One Sixty: More Ups and Downs of Stairs

More Ups and Downs of Stairs

It's going to be a hard winter. Without elaborating too much - I got some really depressing news last week and money is going to be tight. I'm afraid our projects around the house will be even more delayed. First a very unproductive summer and now this.... *sigh*

But we did get some good news too - our basement has been a-oked by the town inspector. What a relief. A project three years in the making - finally and officially done. Hard to believe. And yesterday in celebration, we put the icing on the basement cake so to speak.

Stairs. We built stairs from our living room to the basement. We now have interior access to the basement. Again, what a relief.

Here's Mike destroying our former hall closet under our stairs to the 2nd floor.

And cutting the hole...

You can see where the little tiny harry-potter like closet was under the stairs - now we have to figure out what to do with the hole where the door used to be.

Almost done. We figured out the stair-math using the stair calculator from blocklayer.com - very quick and easy.

Mike figures out the laaast step.

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Great Job! Looks like a LOT of work! I'll be interested in seeing what ya'll do with that hole. Hope things aren't as tight this holiday season as you think it will be!; 6:07 PM
Jennifer said...: Thinking about the hole... wine cabinet? Or glassware storage? Or CD/DVD storage? I'm trying to think of things the size of a door frame to store there, with perhaps shelves or something.

Looks like a lot of work... should be fun!; 9:28 PM
Rebe said...: The hole where the door was over looks the new basement stairs, correct? How about a window? Or glass block? Basement stairs are always so dark and creepy. A window will let in light and keep the stairs from feeling so closed in. You could always frost it if you don't want people to actually look through it. And you can open it when you need to air out the musty basement smell.

And it would just be cool and unique!; 8:21 PM
kitrainia said...: Wow, I never thought of all that. CD/DVD is a good idea because its so shallow - or the window. Thanks guys, once again you've got me thinking in a different direction - I love it!; 9:20 AM