Winter Projects - Indoor

This winter we have taken on a huge remodeling project in our basement. There are three parts to it. The first was in November when we installed a heat pump to supplement our wood stove.

That means if the stove goes out if the temp in the house drops below 55 degrees the heat will kick on so that we don't get up or come home from work to a cold house. So far it hasn't run too much since we have also been working on the second part of our remodel. The insulation of the concrete block walls.

We don't have a moisture problem above the floor at all so we glued 1/2 polystyrene to the walls and then attached furring strips over that so that we could put moisture resistant dry wall on the inside of all that.

We have since had to back off on the amount of wood we are used to putting in the fire. Who knew there was that much cold air seeping through those block walls!

Another part of the second level project is to insulate the upper basement windows. When we built the house originally we believed the standard single pane window would be good enough. With this project we decided to make a change and put some glass blocks in those holes. You can see how deep the window ledge is with all the insulation, furring strip, and drywall inside the block.

We put a piece of marble under the blocks to create a level sill for the blocks and then filled the hole to the top. Light still gets in, cold air stays out.

The other addition is a mud room from the basement door. We added a wall and door to seperate the entrance. This will hopefully be a way to keep the dirty boots and wet coat odor in its own place.

After we got all that done a nice coat of "Pale Vista" paint lightened the whole place up. Next is finishing some interior walls so that we can get the ceiling tiles back up and then the floor needs to be figured out so we can get the furniture where it belongs.

We also need to get the trim around the windows so I can put the curtains back up and get the drywall out of the holes. These lower windows are at the perfect height for the winter sun to come right in under the porch and blind a person - if it isn't raining or snowing anyway.

Part three of the remodel will be putting a bathroom in the basement. The one big 7x40 foot laundry utility storage room is getting split into three pieces - laundry/utility room, bathroom, and storage room.

So that is where our winter project stands now. Later!