The Awesome

I took all the “before” pictures before I got my new camera.  So I think they may be on one of the disposable cameras that I haven’t developed.  I took lots of “during” pictures that I think give a pretty good idea of what the room originally looked like, but all of them are after the room had already begun to be deconstructed.  If I find those original pictures, I will put them up.  Removing the lally column changed the room quite a bit, which you don’t get to see without those pictures.

On the left of this picture is where there was originally a single door.  Also notice the recessed light fixture where the wall and ceiling meet.  The hole in the wall inside the closet is plumbing access.  The pipe is routed along the ceiling and partially hidden under a piece of molding around the second light fixture.  The window is about 30 inches wide.  On the other side of it is another closet like this one.  Those are the shelves that were inside of the closet stacked on the wall.  They ended up being mounted in the other room over.

I took out this portion of the wall to make easy access to the outside entrance.  This made it possible to actually bring furniture and such downstairs.  This is before I finished the other side of the basement.  I can post pictures of that transformation, by request, for anyone who did not see it on Facebook.

This is actually an “after” picture.  You can see where the pipe came out into the ceiling along the groove cut into the drywall.

Here you can see that I routed the pipe behind the wall.  This goes to an outside spigot.  I imagine that the pipe was routed the way it was to prevent it from freezing in the winter.  It still had to be shut off and drained, though.  I put in a shut off valve for it in the other room and had no problems over the winter.

This transformation was also documented on Facebook.  The stairs were of all different widths and rises with as much difference as 1 3/4″ in various stairs from top to bottom.  There was also no nosing on the steps, which were approximately 8 inches deep (9 inches being the minimum for code, with a 1 inch nosing).  Also notice that the wall on the right side is completely open with nothing preventing someone from falling through.

I found that most of the defects of the stairs were due to the previous owner’s cosmetic additions to the older stairs.  Removing the planks made the stairs less wobbly and gave us an increase in tread depth and nose.  The treads rested on those little 1x2s that are attached to the walls.  You can see that notches were cut into the risers to accomodate their sticking out.  That ended up being a hangup for carpet installers.  That and the gaps that had grown between the stairs and the wall, due to the stairs being supported by the wall.

So I tore them out.

And built new ones.  These are supported by three stringers that are supported by a steel-reinforced triple beam on top and the concrete on the bottom.  We could tear out the walls and the stairs would stand.  They are perfectly uniform in rise and run, and exactly to the minimum code requirements.  I could not really do better since there was no additional clearance at the top or bottom to make it less than a 45 degree angle.  You can also see that I have built in the wall on the left side at this time.

When I took the wall to make an opening to the exterior door, I recycled the wall by putting it in front of the old door and firring out a step in the wall.  Here Jeremy installed 2 outlets.  I had just begun to fish wires for speakers.  You can see the first 2 running along the beam and coming out at the bottom of the blue wall.  There were eventually 7 speaker cables, HDMI, RCA, digital audio, and coax cables all running through the walls, saving us an enormous amount of cable clutter.

Also notice the pipe running next to the beam on the ceiling.  This pipe was impossible to conceal in the ceiling.  It supplies hot water to our radiators, heating the house.  The pipe itself heats this room.  You will see that I made a radiator cover for it in the “after” pictures.

I made a few holes in the walls in order to put wall plates for speaker cables and to fish the cables.  In this picture you can also see the makeshift way that the windows were finished.  This was in order to conceal the makeshift way that they were installed.  I unfortunately did not reinstall the windows, but I did finish them a little better.

Milo and SIlas liked the idea of putting holes in walls.  I had let Milo help me by wiggling cables while I tried to find the other end in another hole along the wall.  He and Silas played that game themselves by making holes in the scraps of drywall and using scraps of cable to fish behind it.  They eventually pulverized the scraps of drywall completely.

Jeremy wanted to do the electrical work.   I was too intimidated to do it and wanted it done professionally.  I agreed to allow him to do after we bought a book on the subject.  The single bulb was recessed in the ceiling and provided the only pathetic light for the stairs.  It also made a nice hot spot on the floor above.

You have already seen what the rest of the light fixtures looked like before.  Jeremy replaced them with pot lights that were rated to be recessed in the joist clearance that we have (only 11 inches, I believe).  This picture also shows where the second closet was formerly and a couple more of the boxes that were put in for speakers.

This is the point where we finally stopped taking things apart and started putting them back together.

Silas hid my camera so I don’t have anymore “during” pictures.  Here is the first thing you see of the finished product.

Building the handrail was the very last thing I did before the carpet installation.  I would have liked to document it more.  It turns out that building these is one of the more challenging carpentry projects that there are.  I am most pleased that I can climb on it and try my best to loosen it and it won’t budge.  Thank you “This Old House.”

The window is open.  We have since put in a window ac.  I put in proper drywall around the windows and shelves on the bottom.  The speakers are on the walls and work perfectly with no interference.

Here are the sliding doors leading to the exterior door.  It also leads to plenty of shelving and storage space, eliminating the need for the closets in this room.  In the upper left corner, you can see the radiator cover that I made.  I wanted to paint it white, but Jeremy liked the unfinished metal, so I let him win on that one.

Here is the entertainment system.  We bought the console as our anniversary present to ourselves.  I really liked the idea of wall mounting it so that it could easily be vacuumed under.  Now I would like to wall mount all of my furniture.  Kidding.  Kind of.

And from the other angle.  That’s pretty much all there is to see.  The room is 13.5 feet by 21 feet.  With so much room leftover, we intend to put the weight set in a corner and perhaps a treadmill in the future.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 11:52 am and is filed under In which I talk about boring and mundane things that you can't believe I would take the time or make the effort, Technical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.