My family remodel is DONE! Photojournal. LOTS OF PICTURES.

My family room remodel is DONE! Photojournal. LOTS OF PICTURES.

First of all, BIG WARNING to dial-up users. LOTS of pictures to follow, and well, the whole post is long, so if you have time, go for it

Well, this project has been a long time coming. When my wife and I bought our house last February, we knew one of our first projects would be to remodel the lower family room/den area. The room is a little over 500 sq.ft and includes a 1/2 bath and laundry room with access to one of our main brick patios. The room is approximately 1/2 below grade, and when we purchased the house, the room was split into two rooms with a narrow hallway adjacent to them. The one room was used as an office, while the other was (I think) the "man cave", and had a decent sized wood stove on a slate hearth (I'm willing to bet that room was almost unbearable with the stove running given the small area).

Our plan? Originally it was to simply knock the walls down to open the room into one big family room, and repaint/re-carpet. However, that little "idea" progressed into something MUCH more which ended with project being finalized this very day with the carpet being installed. Granted, even though we started the demo back last April, we stopped working in May to address water issues outside, and never resumed working until Janruary this year. From Janruary on, my dad and I worked a lot of 16+ hour weekends, and many more hours during the week after work. I'm not exagerating when I say this project became my life over this winter (partially why I wasn't posting on here much).

I took pictures of the progress from start to finish, and thought it would be neat to share with you guys, because I've honestly never put so much time into something before, and I'm VERY happy with it all turned out.

Here's how the room looked originally (note these were taken back last April when we were getting ready to start the demo).





The hallway looking toward the end room (the office is on the right) (notice how narrow and restrictive):



Inside the "office" room (this room is gone all together now):



The first order of business was to begin the demo of the existing walls:







I can see through! This is looking from the narrow room into the "office":




First wall down to the studs:



Second wall down to studs:



First wall out:



Looking out of the office toward the mini-room and woodstove (starting to really make a mess)



Carpet comes out (stuff was NASTY):









At this point, we decided to move on to the outside of the house for the summer to do major excavation due to water issues. When we came back to the project this winter, we made the discovery that the exterior walls we left standing had only 3/4" polystyrene for insulation. So, we decided to pull all the drywall off, and frame in new 2x4 walls with R-13 fiberglass batting.


Here's what the exterior walls and their "insulation" looked like (notice no insulation under the sills):








Decided at this point, that I wanted to build a fireplace instead of using the woodstove, so the first step was getting the slate hearth up (nothing a sledge and a cold chisel couldn't solve):

 

Next, we framed our new walls:





Had to make a slight detour in plans when we gutted the back wall of the laundry room to find signs of a long-term leak. We ended up replacing all connectors with PEX, and then framed out this access panel for future quick access:



Insulation is in:





Drywall begins to go in (green-back for lower level):











Next came the molding. LOTS of it. I set up a staining/poly-urethane station in my workshop, and got to work getting it all ready:



Next, we decided to tackle the biggest and most expensive part of the remodel. We decided we wanted to do a gas fireplace with a mountain-stone "surround." To do so, we built the structure around the stove we purchased (Regency Excalibur P90), attached Dura-rock/and a moisture-barrier, then attached wire mesh, followed by a scratch coat of mortar, and then the stone veneers. This process was tedious, but surprisingly it went VERY smooth:

Fireplace in place, with the structure framed up:



Durarock in place with wire mesh attached:





Gas line/electric line run to supply:



Mantle in place (this is a 100yr old chestnut log my dad salvaged from our woodshed at our cabin when we rebuilt it). They actually originated in an old schoolhouse that used to be by the cabin over 100yrs ago. Power washed, and two coats of poly, and it turned out AWESOME!

 

Scratch coat is on, and now the veneers begin to go in place:

Here they are laid out to sort from (5 different colors):







Veneers are done, arch turned out well, and I went ahead and placed the "logs" in:



Copper face is in place (notice the white beam...that is next):



Part of our trim work involved capping the existing load supporting beam running up the middle of the room. We decided to use #2 pine for the caps:





Completed view of the fireplace and the beam running into it:



Closeup of our hearth stone (Tennessee stone):



Long distance shot of the room:



Back of the room looking toward the old "office," with new track lighting in place, new door trim, etc:



New wall sconces (looking toward the office area):



My wife began decorating before the carpet was in:



Finally, the carpet went in today, and here is how is stands:







Forgot to mention, the old tile floor in the laundry room was shattered in spots, so we also replaced that with DuraCeramic flooring. Pain in the put to install, but turned out nice, and shouldn't crack from vibrations. The door will be repainted this summer.



All in all, it was time consuming, and I owe a TON of thanks to my dad. There is NO way this would have been done without him. We both have countless hours in, but we did it all ourselves, and saved a ton of money. We have a room to enjoy now, and hopefully, it will only add value to the home.

A quick overview of what all was done:

-Room gutted do exterior walls.
-New walls framed in, and re-insulated
-Window sills extended and trimmed in Pine
-Support beams capped in #2 Pine
-All NEW electrical (that was fun) with an access panel in the water tank closet
-Re-sheathed/painted the water tank closet (not shown)
-All new door trim (pine)
-New DuraCeramic flooring in Laundry room
-New baseboard heaters on separate 220 circuits.
-Added outlets, sconces, track lighting, and new ceiling lights
-Refurbished the fans (my wife did this)
-Replaced existing wood stove with a stone-veneer gas fireplace
-Removed/replaced carpet
-Built an access panel for laundry room plumping

 

Congrats, beatuiful room and I can tell your proud and excited about it!

 

looks great, walls are sort of empty , need to fill it up with some monster bucks

 

Looks awesome! Cant even imagine how much money you saved by doing it yourself.

 

I have one that will be going on the wall shortly We also have plenty of decorations to go up, they're just not up yet.

Trev, I'm definitely proud of this one. Partially because I never thought it would end:D

Fastbuck, I added the receipts up last night, and although it made me a little queasy, it was well under what I anticipated:D

 

Nice job. Hope you enjoy it.

 

That looks great Matt .

 

Congrats on the completion of the room, looks very nice! The fireplace is awesome

 

That turned out Great!

 

Matt... Um... FREAKIN' AWESOME, man!!! Seriously... that's next to incredible. Really.

Thanks for the pictorial on the fireplace, too; we have almost the exact same look down in the lower level of our house, and I've always wanted to take the wood stove out and put a fireplace INTO the chimney -- but I've always wondered what it would do to the integrity of the support by carving out a fireplace and removing a lot of the bricks that are under two stories with a huge fireplace up on the main level. You may have solved my dilemma, as I'd never thought of your solution before. I LOVE IT!!!

I seriously may be PM'ing you a few times next year if I get a bunch of other stuff done so I can tackle it. I cannot tell you how beautiful your place turned out -- and that fireplace is just incredible!

 

it does look great! it will be a great room to spend some serious time in.

 

Congrats on getting it done, it turned out amazing!

 

Matt, you have some mad skills!!!!!

That looks awesome!

 

Very nice!

I'm jealous.

My basement is barely an improved version of a hole dug in dirt.

 

Very, very nice Matt!!! Your dad and you are talented. Very nicely done!!

 

Wow looks incredible! Great job!

 

Nice room but the paint is ugly dark. LOL

 

Wow! That looks great. I suck at stuff like this. Somehow my home improvements always get derailed by fishing. Want to trade fly fishing for home improvements? :D