New Orleans Cleanup -or- Our Basement Renovation Project

Our basement is our shame. When we moved in, it was pristine. But we have accumulated lots of stuff down there as time has passed. It is bad. Like really bad. To the point that we started to refer to it as the "9th Ward." I know it's insensitive, but it's pretty accurate.

Seeing the basement of our wonderful neighbors inspired us to clean the basement up and build a playroom for the kids in it. We didn't want to go whole hog because the ceilings are only 6'3" and we are worried that the basement might flood someday.

I won't document the whole thing here, but here are some highlights. We decided to wall in a playroom, creating three rooms in the basement--a playroom, an exercise room, and the storage/tool room. The boiler would be open to the storage room but have access through a door in the playroom.

The footers for the walls are extra tall. There are two pressure-treated 2x4s and one normal 2x4. That means three footers. Again, flood paranoia. I nailed the footers to the cement floor with a powder-actuated nail gun (the cheapest one from Home Depot, about $20). Then I framed it in with 2x4s. We know that with the ceilings being so low that this would never be "legal" square footage, but I tried to build it all to code anyway. Basically the process was to lay down footers, build walls where possible on the ground and then nail them to the footers. Framing in the stairwell walls was somewhat challenging because it required doing some modifications to the existing staircase. Then came drywall, mud and tape, sanding, and primer. We had some masonry work done to reseal the stucco on the lower part of the foundation wall so that cement wouldn't flake off when kids bump into it. We painted the floor with Rustoleum Basement Floor Epoxy paint. And the coup de grace, in my opinion, is the addition of foam tiles from softtiles.com. These are really great. They insulate the floor and really transform it into a play space. You can fall on your elbows or knees with no ill effect.

The biggest disappointment is my experience with the three custom made Jeld-Wen doors from Home Depot. From start to finish, these doors have been a bad experience. Home Depot wasn't able to show me the doors I was ordering. Then when the doors arrived they looked nothing like what the salesperson had described to me. To top it off, the trim I paid for is missing. I can't get the "Millwork Expediter" (named Paul Nelson at the Watertown, Massachusetts Home Depot) to return a phone call or to track them down. Actually, to REALLY top it all off, the screws attaching the door hinges to the frames on two of the doors are stripped out. That is Jeld-Wen's fault. In my work I have occasion to look at operations in many companies. It is really difficult for companies to go this "last mile" in their operations, but this is where the real work is. It is one thing to strategize about this stuff, but the hard work is getting a little process like this one to work well repeatably. It is quite revealing to have an experience like this when I am dressed in my dirty jeans and am a normal customer. I spent about $500 on these doors, which is about 10% of what I have spent at Home Depot in the last five years. I may just start going to Lowe's, even though it is much farther away.

Anyway, we had a sleeping bag family slumber party the first night, and it was comfortable enough to sleep on. There is a bit more to do with baseboard and door trim. The photos below are from about the same vantage point, and show the process of construction.