lyndale renovation 2015 & 2016
basement, flooring & new upheaval

At the foot of the basement stairs —
What timing! The old washer broke down and, since it is about eighteen years old and at the end of its predicted usefulness,
repair doesn't make sense. The dryer is of the same vintage and now both machines are on their way to the scrap heap.
This new turn of events, on top of project-cost overruns, equals a giant financial pain in the ass.

The basement facing north and west —
I'd planned on heavy cleaning and painting in the basement all along, now those projects are kicked into high gear as I prepare for the arrival of new appliances. Shown here is the scary state of the basement floors and wall. The white paint on the walls is new sealer/primer that I've put down. The white patch on the floor is the half-assed work of someone who had the house before us. I've been living with, and irritated by, this patch for 13 years.

The basement facing north and west —
Here's a pretty nice "after" shot: Cleaned up and freshly painted, scary area becomes far more appealling, and the new washer and dryer have arrived.

The basement facing west —
Here's the last view of the half-assed floor patch.

The basement facing west —
Ahh, far less scary.

The basement facing north and east —
The north wall is getting some love and the floor soon will too. The water-damaged sheetrock by the toilet is on the way out. A new wall will replace it.

The basement facing north and east —
Ahh, far less scary.

The storage area under the basement steps —
I'm having a ball crawling around on my hands and knees, scrubbing, scraping and cleaning.
Even remote and seldom seen areas like this are getting the full treatment

Facing north from the work bench area —
The struggle is certainly worth it; for each brutal day of work, I'm rewarded with dramatic visual improvements.

Out of the basement and up to the bedroom —
We are in a new stage of upheaval. Our little makeshift kitchenette has been decommissioned (flooring and baseboard work is about to begin there).
Now, our only semblence of a working kitchen has moved up to our bedroom. Two lab carts hold our meager appliances and dish racks.
Kitty can't believe that even more disruption has come to his world.

Hang in there Stephane, better days are coming.

Hang in there Val, better days are coming.

The front foyer (formally our makeshift kitchenette) —
This little room did some heavy lifting throughout this project. Now it is about to get a full make over.
Carpet removal, baseboard rebuild, floor refinishing and painting will all be happening here soon.

The front foyer (formally our makeshift kitchenette) —
So long nasty old carpet.

The front foyer (formally our makeshift kitchenette) —
So long nasty old baseboards. Wow, robin's-egg blue paint was hiding under the edge of the carpet.

Another surprise was in the hardwood floor which shows evidence of pipes having passed through. I can't imagine that this room was once bathroom since there is no way to fully close it off for privacy. Was this once a kitchen? Maybe our kitchenette wasn't the first usage of this room for this purpose.

The living room southwest corner —
Old, decommisioned, cold-air returns dotted our floors. These areas were covered with wooden grates and they made it difficult to place furniture in the rooms. They are being removed and in their place new hardwood will be laced in forming a solid floor.

The living room east wall —
Here is an example of the laced hardwood

The living room's new opening, meeting the kitchen —
Here's the ultimate example of our floor modification and the reason why we've chossen to refinish all the first floor hardware.

Opening up the wall between the kitchen and dining room created the challenge of meeting two floor styles. We want to avoid an awkward threshold between the floors, instead having them meet with just a slight seam between them. To do this, Edgar and his crew shimmed a ramp that will bring the unlevel old floor up to meet the newly leveled kitchen floor. This meant pulling back old hardwood as shown in this photo.

I searched for reclaimed maple hardwood to fill the gaps but couldn't find what I needed. Had I found old wood, we might have avoided a complete floor refinish. Since we had to use new floor material, refinishing is essential, otherwise there would be a horribly noticable difference between old and new floor boards