Reading between the lines...

As you may know, most basements have cracks in the cinder blocks that look similar to stair cases due to the house settling or maybe some type of movement underground. No matter how well the floor and walls of a basement are done, they always crack, even with steel rebar and fiber mesh. It's just the nature of concrete as it shrinks while curing, and subsequent loading and movement of the structure. The cracks may not be visible, but they are there. Even without any shrinkage or stress cracks, there is always the cold joint between the floor and foundation that can, as I have seen, allow seepage.
So for the cracks in my basement I was considering how to cover them up. After reading online, there were a few solutions. Using what is called Drylok or Some type of hydraulic cement. I chose to go with the hydraulic cement that I already had left over from my previous large crack i dealt with when I had a horizontal crack across a whole wall. That wall was the one I put up the heavy 2x6s on.
Hopefully this will limit the amount of moisture seeping through the walls. I also have in my basement a sump pump, and a de-humidifier. I may just hook those two up to work together in the storage room, so that the rest of the basement can stay relatively dry. This also will help since I'm not completely finishing the storage room.

Just around the corner...

Sorry for the late post here. Lots of things happened since my last post, including a trip to California.

Last Thursday I was able to get a lot of the framing done. First as you can see in the picture below, I was able to finish off the utility closet, putting in a 30 inch door. Next on my list is to finish the wall to the right of this closet.

Below is another view of the closet, and the wall.

So as you can see at the top of the picture below, I have a large beam that goes across the house. I am still trying to figure out the best way to build a bulkhead around it. But I will get to that later.

So the next picture is where things got interesting. I have now my first casualty in working the basement. What happened was, the hammer drill I was using to drill wholes so that I can put in 3 1/2 inch anchors died on me. It was its time, it served a good 10 years. So we had to resolve to good ol' fashioned cut nails, which you just have to bang and bang through the wood and concrete. Atleast we were closing in on the last wall to put up. Well, as it goes we were bang in a few of these cut nails, and apparently the concrete was so hardened, we broke the cut nail, and the top part of it flew in to the sliding glass door. Luckily its a doubled pained door, and I taped it up, so that the broken pain would not fall in, and if it did, it would be all in one piece.

The picture below shows the taped up sliding door, and the rest of the framing around it. I guess it is as good as a time as any, to buy a new sliding door. Definitely before I drywall this area. :/

Below is closeup of the shatter

So what is next, what do I have left. Well wood wise, I have two bulk heads to complete, as you can see in the next two pictures, one around the poop pipe, and the other around this ventilation shaft and beam. I am also thinking of instead of boxing that pole you see in the next picture, is to either wrap it with a sweet looking rope, or carpet it. Depends on what flooring i get i guess. Also after I get that done, I am hoping to get electricity done this weekend, and start doing the insulation and drywalling done. So much work ahead.

Wood

Last night I was able to get 45 more 2x4s, so I am hoping before I leave to California this weekend, I can get some more work done. Atleast finishing off the utility closet.

Storage Room/Utility closet

So this weekend it rained pretty good, and thought to myself, well, i cant do any work outside, lets see what I can do inside. So I decided to work on the basement.
I got about 2 hours of work done, before I actaully ran out of 2x4s which was a bummer, because I was in the middle of completing a small walk in closet which I will show you pictures of.

First off, I worked on the frame/door way of the storage room. As you remember, I framed up the other half last week, so this week, i wanted to finish this end, so that I have that room mostly complete.



So the above picture is standing next to the washer and dryer, looking at the new wall. I am putting in a 36 inch door there, in case i need to bring anything out or in, like the washer and dryer. Then you can see past it, is the walk out for the basement.

The picture above is where I am looking from the outside in for the storage room. It actually didn't take too long, as I had figured out what mostly to do when working on the previous door way.

The picture above, on the right side, I am building a small walk in closet for the breaker box and the water main. I thought about just building a smaller closet just for the breaker box, and a small box around the water main switch, but if you notice on top, i didn't want to move where the water main pipes were going, so I just built around it.

Here, you can see its incomplete due to lack of wood, and if it weren't raining, i would have gotten more wood, but i didn't want to go anywhere in the down pooring rain.

I think if i get 45 more 2x4s I should be good, and be able to complete the framing of my basement.

What do you all think of that?

This weekend I did not get as much done as I wanted. I did however buy 400 Dollars worth of electrical supplies, such as face plates, switches, 100 ft of wire, recessed lighting kits, stuff for the breaker box and such.

Now I am ready to do more work when I get the time. I am also hoping sometime this week to take another half day off, and frame out another room.

I also need to buy insulation, and tack that up before dry walling the kids room.

Hmmmm.

Getting close

So today, i took a half day off to work on my basement more. Here are some pics of my work.


The above picture is a framing around where the poop pipe comes down, and made a small access panel for the plummer if he should ever need access there
Here I frame out a door to the laundry room.
In the picture above, I was thinking about how to go about this pipe, as said in a previous post, and basically we went with this design, where next I will put a 10" plate, so that i will have a 9.5 inch shelf 4 ft high. Not bad, I think this will come in real handy
So this is the new wall that I put up that included the door way up above, that will split the kids room and the laurdy/storage room. My daughter is so excited when i showed her this room. She started planning on everything she wants to do with this room. Including moving all her toys down here so that she can have a clean room, and she also plans to bring Chloe our little dog and Baby Eizabeth (who's due date is around may 3rd) and play with both of them there.


This has been a really fun project so far. I have done some electrical, but not much here as you have seen in some of the pictures. On Saturday i am hoping to get a lot more in the electrical area, throughout the basement. I am planning in doing a drop ceiling with recessed lighting. It should look pretty good.


Also this room, the play room, I can now start doing the sheet rocking, which will also be an adventure. I dont need to wait much longer for the rest of the basement to get done. YAY