Basement

that’s an awfully taunt

sailors knot

can you escape it?

prolly not.

try to leave the basement, you’ll get shot

pull out my nine

it goes pop pop

to close the door, i lock the locks

see ya tomorrow

but maybe not

We completed a full basement remodel during 2020. The progress photos with detailed pictures, descriptions, and budget are here: https://imgur.com/a/FG1SswN

Our house is a 1938 end unit semi-detached house in DC with a walk out basement. This basement is approximately 600 square feet. The original basement had 1970s wood paneling, mustard yellow linoleum flooring, and a gigantic bar that took up half the room. Ironically, our previous house had the exact same mustard yellow linoleum floor in the old kitchen. I think this tile is haunting us.

I developed the design and layout. My husband completed a lot of the electrical work (with some assistance from his contractor friend). We hired 3 separate contractors for the remaining work: 1) plumber for the boiler system, 2) plumber for gas, new water lines, and sanitary for bathrooms/wet bar, and 3) framing/tile, remaining work.

We had several requirements in mind for this basement remodel: 1) additional entertainment/TV area, 2) wet bar, 3) full bathroom, 4) laundry and storage, and 5) a suite for friends/family to stay when they visit. We splurged on the bathroom because our only other bathroom in the house is tiny. Seriously, it is maybe 5' by 6'.

If you are looking for a budget renovation, this is not it. Our budget was around $55,000, but we spent just over $64,000. This budget includes every little piece of furniture, bedding, towels, etc. Approximately $22,000 was contractor labor, including demo, boiler installation and boiler piping, additional electrical labor, main water lines, hot water tank, framing, tile, etc. A large chunk of the budget went to creating a wet bar (cabinets, fridge, wine fridge, countertops) for around $6,000. Another large cost was creating a full bathroom (sink and Bankett, toilet, shower and tile products) that came out to about $8,000. There is a full breakdown of the budget in the last picture in the photo album, including where we purchased everything. As mentioned above, we splurged a bit on the bathroom. We had to replace the boiler, electrical, hot water tank, gas line, and all water lines, with materials costing about $20,000. Most items came from Home Depot, but again, a full breakdown is in the album.

This was around 4-month process from gut to end. Overall, we are really happy with how this turned out. Thanks for looking!

Edit: updated to include more details about the budget and expenditures.

Edit 2: Per the mod's message below, here is the direct link to the

Here is the album

A few years ago, my mother started building a house. She had to clear multiple trees, which she always hates to do because she loves trees. She decided that the trees that were cut down, she would have rough sawn and kiln dried. She used that lumber to make the cabinets and some decorative pieces for her new home, but there was a ton of lumber left over.

Last year I renovated my basement and took up all of the carpet. This included the carpet on the basement stairs. I had made the decision to make the treads and risers custom out of the lumber from her lot.

Since this wasn't really purchased the conventional way, and we had 7 or 8 trees done at once, I really don't have a specific price to share. I dont want to take a guess at it because I don't want to lead anyone astray

Very early in the project I learned that this was bot a "cookie cutter" operation. Each stair tread and riser would have to be custom cut for the individual step it would be installed. Since the drywall is not true and square, it created about a +/- 1/8" variation corner to corner of any given piece. I found the widest wall to wall gap i could find on the stairs and then cut the tread boards 1" more than that to give me some excess to shape the boards to the correct dimension

I set the stop block on the miter saw to this dimension and had a day of just cutting and grain matching. Once I found boards that went well together I numbered them as a set to prepare for glue up. For glue up, I biscuit joined every joint to help keep the surface true and reduce the amount of surface rework that would be required (the treads were much wider than my jointer capacity)

I cut a 5 degree chamfer to help keep the joint tight where the tread meets the riser

Once everything was cut to size I put 2 coats of sealer on. I sealed the end grain on both sides that would be contacting drywall to avoid the lumber from wicking moisture from the wall

I installed all of the risers first. The treads would be cut to their final depth based on the riser above and below it. I had to shim out the construction risers so that the furnace would be true and the joint would close up nicely

Once risers were installed, I installed each tread step by step. Back and forth between measuring and cutting until I had a perfect fit. Repeat X 13

I hope this was a clear enough overview! This imgur album has some pictures that may he

EDIT: I have already made it clear today to all of them—that I’m not giving up my kidney.

I previously posted about my MIL making a scene because I said the word “goddamn”, I don’t want to make this any longer than it’s probably about to be, but I guess I’ll link that post here

TLDR FOR PREVIOUS POST: MIL patronized me out of the blue, infront of my son, over saying the word “goddamn” that my fiancé, and his dad literally say every 5 seconds. When confronted, she said some rather offensive things— when I’m (was) in the process of being a live doner for my FIL who needs a kidney. All in all, my fiancé wanted ME to apologize for his sake, because he’s “in the middle”

It’s been a few days since that last “disagreement” happened, and she hasn’t said a word to me besides when I walked past her one morning and she let out a really pissy “excuse me!” To which I didn’t reply to. My fiancé kept telling me to just let it go, or apologize if I wanted the tension to end. I felt as though it was really out of line for her to treat me like that, over a ridiculous double standard, and to say what she said, which sounded so cold and hostile for no reason. I really thought about what people said on my last post, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I felt. I also mentioned to my fiancé that I’m not going to give my KIDNEY to someone who doesn’t even seem fond of me. He retorts back with “wow, so you’re going to let my dad die over some petty argument??” I knew I shouldn’t have even said anything.

I can’t stand tension, and I seriously can’t function if there’s tension. So I decided to address the elephant in the room, seeing as though this clearly isn’t going to end unless I say something, or apologize— which I refuse. I don’t remember exactly verbatim what was said, but this is pretty much what was said:

Me to MIL: I’m sorry, if you thought I was upset with you, or offended you with what I said, but it was just really hurtful, and offensive the way you patronized me infront of sons name over a word that your husband and son say every 5 seconds, and the neighbor thing was also really offensive to me as well

MIL: well I just don’t think that’s a way a mother should talk! You should hold yourself above that!

Me: I’m sorry but I’m not being held to your old school double standards, if I wa

I (19M) moved back with my parents a few weeks ago while I’m waiting to move to a new apartment next month. I have a 7year old brother A.J and we’re really close. He’s happy that I’m staying here again for a bit.

My parents moved into a new house last year that comes with a basement. AJ is scared shitless of it because he thinks there’s a monster there. He won’t even go near the door. Since I been here I notice whenever my brother does something my parents say they’re gonna lock him in the basement (not for real) if he doesn’t behave and that gets him to stop.

Tbh i didn’t think that was fair because AJ was really terrified and actually cry if they even mention doing that. But they kept doing it cause he’d start to behave. He’s not a bad kid btw, just a kid who acts like any other kid sometimes and acts up.

Last week I tried to get him to see there’s nothing scary so he can get over that fear.

I told him if I’m wrong I’ll give him my PS5 (u know because I’d probably die if I was wrong anyways), so he was interested after that.

I went down there by myself first and turned on the lights. When he saw I was okay he slowly went down. Took maybe 10 mins for him to go down the stairs.

He was still really scared but I said it’s okay, nothing was gonna happen and even if there was a monster, my parents wouldn’t have bought the house. Cause then they’d be the ones having to take care of it, clean up all the hairs, pay for the vet if it ever got sick, etc.

That made sense to him I guess lol. We just looked around and then when he was relaxed we watched some videos on my phone down there and ate. He pretty much wasn’t scared anymore and when my parents got home he made them watch him go downstairs by himself.

They didn’t say nothing in front of him but they were pissed when we were alone. Which okay yeah I guess makes sense they can’t use that as punishment but didn’t expect them to be that mad AJ wasn’t scared of something anymore.

My dad said I didn’t have a right to interfere with their parenting and I crossed some line or whatever. Idk if this is something they should really be this mad over and now my mom is being super short with me.

It feels like I did do something wrong now. Like yeah my parents sorta used to be the same with me as a kid. Telling me they’re gonna leave me with that guy over there if I don’t stop crying at the store. So I feel like maybe I did ruin that for them.

But also it didn’t feel right to let AJ keep being scared like t