Here is where we are at today:
The framing and insulation is all up (that purple stuff is actually 1.5 inch thick foam that is supposed to be just as/if not more effective than regular insulation). I wish I knew the name of it, but I only saw one of the packages a few weeks back and at this point in my life, my memory is pretty much non-existent! But I do remember that the r-value (which is the energy efficiency of the insulation) is about 13-14, which is what is required by code. The inspector didn't love the idea of it when he first came to check out the progress, but our contractor convinced him that it was the best thing since sliced bread, so he gave him the thumbs up to keep going. I guess the reason we went with this material was to maintain as much living space in the basement as possible. If we went with standard depth insulation, it would have taken away another few inches from each wall. I suppose it's not a lot of space when you are looking at numbers, but the contractor insisted that it would make a difference in the finished space. So we will just have to see how it all turns out......
We have also made a lot of progress on electrical and plumbing in the basement. The two photos above are just close-up shots of the pump that we needed to install for the bathroom. On the left, you can see the drainage ditch they had to carve out first. The bottom right leg will be where the sink goes, the bottom left leg is where the toilet will be and the top left is where the shower will drain to. The pump was then installed in the upper right corner of that first photo with the pipes connected to it. Once that was complete, they filled the ditch with some rocks and cement to make it all level again. You can sort of see the floor of the bathroom after the ditch was filled in the right-hand photo. And then the pump is that lovely round black thing with the white pipes coming from it. This type of waste system is supposed to drain all of the water from the sink, toilet and shower and then pump it up into the existing sewage waste pipe that we have running along the wall in the basement. You can see it snaking around the center of the wall in the picture to the left. We had to build a shelf-like wall in the back office to accommodate the pipe (which you can sort of see in the right photo). It's a little inconvenient, but definitely not the end of the world. We will find a way to incorporate it into our design scheme once the walls have all been put up.
And speaking of the walls, that is our next phase. Brian will be working on a few little projects here and there this weekend (building out a shelf in the bathroom to hide the waste pipe and venting the dryer), but the sheetrock guy is coming on Tuesday to get started. I can't wait to see how it shapes up. It's hard to visualize everything with just the framing, so hopefully we will get a good sense of the space once he is done with the sheetrock!
YAY!! Until our next update, hope you are all surviving the last few days of holiday chaos!! I am going to attempt to run out tomorrow for some last minute things......eeek!! Wish me luck!
