You know, despite doing this Hive content creator thing for over nine years now, I am still incredibly terrible at taking the right photos of a process. I eat my food before I think of taking a picture and, I start ripping a room apart before I can get a before image. And after having a little bit of inspiration last night, I started pulling apart this tiny room between our basement and the sauna.
The red brick was all covered.
The wall still covered to the left is cinderblock.
This room is the "work" of the previous owners and I was a little unsure as to what I would find, but I decided that I would tear it a new one whilst simultaneously using as much of the existing materials to reformulate the space and make it useable.
As said in the title, one thing leads to another and while I was meant to be putting on the newly painted doors to enclose this room, I had a look at the skankiness of it and decided that without too much effort or cost, I would be able to make something better using what is already in it. I had already stolen a couple of the wooden panels to enclose a gap in the panelling in the stairway to the basement last week and uncovered the brick wall, so I had a little bit of design inspiration and I think I could make it quite nice.
Even though we don't use it.
But maybe we would if it was nicer.
As you can see, wires are hanging on the outside of walls and from the roof and while I can't hide them all, I will be able to neaten them up a lot. In some electricians infinite wisdom, they didn't leave enough cabling to run it around the edge of the room, just enough to stretch it across the ceiling to the various points with a tiny bit of slack. Smart work. I am not going to rewire anything, so it is what it is!
There was a built-in storage box in the corner that looked like a place you might store a dead mother-in-law which I ripped out prior to the photo. However, because part of the floor is missing there, I will build a more practical (less creepy) box back there later, again using some of the panelling.
And the panelling itself will partially remain, as I removed the disgusting wallpapered board where the light switches are (I will reposition them a little) and use the panels to close the gap and then frame the doors above and on each side. This will likely be ended with a wood column that will separate the panelling from the bricks on one side, and the panelling from the (soon to be) painted cinderblock on the other. The panelling will be painted the same colour as the stair well and the doors.
And the ceiling (which is original from 1963) will stay, but I am either going to paint it white, or cover it with ceiling panelling left over from our living area. The only challenge with the ceiling panels is that I don't have a nail gun, so unsure how they will work if I have to hand nail into the seam to hide the holes. I will give it a go though.
This space is more of an afterthought experiment really, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't quite work the way I envisage, which is much like most of the things I imagine and then try to create. I am not a good enough craftsman to meet my imagination. But at least, I am not afraid to get my hands dirty.
There were no spiders in this space.
A bloody miracle!
While I am trying to get out of this as cheaply as possible, that doesn't mean it isn't time consuming. Still, I am still quite enjoying the process of it, though I can kind of feel a bit of dread as the garage stage approaches, because the garage has become a massive mess in the last few weeks and it all needs to be shifted before I can do the floors. And then shifted again as I will only be able to do half the floor at a time....
Time to get cracking!
Taraz
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