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June 18, 2007
5 weeks and 1 day
From the beginning of April to the first weekend in May (5 weeks and a day to be exact), my life was spent in our basement. Leah and I decided to blitz the finishing of our basement and get it done as quickly as possible. The idea to do it had originally been part of the plan to purchase the "Green Giant." (see Leah's blog if you're not sure of what I'm talking about) Putting that offer in showed us a few things. We decided we wanted to move forward with finishing our basement and splitting our duplex into two properties so we would be ready to put them on the market at a moment's notice if another opportunity should come around. Also we will be saving quite a bit on our monthly mortgage due to ridding ourselves of our PMI.
Before:
After:
A Few Things Learned During Construction of my Basement
1. I will never do the drywall of any of my own construction again. It took us two weeks to do what could have been done in 2 days
2. When working with sub-constractors (i.e plumber, electrician) always give yourself more time that you think. By God's grace the first time around they all showed up on time, but my electrician would not answer or return my calls at the finish.
3. Don't plan on passing inspections the first time through. I failed both my rough-in and my final the first time through.
4. Good friends that are willing to help are worth their weight in gold.
5. I can plan the next day's work and sleep at the same time. For the first week or so I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about all that needed to get done.
6. The same people work at the same time every day at Lowe's. And Lowe's opens at 6:30 am which allows for material runs before work.
7. The employee discount from my work is a huge blessing.
8. I will never try to do a project of this size in that short of time again. It was a bit too stressful for my liking.
Posted by Jason at 02:17 PM | Comments (4)
June 08, 2007
5 weeks and a day
From the beginning of April to the first weekend in May (5 weeks and a day to be exact), my life was spent in our basement. Leah and I decided to blitz the finishing of our basement and get it done as quickly as possible. The idea to do it had originally been part of the plan to purchase the "Green Giant." (see Leah's blog if you're not sure of what I'm talking about) Putting that offer in showed us a few things. We decided we wanted to move forward with finishing our basement and splitting our duplex into two properties so we would be ready to put them on the market at a moment's notice if another opportunity should come around. Also we will be saving quite a bit on our monthly mortgage due to ridding ourselves of our PMI.
Before:
After:
A Few Things Learned During Construction of my Basement
1. I will never do the drywall of any of my own construction again. It took us two weeks to do what could have been done in 2 days
2. When working with sub-constractors (i.e plumber, electrician) always give yourself more time that you think. By God's grace the first time around they all showed up on time, but my electrician would not answer or return my calls at the finish.
3. Don't plan on passing inspections the first time through. I failed both my rough-in and my final the first time through.
4. Good friends that are willing to help are worth their weight in gold.
5. I can plan the next day's work and sleep at the same time. For the first week or so I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about all that needed to get done.
6. The same people work at the same time every day at Lowe's. And Lowe's opens at 6:30 am which allows for material runs before work.
7. The employee discount from my work is a huge blessing.
8. I will never try to do a project of this size in that short of time again. It was a bit too stressful for my liking.
Posted by Jason at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)