Stairway to Heav.....err Basement

With the weather continuing to be pretty nice, the concrete guys have started to pour the footers and walls of the basement stairs. If the weather was anything like it was at this time last year we would have never been able to do any of this.  We extended the landing at the bottom of the stairs because we will have a deck that goes over it so we need to ensure it extends past the future deck. 

Pouring Footer

New Footer

Building Walls of Basement Stairway

Pouring Concrete

New Basement Stair Walls. We'll be replacing the existing door with a new wider door.

"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"......Well our basement has!

One of the major things we wanted to do prior to even thinking about finishing our basement was to waterproof. We consistently get water in our basement every time it rains and we knew we needed to address that before even thinking about renovating our basement later down the road. Since we were already going to be excavating for the mudroom footers, we decided to just continue with the excavation and waterproof the back side of the house now while the yard is still ruined. (Front side of the house will get waterproofed when we re-do the front porch, Phase 4).

In addition to excavating the mudroom area and the back of the house, we are also excavating the basement stairs and rebuilding them so that they will fit under the new deck. 
The weather has been pretty mild for December, so we've been able to keep moving along.

Old Exterior Basement Staircase - We are removing this and building new

Basement Stairs Removed

Excavated the side of the house

Gas lines exposed

Backside of the house excavated

Some have been asking us if we expected such a big renovation. The answer is Yes and No. We've always expected a big job, but I think this was the point that I realized this was so much bigger then I thought. BUT it should be worth it in the end. We're NEVER MOVING!!!! Unless someone gives me the right offer ; )

We're BACK IN BUSINESS....Mudroom BE GONE!!!

So after two weeks, we are back in business. We worked directly with the inspector to have the stop work order removed and this guy was the nicest guy ever!!! Yes you are reading that correctly, this inspector was extremely helpful, easy to work with, and the reason the stop work order was removed so quickly.

Now that we have all of the correct permits, we are ready to move full steam ahead. First order of business, taking down the mud room off the back of our house.  The mudroom needs to be removed because it was built directly on top of the ground, without footers, so it's sinking. The floor from the kitchen to the mudroom was super uneven because of this. Removing the mudroom will allow us to excavate for new basement stairs, waterproof the back side of the house and ultimately build a new bigger, badder mudroom. 

Before - With Mudroom

After - Without Mudroom - oh and some windows removed too :) Andddd no grass :(