Hey everybody! It's time for picture vent time courtesy of rchecka!!
Minor Basement Renovations Turned Into So Much More
My family's home is an old farm house that was apparently moved into town years before I moved in. Speaking of Amish, It was a VERY strong when it was built as I can see by the original framing and timbers they used to build it in the 1930s. Apparently the guy who lived there right before I did was an
utter dumbfuck! Every thing they did to make it strong, he undid. He basically fucked up the value of our house, hid it with drywall for a quick sale, and took the money and ran leaving me to undo and fix what he did. All the money I put into these improvements I will not get back because they simply should have been right in the first place.
After finishing my studio a while back, I promised Jen I would do something with the stinky "finished basement" that was installed by dumbass that resides just before my studio. The stinkyness was basically black mold behind 2X2 cheap wall dumbass threw up before leaving. I knew I would find mold removing that joke of a wall, but what I found was so much more (as usual). So as I yanked out the blackened paneling, I exposed giant holes in the foundation along with layers of black mold. The basement window had rotted away completely and had holes in the foundation next to it so what started out as a simple wall replacement became a window replacement next.
After I killed the mold, filled the holes, insulated with basement grade water resistant insulation I kept pulling out rotted wood and the ceiling was rotted smelling too so I started pulling that out next.
Apparently dumbass decided to cut out the floor joist after his drunken measurements were off where the light should go instead of putting the lightbox between the joists.
He had the audacity to wire it with no ground, hidden junctions with no junction box and he drove a nail straight up thru the live wire and left it that way oblivious to the fire hazard. No wonder this house electrocuted me a few years back. I'm lucky to be alive right now cuz of dumbass.
So I started stripping out the faux paneling surounding the support beam.
^Really cool thick as railroad ties old barn beams holding up the first floor.
Instead of watching the Packers lose yesterday I spent my time making the beam that he hid with cheap paneling strong again.
Bought 40 cans of Great Stuff foam it really is great stuff but it's like lava, very unpredictable and easy to overflow.
This stuff is awesome, it expands and creates an air tight seal in every little hole in our girders that rest on the foundation is filled by the stuff. I expect our heating bills to be more manageable this winter.
Even the Duke approves of Great Stuff.
^I put the stuff above my studio door all along the perimeter of my studio where the void once allowed noise and heat to escape now is as tight as a whistle. It literally changed the sound of my room. What was once kind of floppy bass now is very tight bass. I had to retune it a bit to compensate for the drastic sound change after the foam hardened.
Great stuff is cool and everything, but don't get it in your hair. I bent down to pick something off the floor when it was still expanding and it plopped right on my bald spot on my head. Needless to say the bald spot is a bit more bald even after I went into emergency hair saving mode pouring Goo Gone and Orange Extract in my hair and freaking the fuck out. I got most of it but now I gotta deal with a stupid haircut for a while till shit evens out.
Tip: Don't ever bend down to pick up something when Great Stuff is foaming above your head.
So that's how I'm gonna be spending my money and time for the next few months I guess. When I'm not here, I'm probably there cleaning up the mess dumbass left for me. Overall, after all that, I'm still fairly optimistic I can fix it. The room should look great when I'm done, so I'll share pics of the renovation when I'm finished. I plan on stripping the white paint off the beams, sanding them and staining them like my studio beams for that woodsy, rustic look. The window is in already and the walls are slowly being erected. I'll make it a nice little family area for a second TV room\study room. But I'm not stupid enough to run the wiring, I've been zapped once already, so I'll hire an electrician for that, lesson learned.
“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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