Winter Project: Basement Remodel… and Our First Roadblock

To give you a bit of a background, the house has a great foundation (otherwise we wouldn’t have purchased it). When we were looking at homes to purchase Keegan’s main gripe was their foundation issues. While all I could see in my rose colored glasses were new counters, appliances and floors, Keegan couldn’t get past expensive foundation fixes. At that time any old house would have motivated me to buy. Keegan and I were living with our two full grown dogs in a 700 sq. foot apartment and I was antsy for more space. Luckily Keegan explained all the “great” updating these houses had done was just lipstick on a pig. If there were foundation issues, it wasn’t worth the money. I’m relieved we passed on those houses because what we ended up with was meant to be. This farmhouse was obviously built with great care and quality in mind (as it was back in those days. Sigh, I miss it).

However, an old house isn’t an old house without some quirks, right? We started renovations in the basement because that is the only place we could work on at the moment. The floors in the upper levels of the house rose and settled at different rates over the years. Keegan believes this is because the center of the house was built in the old log style (or at least that is what we’ve been told; we haven’t started tearing down the wall finishes yet), and the newer additions were built with newer construction techniques.  This caused dips in the floor that make it seem like you’re three sheets to the wind as you’re walking through the house.  So, we started in the basement so we can jack up the floors on the upper levels as time goes by.

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The first evening of demo Keegan tore down the ceiling tile. The ceiling tile revealed mouse nests, multiple mummified mouse skeletons, and the structure of the upper levels of the home.. A few of the support beams are a little more concerning, as they look weathered and possibly rotted. Keegan will drill them to see if they need to be replaced in the near future or not.

After ceiling tile was removed Keegan began plugging away at the flooring. The tile seemed to pop up pretty easily with a multipurpose tool (little vibrating thingy).  After that he used an adhesive remover called Sentinel 747.  There are other options out there for adhesive removers that probably would have taken less elbow grease, but they were more caustic and we had to worry about fumes.  This product worked pretty well and it was biodegradable so it made cleanup easier. 

He applied a coat and then scraped it off and then applied another coat and used a brush to work out what was left.  Any really stubborn spots he used a wire brush on his drill to remove.  After two applications, he spread out an orange based product to degrease the floor and clean up any residue.  We then used cheap kitty litter to soak up the mess.

Keegan was nearly finished with tile removal this week when we hit our first roadblock. Well, it was more of a sewer block than a roadblock. I came home from work and Keegan was sitting at the dining table with a glass of whiskey in his hand. He asked, “would you like the bad news first, or the worse news?” I opted to hear the bad news: Keegan had lifted the shag carpeting in the basement bathroom only to find even more tile below it, which meant more work. How can it get much worse than that?! But it could. He had to lift the carpeting in the bathroom because when he arrived home from work the toilet and shower had erupted with sewer water. So, it could get worse (my bad). Luckily the sellers of the home had purchased home insurance for us and for a small co-pay a plumber came to fix the blockage. Crisis averted!

We have a lot of work ahead of us, not including all the roadblocks that will undoubtedly pop up along the way. Fortunately for me I have Keegan, who has already shown his creativity in problem solving. Our next mission will be removing the wall finishes and tackling the carpeted bathroom. As long as I keep the whiskey in good supply, our renovations will continue.