Wasted space

During a recent hot spell, A. brought up something that I've been in denial about for a while - namely, that my workshop may not be the best utilization of the basement space.

The basement has seven and a half foot high ceilings, which have been finished with mortar. As a result, the space remains cool in warm weather and warm in the winter. Further, recent plumbing work revealed that the walls behind the paneling are in reasonably good condition. With a bit of work, the space would be a perfect family room - especially once the ugly paneling is gone.



While the basement bathroom does not have a sink, it would be trivial to move the wall out but a little bit and add a corner sink. I see the sink as going on the wall just to the left of the drain line. Tying it into a vent line might be more work, but this seems like a perfect place to use an AAV. I envision a vintage corner sink fitting the job quite well. I'm not yet sure as to the appropriate material for the walls, though if we could afford it, I'd like to see them covered halfway up with recycled bathroom marble slabs from Buffalo ReUse. The existing doorway - the location of this photo - would be made into a wall and moved back a bit. A new doorway would be framed into the wall on the right in this photograph. The changes to the wall to the right would also involve moving it out a bit, so that the wall would enclose the vent line, if code permits.

My vision du jour for the space is as follows. We'd rip out the carpet, the ugly linoleum underneath, and the paneling on the walls. We'd expand the bathroom slightly as mentioned above. The floor would be either some sort of floating laminate, or, if we could figure out how to make it work without having major moisture issues, a light colored hardwood - perhaps white oak or maple. I also still like the idea of doing something crazy, but that somehow fits in with the house, with Armstrong commercial vinyl flooring.

The two walls framing the doorway seen in first photo are not loadbearing - they could easily be removed to open up the space. I see the television, couch, and chairs going in that area - perhaps with built-in corner bookcases to hold the movies. Toward the center of the room would go the pool table. Perhaps we'd even put a mini-bar in, over in a corner.

Along this line of thought, the style of the space would be Tudor Revival-ish. I see faux beams covering the pipes, with a few extra beams thrown in for visual balance. The walls, I think, would be white, mostly. I'm tempted by the idea of wainscotting, but I worry that it would make the basement too dark.

I'd like to take out the wall separating the stairs from the room and install a salvaged railing - perhaps something like this one.

With all this done, the living room on the first floor could become a more formal space, perhaps even with room for the piano I fantasize about, though neither A. or I know how to play one.

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The problem is how I will fit all the junk from my workshop into the garage. A well designed table saw stand could easily house all of my tools, combined with a basic toolbox that would remain in the house. Even all the lumber could fit, I think. The problem, however, how all of this fits once our children have bicycles and other things they want to keep indoors. A. has made it clear that she will continue to park her car in the garage, so gaining space that way isn't an option. Perhaps by hanging out-of-use things from the ceiling when not in use.

Our First Fire

The day before yesterday, we had our first fire in the fireplace. During the day, I opened the damper and looked up the chimney. Everything looked to be in good order. I cut up some of the horribly warped lumber in my workshop and made a nice fire.

The fireplace draws very well. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it reflects heat out into the room, too. We're now considering a serious firewood purchase. I'm seriously considering slab wood - that is, the parts of a log that are cut off by the sawmill - which presents a much better value than normal split firewood. I've found someone who will deliver 3 bundles of slab wood, 8-12 feet long, which should represent 1.5-2 cords, for $175. The additional advantage of this is that because I will be cutting the wood to length, I can cut it to fit my fireplace, which is wider than average.

Plaster and Fiberboard walls

Not so long ago, I wrote about my walls, which I identified as plaster and lath. I had torn out one of the walls, on the stairs going down to the basement, because they were so badly bowed that the city had written them up as a violation it its point of sale inspection. I assumed that the fiberboard material used for the walls was a replacement, used when part of the tile was ripped out to install the cabinets in the 1950s.

Then, this weekend, I ripped out the ceiling in the shower in the master bath. The bare bulb attached to it in a lovely porcelain fixture was, unfortunately, another code violation that the city said we had to deal with, in favor of a recessed fixture. The ceiling was made from the same fiberboard as the wall on the basement stairs, covered with a thick layer of plaster. It seems that this material was used throughout the house.

While this fiberboard and plaster combination may not be as durable as lath and plaster, it seems to have been good enough, surviving for 80 years in one of the more difficult environments for plaster, the shower stall.



It seems, if you look at the above photograph, that these fiberboard panels were only nailed at the edges. I'm seriously considering the use of a countersink bit and some drywall screws to help even out the panels and make for a smoother wall.

Has anyone ever encountered these walls or know of anyone who has dealt with them? Is there some basic reason why drywall screws shouldn't work to hold them in place? Is there anything else I should know?

Plaster walls aren't supposed to look like this, are they?

Please excuse the awful lighting - it was my attempt to make the issues with the walls more visible.

For the most part, the walls in our house are in good shape. The plaster shows few issues. The only wall that was really bad was the one on the stairs going down to the basement, which appeared to have been re-done previously, and which I have already tackled.

These walls in the living room are the exception. While I'm perfectly comfortable with the occasional plaster bulge, this seems to be quite a bit more than that. Is this the sort of situation where plaster washers should be used? Alternately, would it be acceptable to just do a couple of thin coats of spackle in the valleys of the cracks to even things out?

I ask because A. insists that this needs to be dealt with. I will gladly do so, but I'm trying to figure out what to do. I don't want to replaster the walls, as that is almost certainly beyond my skill set.

Free carpet, barely used!

We will probably (and I say probably because there's always the chance that the floor underneath the carpet is in awful condition) be getting rid of this carpet shortly after we move in. This probably means in the next couple weeks, or, at the most, by the end of the year.

The carpet appears to be relatively new, within the past couple years, and is massive - the living room measures 24 x 14. With the cut-out for the fireplace, you'd still have at least 22 x 14.

The freeness of this correlates to the amount of work that you make me do - the more work I have to do, the less free it will probably be. Additionally, I make no promises right now as to being able to give up the carpet, as I've stated above. Still, I thought it might be easier to say something now than to have to lug the carpet up to the attic to store while we wait for someone to pick it up.