The Den

The process begins. . .

'Sup, Internet.

So we've been in our house now for like, oh, three years, thereabouts.  In that time, we've made plenty of exterior and interior improvements, but nothing overly structural in nature. . . until now.

Our basement (for those of you unaware) consists of a long, big main room, with three other rooms branching off of it to one side (the kids' room, the Captain's Quarters, and storage room), and two rooms off to the other (the laundry room and crawl space.)  In this large room, we were forced to house a hodge-podge of stuff, and none of it really went with the rest:  a TV area for the girls, my exercise area, and Kris' office.

While this wasn't initially a huge deal to us, the problem became evident as we began to host more and more parties with our circle of friends.  During our larger affairs (Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, most notably), we'd have about 20 - 30 kids running around the basement, and we'd have to get creative in putting away our belongings that were fragile, expensive, dangerous, or any combination of the three.  This meant hanging a bed sheet over Kris' office cubicle, blocking off entrance to the Captain's Quarters with the treadmill, putting the rest of the exercise equipment in the storage room, etc.

I came up with the idea of putting a wall in the basement about a year ago, and in theory this would continue from the existing wall (the one that frames the Captain's Quarters) and bisect the main, long room of the basement.  My plan was to create a fourth bedroom, essentially, as this newly-created space would already contain the code requirements of a.) an egress window, b.) a closet (currently being used as Kris' office space), and c.) existing light switches, vents, and outlets.  This wasn't due to our desire to sell the house, mind you - we're going to be buried in this frickin' house of ours - but rather to increase its value for refinancing purposes whenever opportunities arise.

Morgan let me borrow this huge truck in order to pick up supplies for the wall.

When all this Covid-19 bullshit broke out, Kris and I found that we suddenly had nothing but time on our hands, so we got my step-dad, John, to give us a hand in finally throwing up a wall.  It took him and I two days to build the wall itself, and then about a week to put in the door/door frame, add on all the trim, and layer on multiple coats of wall cement in order to smooth out the surface (because there was lots of time required between coats in order for the layers to dry.)

The end result, as you're about to see below, was the creation of our fourth bedroom, which, for the time being is housing my exercise equipment and Kris' office.  For all intents and purposes, we're all referring to this new room as 'The Den.'

Check it out:

This part took a long, long time - building the frame with 2x4's.  Lots of measuring, cutting, and locking into place.  I don't have the patience for construction work.

With the drywall panels up on one side, I was able to throw up rolls of insulation (wearing long sleeves, obviously - you don't want that shit on your bare skin.)  We could've skipped this step, but I wanted the wall soundproof, in case the kids were blaring the TV and Kris needed to work in a quieter atmosphere.

Double-wielding drills as we throw up the other side of drywall paneling.

Covering all divets and bumps with drywall cement. . .

You can't really tell from this picture, but this new room is a lot bigger than we initially anticipated.  We thought it'd end up being cramped, but after selling the spin bike and removing the old TV stand (I'm going to mount the TV on the wall in this room), there's more than enough space for everything.

The door - which was definitely a bitch to put in right - and the trim, all up and ready to roll.

All that remains now is some paint (Kris' department) and decor and we'll be in business (you can expect pics of the finished product once we wrap it all up.)

- Brian