Home Improvement Thread 2: Electric Redo the Loo

folsom_lives said:
Very nice!

Hoping to get my basement looking like this in the next year. Did you have any can lights installed?
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No cans. For all of the lights we added, it was much easier to get LEDs that fit over a normal electrical box. For the existing, we're planning on replacing them also with the LEDs, but haven't done it yet. They look slick and modern, which I like.

Are you planning on doing it yourself or hiring it out? I'm SO glad we gave up on doing everything ourselves and had the carpet, cabinets, vinyl floors, and countertops done professionally. After mudding and sanding the drywall I didn't want to even think about the basement, so if I were to do it all over again, I'd have that done professionally too.

Also, didn't realize how streaky that bar pole was in the picture. We added another coat of paint on it after!
 
Djxfactor511 said:
No cans. For all of the lights we added, it was much easier to get LEDs that fit over a normal electrical box. For the existing, we're planning on replacing them also with the LEDs, but haven't done it yet. They look slick and modern, which I like.

Are you planning on doing it yourself or hiring it out? I'm SO glad we gave up on doing everything ourselves and had the carpet, cabinets, vinyl floors, and countertops done professionally. After mudding and sanding the drywall I didn't want to even think about the basement, so if I were to do it all over again, I'd have that done professionally too.

Also, didn't realize how streaky that bar pole was in the picture. We added another coat of paint on it after!
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We have decent wood paneling on all the walls except the one that I'll need to build. The paneling will get painted. The tricky part is the ceilings where there aren't many lights and none of the switches seem to control the one's that are there. The carpet is getting replaced and some other minor things like replacing outlets and switches to a white color.

The bar has been removed because of all the water issues and I'm putting in a stud wall to add some more unfinished space for storage. The good news is that there are still water and drain lines that I can use for a utility sink in the unfinished area.

You can see that there is only one real light fixture and the photographer took this photo on super long exposure to get it too look that bright. That square recessed light is gonna be the bugaboo since I have no clue how to pull it out and still save a ton of patch work in the ceiling. At any rate I'm sure we'll need to get an electrician, plumber, and carpet guy.
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folsom_lives said:
We have decent wood paneling on all the walls except the one that I'll need to build. The paneling will get painted. The tricky part is the ceilings where there aren't many lights and none of the switches seem to control the one's that are there. The carpet is getting replaced and some other minor things like replacing outlets and switches to a white color.

The bar has been removed because of all the water issues and I'm putting in a stud wall to add some more unfinished space for storage. The good news is that there are still water and drain lines that I can use for a utility sink in the unfinished area.

You can see that there is only one real light fixture and the photographer took this photo on super long exposure to get it too look that bright. That square recessed light is gonna be the bugaboo since I have no clue how to pull it out and still save a ton of patch work in the ceiling. At any rate I'm sure we'll need to get an electrician, plumber, and carpet guy.
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Gotcha, so your basement already has good bones and just needs some things updated and fixed. That's good I think! I'm lucky my old man is pretty comfortable with basic electrical and we didn't have to fuss with an existing ceiling to get lights where we wanted. We only had to hire out one small job for electrical that my dad wasn't sure about. I'd imagine having lights and a ceiling in place already adds more complexity to it. Also, switches being in bad places/controlling different outlets is one of my biggest pet peeves!

Our basement originally had wood paneling too. Not sure if I posted any pictures of it. Our house's previous owners had a makeshift (read: illegal) animal shelter in it and they used the basement for cats. From what I can tell they let them free roam down there and it smelled pretty bad of cat urine. So we ripped out the panels and spent a good amount of time spray treating the whole area to get rid of the odor. Removing the panels back to the studs was a great start on that front, so I don't regret removing it, but it definitely created a lot more work from the beginning.. Don't think I would have removed them if it weren't for the smell.

We found lots of petrified cat droppings on top of the duct work in the ceiling, which was fun.
 
Djxfactor511 said:
Gotcha, so your basement already has good bones and just needs some things updated and fixed. That's good I think! I'm lucky my old man is pretty comfortable with basic electrical and we didn't have to fuss with an existing ceiling to get lights where we wanted. We only had to hire out one small job for electrical that my dad wasn't sure about. I'd imagine having lights and a ceiling in place already adds more complexity to it. Also, switches being in bad places/controlling different outlets is one of my biggest pet peeves!

Our basement originally had wood paneling too. Not sure if I posted any pictures of it. Our house's previous owners had a makeshift (read: illegal) animal shelter in it and they used the basement for cats. From what I can tell they let them free roam down there and it smelled pretty bad of cat urine. So we ripped out the panels and spent a good amount of time spray treating the whole area to get rid of the odor. Removing the panels back to the studs was a great start on that front, so I don't regret removing it, but it definitely created a lot more work from the beginning.. Don't think I would have removed them if it weren't for the smell.

We found lots of petrified cat droppings on top of the duct work in the ceiling, which was fun.
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🤢

The paneling is actually in really good shape. It would be shame to waste all the money to rip it out just to put drywall in. It's actually a good thing (I think) that I'm converting some of the finished space back to unfinished because the electrician might be able to run the wires from the unfinished space over the ceiling in the finished space. That way we won't have to patch a ton of holes (I hope).

Our house is FULL of switches that are either wired wrong or don't control anything. It's just weird that when I open up the face plate there are clearly wires hooked up to the switches. Just nothing comes on...
 
All of the countertops were supposed to be installed today, but when they measured for the actual bar again today they realized they needed to cut another seam into it so they couldn't finish. But the back bar is in!

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folsom_lives said:
Where are you getting your front door from? I've been trying to shop around since our entryway could use a bit of updating.
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We got it from the same company that is doing the roof. Aluminum company of NC, I think? Anyhow, I can verify that and find the brand name of the door for you. We had a very big catalog we went through. It’s all very expensive!
 
Lee Newman said:
We got it from the same company that is doing the roof. Aluminum company of NC, I think? Anyhow, I can verify that and find the brand name of the door for you. We had a very big catalog we went through. It’s all very expensive!
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We looked at a local company as well. Didn't know if you were going through a big-box retail store. 5 grand for a door seemed like way too much though.
 
folsom_lives said:
We looked at a local company as well. Didn't know if you were going through a big-box retail store. 5 grand for a door seemed like way too much though.
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Our door with sidelights and the work to lift it properly is a lot more than five grand.

All the work I’ve seen from big box retailers is crap. I’ve gotten to the point I can spot it. We looked at doors at Lowe’s and home depot and they were garbage.

the entire project is costing us $38000. The gutters are basically non existent in that. The roof and the door each make up about half.

we were thinking a metal roof, but the shingles we are getting have a fifty year warranty. This cut the roof bill in half so we bought a door.
 
After the first day...
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i guess because it was raining they did it in segments. Front is done and the back is half done with the old shingle still on one quarter. The rest and gutters are gonna get done on Monday. Still waiting to hear when they will come do the door.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Some nice lookin' beer decor
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Thanks!

I haven't moved half of it to the bar yet. I have some old antique beer items from a defunct 1800's Cincinnati brewery that bore my last name (although no proof of relation has been found yet) - Few bottles, an old label I'm getting framed, and an old blueprint I'm also getting framed. Also have an ad print from the brewery blown up and framed to be hung. Also want my "Perfect Guinness Pint Pour certificate" that I got from the brewery in Dublin framed and hung as well. All while trying not to make it cluttered, lol.

Debating if I want to make the back wall all tin signs or no. And I have 100+ bottle cap magnets that I don't have anywhere to put.

I collect too many things.
 
Does anyone know when replacing a shower head if the entire neck and base plate needs to come out? If so, would I need to dig into the wall or is that not advised? @Lee Newman was that you that installed one?

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Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Does anyone know when replacing a shower head if the entire neck and base plate needs to come out? If so, would I need to dig into the wall or is that not advised? @Lee Newman was that you that installed one?

View attachment 29747View attachment 29748
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I put in a very fancy shower head a couple of years ago, but as soon as I have to go into a wall is when I call a plumber. Especially after cracking that rib dicking around with the dishwasher.
 
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