The basement demo begins

For anyone that has been worried about starting a home improvement project let me say I know where you are coming from. When I moved into my my home my wife and I loved the fact that we had a finished basement but hated the wood paneling.

We discussed attempting to remove it, demolishing it and the old drywall behind it or painting it. Removing the paneling was not going to be an option. It was glued and nailed to the point where any attempt to remove it took paper and sheet rock along with it. We thought we had come up with a novel approach and where going to skim coat over the paneling then paint it. This would prevent the grain and groves from showing through the paint and not require any demolition.

Alas a minor flooding issue pushed our hand. The bottom of the paneling wicked water out of the saturated carpet. This meant that we where going to remove the paneling and drywall and replace the drywall.

We started this last Friday evening. I was amazed at how quickly me, my wife, my two pre-teen boys and a friend of mine where able to remove the majority of the paneling and drywall. There where some areas that required more time (like the stare well) but all in all it was a quick two day project.

One of the advantages of removing all of the drywall is the ability to look at the "bones" of your house. With the wall open I am planning on extending some of the wiring. I also noted some soffits that where built way too big for the ducts they where built to cover. Finally we found that by moving a wall we would gain another 50 square feet or so of "living" space from an over sized laundry room.

I will have pictures posted of the demo soon. So check back when you can.