Before and After

In a homestead as old as ours you can always expect a minor project to turn a little larger than anticipated. Well at least, this is what you should do.

As always I simplify things to the utmost and hope and pray for the best.

This is what I did in trying to accomplish some minor organization this past week. We decided to pull out some old cabinetry that was not serving it's purpose and instead, maximize the possibilities in the Laundry Area (a.k.a: teeny tiny original basement area, a.k.a: very old). As my business has grown and our storage has decreased in this new (old) house, we need to maximize ANY and all storage areas.

THE PLAN:

-Pull out old cabinetry (that wasn't even attached)

-Repair some minor holes in the existing Sheetrock

-Prime and Paint to freshen the smell and stop any minor stains/wet areas

-Cover the entire basement in a rough treatment of Wainscoting (pre-primed cheap stuff)

This was meant as only a short term fix to freshen the space enough to feel like it could function as a storage space as well as a clean laundry area.

I get it...I'm a bit of a priss when it comes to stuff like this. I'm all about freshening a space and simply making it look a bit nicer. Let's just face it; it feels a bit better as your doing endless loads of laundry, for it to look and smell new-ish and nice-ish!

AAAAANnnnyhow....

This is what we ran into when we pulled out the cabinetry!

This led to some investigation...in which we found the Sheetrock crumbling to mush, 4 inches of mud behind the Sheetrock on the ground and the dreaded.....MOLD!

So, we began pulling out pieces of Sheetrock to see what the damage was. We pulled, and pulled, and pulled...until we gutted the whole place!

And this is what it looks like now!

The entire room is the Original foundation...we're talking approx. a century and a half old here! So it's simply stone and mortar. It was so cool to see it all exposed. We can't leave it this way or I probably would clean it up, paint it and LOVE it.

THE PLAN:

-Re-frame the entire space as most studs are rotted

-Re-wire to accommodate more outlets for new walls

-Re-Sheetrock, tape and sand

Finishing touches are going to be a bit down the road...as we planned to do this is 1-2 days originally. It will now take weeks...possibly months to accomplish it all and a sizable amount of dollars.

Someday I'll learn!