The Extra Room

This summer's big house project involves the renovation of our basement. Its a space that's never had a clear purpose. Too small to be a true extra living area but too big to be unused, we've often kicked around the idea of turning it into a recreation room. This summer, it's happening. Work began last week to mitigate the occasional water problems. Starting tomorrow, the contractor will put the walls up.

photo of the common wall where a drain pipe was being buried. 

Water mitigation in the utility area of our basement. 

After the drain pipe had been covered.

After cement work in utility area was completed. 

There might be some decisions we come to regret. For instance, we decided not to dig down which will inconvenience our future 6' friends. We also decided against re-making the back portion of the basement, which could benefit from a more attractive entrance way.

The goal, however, is to make this a place for the kids, and to do so while they're still kids. I'm coming to appreciate the preciously short time where they still want to play with toys in their home. I think it's more likely we'll look back on this project and say we did it a year or two too late.