...with tools.
Thanks to the help of family and friends, we're finishing off the "new basement" (or 'the guest wing') this summer. When it grows up, it'll have two bedrooms for the girls, an office, and a play area.
These are our "Les Nessman" walls. Trying to visualize how everything will look when we get the real walls put up. At this point, the girls are already fighting over who gets which room.
Jesse is the brains behind this endeavor. In retrospect, we probably should've had the basement floor dug lower...
Jesse did all the framing. I have a strict policy not to interfere when the structural integrity of the house could potentially be comprimised... Just to be safe, we went on a three-day business trip to make sure I couldn't help with this part. When you mess up in shop class, you just drill a hole in the top and call it a candle holder. When you mess up on the framing, you have to explain to your daughters why they can't have doors on their rooms like other kids do.
A shot of the future office.
The mini-mud room. Just want a place where kids can hang up their coats and come in the basement without freezing everyone else in the basement.
Wiring has begun. This is where I came in. I ran the wires, then Jesse showed me how to wire in the outlets and the light fixtures while he continued working on the framing. There are four plugs in each of the girls' rooms, five outlets in the playroom, four double outlets in the office (I think we have four powerbars running in the office right now), three phone jacks, and I put in two network plugs so we don't have to run network cables around the room.
Gary learns a valuable lesson in wiring... Don't nick the wires or you have to replace them. Apparently, exposed wiring is a fire hazard. Fortunately, it was only about 8 feet of wire, and not the one running all the way back to the panel.
Wiring is done, now to insulate the office. This is more for sound-proofing than for environmental control.
The office from the inside. We're going to line the walls with tar paper before doing the drywall to help further dampen the noise which will be coming in.
I don't want to jinx anything, but I think I'm catching on to the whole electrical wiring thing. We'll see what happens when it comes time to wire in the bathroom fan downstairs...
Thanks to the help of family and friends, we're finishing off the "new basement" (or 'the guest wing') this summer. When it grows up, it'll have two bedrooms for the girls, an office, and a play area.
These are our "Les Nessman" walls. Trying to visualize how everything will look when we get the real walls put up. At this point, the girls are already fighting over who gets which room.
Jesse is the brains behind this endeavor. In retrospect, we probably should've had the basement floor dug lower...
Jesse did all the framing. I have a strict policy not to interfere when the structural integrity of the house could potentially be comprimised... Just to be safe, we went on a three-day business trip to make sure I couldn't help with this part. When you mess up in shop class, you just drill a hole in the top and call it a candle holder. When you mess up on the framing, you have to explain to your daughters why they can't have doors on their rooms like other kids do.
A shot of the future office.
The mini-mud room. Just want a place where kids can hang up their coats and come in the basement without freezing everyone else in the basement.
Wiring has begun. This is where I came in. I ran the wires, then Jesse showed me how to wire in the outlets and the light fixtures while he continued working on the framing. There are four plugs in each of the girls' rooms, five outlets in the playroom, four double outlets in the office (I think we have four powerbars running in the office right now), three phone jacks, and I put in two network plugs so we don't have to run network cables around the room.
Gary learns a valuable lesson in wiring... Don't nick the wires or you have to replace them. Apparently, exposed wiring is a fire hazard. Fortunately, it was only about 8 feet of wire, and not the one running all the way back to the panel.
Wiring is done, now to insulate the office. This is more for sound-proofing than for environmental control.
The office from the inside. We're going to line the walls with tar paper before doing the drywall to help further dampen the noise which will be coming in.I don't want to jinx anything, but I think I'm catching on to the whole electrical wiring thing. We'll see what happens when it comes time to wire in the bathroom fan downstairs...
