I love my house, I love being a homeowner. One of the best parts of being a home owner is home improvement projects. Never in my life did I imagine I would think spending an afternoon or evening at home depot would be a fun event. Well, it is! I’ve been talking about next big house project for months. We went back and forth about building a patio in the backyard last year and by the time we got our act together the short window for doing projects like that in Portland (read: non-rainy season aka August and if you’re lucky maybe part of September) had closed in on us. All in all, probably a good thing since we never could decide on exactly where we wanted the patio or the shape, size, etc. Instead we decided to tackle our basement!
Our basement is finished, minus the floor. Since we moved in we basically treated it as storage space and have gone back and forth about what we wanted to do with the space. Ultimately, we decided to turn it into an extra guest space/exercise room/??? The big decision was what to do with the floor. Ideas we considered…leveling the concrete and painting it or tile. We ruled out carpet for several reasons and we never considered wood. What did we decide?
That’s right, tile! Mr. Pi selected a “hopscotch” pattern, which is basically two different sized tiles in a pattern. We convinced my Dad to fly up for a week in January to help out and we started planning out supplies. We made a couple of trips to different places to look at tile and bought a few to test out.
Ultimately we decided to go with tile from Home Depot and Sunday started making the many trips to and from HD to buy supplies. Turns out, one box of tile weighs about 70 lbs, meaning it took a few trips to carry it in our car (due to the weight capacity of our car). We still need to buy the leveling concrete that goes under the tile and some various tools, etc but we’re well on our way to starting this project. (Carrying boxes of tile from the car to the basement is a workout, right?! I definitely felt it in my biceps the next day. I'm calling it "real world strength training.")
Once we get the floor finished we will turn our attention to painting! This is a whole separate project really. After painting we will still need to put finishing touches like an area rug, a futon/pull out couch, shelving(?), artwork (aka race bibs) and probably many more things to finish the space.
I’ll be cataloguing the project as best I can. The goal is to be finished with the floor and painting by March 3rd---this is the day before I am hosting a very important party for a very important friend—AMY’s EPIC BABY SHOWER!
Ready, set, finish the basement!
7 comments:
Home improvement projects are definitely workouts. Also, tiling is fun! (ha ha ha - I say that knowing that due to the chemicals involved, I did no tiling, and was just support staff...and for some of the project, I couldn't even be home.)
I'm so glad that the deadline for the project is me! YAY! :)
I can't wait to see the finished project.
Def. a workout to carry all that tile. I never thought of having to make several trips because of the weight limit of a car.
How exciting! Home projects are always an adventure! AND, carrying heavy boxes of tile is definitely a workout! I can't wait to see the finished product! :)
I'm jelous of your basement. It's hard to find houses in the PNW with them. I love the idea of guest room/exercise. That's exactly what I would have done. And maybe even a little craft section....
Excited to see the finished product. And I love the deadline purpose. I might invite myself :)
no doubt, home improvement projects can be lots of fun. I like laying tile a lot - done floors, countertops, bathrooms, I even own a wetsaw. Have fun! Be sure the floor is absolutely level and stable before you start.
Very cool. And race bib decorations? Are you planning on making it a training cave down there?
Can't wait to see how it turns out! Reason one I cannot do things like this: I didn't even know about car weight capacities. Makes perfect sense, but I would never have considered it.
Post a Comment