Day Eight

We're the only ones on our block with our own personal dumpster. This makes garbage hauling a whole lot easier and cheaper than running to the dump in Burnsville and paying $50+ a load.

Tammy and I went to J. Ring Glass Studios in Mpls this morning and got the rest of the glass for the Tulip lamp we're making. We've taken an interest lately in getting involved in 'warm' glass. Warm glass is a reference to working with a kiln. Dan will be wiring us a special dedicated circuit for a future kiln. We'd like to play around with warm glass some this Winter but we'll have to wait and see if it's in the budget or not.

Now we know why Dan and John like Menards so much more than Home Depot. We stopped by the 'orange' store to look at shower doors and waited and waited and waited for someone to help us. We finally gave up and went to Menards where we were immediately helped and had our order written up within ten minutes of walking in the door. They get first shot at my business in the future.

They roughed in the storage closet and most of the rest of the walls and next week they'll spend working on electrical, plumbing and some insulation...I think I got that right. The week after next should see the dry wall up and ready for inspection.

Tim stopped by and we gave him the grand tour. You've got to use your imagination at this point but he got a good idea of our plans.

Where we go to church at Hosanna they did a very cool thing where before carpet went down on the new addition's floor, people came in and wrote Bible verses on the concrete. If you were to lift up the carpet you'd find the floor covered in scripture written with magic marker. Tammy had the idea to do the same thing with our basement. We didn't just use the floor though as we've got verses and notes written all over the walls and studds too. Who knows by who but someday our messages will be read again. In the mean time I like the idea that our basement is enveloped in scripture.

Day Seven

The walls continue to be roughed in. Today they worked around the area of the bar and window. One thing that I've noticed about Dan and John is that they take a lot of pride in their work. There are many shortcuts they could take but they choose to put in the extra effort to do it right knowing that most people probably wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. They also went out and bought the rest of the lumber needed to finish building the walls.

Chance, the guy working on the heating ducts also came by tonight and ran the necessary ducts. That was a noisy job. He was a little short on materials so he'll be back tomorrow to finish. Here's a little bit of what he did.

I went to BestBuy and bought the surround sound for the project. I was able to spend a few minutes talking with Brent before he had to go to a manager's meeting. He told me there was a good chance that he's about to be promoted to a higher management position by this weekend. He's looking real good and it was obvious when I first saw him that he's been working out.

I bought the same Klipshe Quintette system we have upstairs. It works fine there and I know it will be just fine for the basement. One upgrade I made was buying Monster cables for the project. I've always thought that sort of thing was overrated but I went ahead and did it anyway. Brent thought it was money well spent too.

Tammy spent today making Halloween costumes for Allie and Toby...they're going to be little clowns whether they like it or not...I don't think they're going to like it. I have to work Halloween night so I'll have to miss the fun but I'm sure they'll be a hit with the kids if we can get them to keep the outfits on. They're so cute.

Day Six

They worked on roughing in the walls for the sauna and bathroom today as well as reconstructing the bottom of the stairway leading into the basement. That had to be torn apart so they could install the laminated beams. It's going to really start moving now Dan was saying so we need to get moving too on all the little details such as fixtures and wall sconces and the placement of outlets and switches. I think we're looking at hanging drywall in a couple weeks.

Here's a copy of the floor plan to give you an idea of where we're going with this. The only thing left out are Keith's cabinets and entertainment center and the bar extending at an angle off of the kitchenette.

Dan was mentioning last night that it would be a good idea to run a cable for a future tv to the bar. I hadn't really thought about that as I didn't see a need for one but the more I thought about it the more I think it's a good idea. I mentioned it to Keith and he said he'd already suggested that to me. I've been preoccupied lately so it doesn't surprise me that it went in one ear and out the other. For that matter, the same thing happened with Keith's suggestion of a bar. I approached him later saying I thought we'd like a bar and he said he'd already suggested that to me but I didn't seem to want to do it. I do vaguely remember that conversation. I dunno...maybe I'm not riding enough with this colder weather and my head is elsewhere. :)

Day Five

The jacks were removed today and the main floor settled nicely on the laminiated beams. There was some concern yesterday that they may have to use some shims to fill in some spaces between the floor joists and the beam because the main floor had settle unevenly over the pole which used to be there. No shims were needed and so far we've noticed no cracks in the drywall on the main level.

The other job of the day was to create a half wall out of the fully studded wall which separates the halfs of the basement. Tammy had the idea to make it a half wall so the bumper pool table could be positioined closer to it and pool cues could be extened through the opening without having to worry about bumping up against a wall. Plus, I think it will look nicer this way. We're going to arch the opening in the half wall as well as the walkway opening to the left of it.

Tomorrow should see some changes as they begin roughing in the walls.

Dan's heating and air conditioning man, Chance, came by tonight to size up the job and decide how to route everything. One thing we also decided to add is an air exchanger. I've always wanted to add one to help reduce the amount of moisture on our windows in the winter. I'm sure it's got other added benefits too.

Day Four

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got home today but it certainly wasn't to see the laminated beams in place. Dan and John don't fool around. When I got home they already had two of the three beams in position and were in the process of getting them lined up by taking measurements from the wall to the beam at a few different places.They're letting the main level above relax into place over the next day by releasing the jacks slowly.

Our basement sort of reminds me of a military recruit where the drill sergent breaks the recruit down before building him up. Our basement is in the breaking down stage at this point but progress is deffinitely being made. The laminated beams are in place...the plumbing for the shower and sauna is in place and the sump basket is also in place.

Toby and Allie were good and stayed out of their way the whole day without the gate being set up. When I got home I had to put it up because they wanted to follow me downstairs. Of course Allie can slip through the railings while Toby watches wishing he were a little skinnier.

We've got to make sure we stay ahead of the construction on our end by having our selections for fixtures and all the other assorted things picked out and ready to go. I continue to be awed as I watch the job progress. I'd starve if I had to do construction like this for a living.