1. Cassie's room, 2. school room, 3. a pantry, and if time permitted 4. a storage room.


So the work began . . .



Doug showing Jay and Zack how to use the table saw . . .



Together the three of them start on the wall that will divide Cassie's room and the bathroom (which will come at a much later time).







Cassie's room has two exterior walls already and one wall was already framed (part of the support wall of the house) so they only had to put in one wall and a closet. Here Jay and Doug are working on the closet.











The last phase of the closet was putting on the doors. Yeah!! Cassie's room is completely framed.



A new day, and time to for Zack to use the table saw.




Jay did show him how to measure "twice" and cut "once".







Here the back wall of the school room is done!!





Now Jay and his dad are working on the pantry. We need a lot of space for our food, cookware, small appliances, and cake decorating supplies. The kitchen is small with limited space. We are actually using an armoire in the living area as a dry food pantry and then all the overflow is in various places in the basement and in the garage.





Once the pantry was framed, Mackenzie and Zack got to cut the 2x4 to make room for the door.








Showing off their handy work and sitting in the doorway of the pantry.








YEAH!!! We have a pantry and we already moved the spare refrigerator into it. Now to the left of the pantry is going to be a living/great room that will serve as a sitting area with a TV and then that will also serve as the guest area since there is a daybed (w/trundle) that will be used for sitting. Then where you see the air hockey table's leg (bottom right of picture) that is going to be the school room (I'm standing in front of the sliding glass door).





Looking down the hallway - on left is the pantry then the stairs and then the soon to be storage area.





I decided I could help. I removed some existing drywall. So we can drywall the other side which is the classroom and they can run the electric on the other side. I know it sounds confusing, but it really isn't.











Zack & I had a good time working together.





Cassie decided she needed to get in on the action so she could say she helped, too.













This storage area is to the right of the stairs and directly across from Cassie's room. To the right of the storage room is going to be the game area with the air hockey table. Between Cassie's room and the school room is an area that is designated for a bathroom - right now it is storing Cassie's boxes that are patiently waiting to be unpacked.

So, lets add it up . . .

73 - 2x4s for framing, too many screws to count, four doors (two in - two to do tomorrow), several blunt drill bits, two hammers, three drills, one level, one square, one table saw, one jigsaw, one circular saw, and two VERY tired workers and the basement is framed enough for its first inspection. If all goes well with the inspection of the framing, then Jay and his Dad will put up some drywall (one side) and then next week some electrical ran. We're getting closer to having more organized space to make our own!!