Basement reno: well, well, well

Disclaimer: I'm not the type of blogger who posts about every little thing when it comes to a renovation (really, do you care about every stupid drywall piece we looked at?). I feel that you all (is anyone still here?!) deserve a proper before & after of the major basement projects when that time comes. Also, Mr. FC is doing a lot of the reno along with our wonderful general contractor (read: keeps costs down) on top of his day job, so that might mean periods of silence when it comes to talking about the basement reno. Thanks for understanding and for dropping by so faithfully!

Our Labor Day weekend was all about the basement window wells. My primary concern with our basement renovation is that I don't want the final space to feel like a basement, you know? So this means lots of recessed lighting (to come) and pushing the window wells outward to help eliminate that claustrophobic feeling.

 

It's backbreaking work, digging. I should know because.......well, I watched from the sidelines, but I can practically feel how brutal the digging must have been. If you've ever taken a shovel to dry, rocky, clay-ish Colorado soil, then you know what I mean. It took the two guys Mr. FC hired two days to do the majority of the digging--they were phenomenal.  Along with our general contractor, Mr. FC dug some more, lined the wells with landscape fabric (to keep the weeds & such out), shoveled in load after load of gravel, heaved pressure-treated 6in x6in x 8ft wood pieces into place, and hammered away until his body was numb. It's a good thing we only have two window wells.

I don't usually talk all mushy about Mr. FC.  We're not a mushy, sappy sort of couple.  Though he rarely reads this blog, I just want to give him a shout-out.  He is the architect behind our renovations.  What he doesn't already know, he learns.  His day job is in the corporate world but he doesn't mind doing manual labor and such because sometimes he's cheap.   Without him, we'd still be sitting in a house smelling of dog pee, mice poop, and suspiciously like a meth lab all rolled into one. Bravo, babes, bravo.  I can't think of anyone I'd rather vacuum up mice poop with, seriously.

P.S. Look what I found: a list I made as soon as we were handed the keys to our fixer-upper (circa 2007). Have I ever mentioned that one of the first things we did was swab the walls with a meth lab testing kit for meth residue? (Why we didn't do this before we actually closed on the house is beyond me.)  We just wanted to be absolutely sure, as there were a few weird signs (metallic odor noone could quite place, dodgey-looking previous owner, decrepit house, leftover Bunsen burner). The results were negative.  Awesome.

P.P.S. Just kidding about the Bunsen burner.