What a January

During the month of January we started and completed a thorough remodel of our basement. With the help of one of Mark's contractor friends and through some really late nights, we got it finished by the deadline, Jan. 30th. We remodeled the basement to create a basement apartment, and Mark's brother Jake and his wife and son are renting from us now, but they needed to move out of their previous apartment by the end of January, hence the deadline.

All in all we demolished four walls, a shower, two ceilings, a closet; ripped up carpet and padding and tore down the stair banister. Then we built six walls, two closets, a kitchen, a bedroom, extended the bathroom, put in a bathtub, installed cabinets, fridge, dishwasher, stove, counter etc. After painting, caulking, tiling, mudding, spackling, priming, trimming, cutting carpet and pads, putting down kitchen floor, cleaning, etc. etc. etc. we finally finished just in time. Oh how glad we are to have it all done. Of course we couldn't have done it without the help of family. Thanks to the Hsiao family for your late nights painting, demolishing, cleaning, and helping us carry in thousands of pounds of sheetrock, the fridge, and everything else.

Sadly I didn't get ANY pictures of the basement before we got to it, but here are a few pictures of construction and finished product. The finished pictures are first so they're a little out of order, but it gives you an idea of what was completed.