Demolition Day

I've been having fun the past thirty six hours intentionally breaking things in my basement. Throw in some beer last night, and a great view of the Pittsburgh fireworks on Bigelow Street in Greenfield, and I have been having some fun.

Our basement is a full size, partially finished basement with four rooms. The following drawing is not to scale and is not that accurate, but it is good enough.



The front two rooms are cold cellars. We use one as a pantry and storage room while the other is where the water and gas come into the house, as well as the tool room and my once and future brewery. I need to do a little painting in there eventually, but the front two rooms are in good shape. The large middle room will eventually be the TV/Family/Video Game/Guest Room/Office. A few small details need to be completed, but this room is in good shape for a while.

The back basement room is where I have been having fun. We have a Pittsburgh Toilet in the top right hand corner on the back wall and a free standing shower stall in the bottom left hand corner on the back wall [represented by the blue squares] The toilet is walled in by 1x4 and spiderwebs, while the shower has not been cleaned since it was installed. I just spent a good two hours figuring out how to cut off the pipes and the drains and now I get to take a crowbar and hammer to have some fun.

The intermediate term goal is just to create some more space in the back room, and keep the washer, dryer, and a basin sink (the big red circles). Right now there are just the two of us in the house, and a single bathroom, so this is not a big problem. However I grew up in a large family and many names were called, eyes blackened, and arms twisted due to the single bathroom we had until I entered third grade. I want to eventually avoid those problems.



We'll patch over one of the doorways, and isolate the heating system with either a false wall or a set of curtains (#2). I'll eventually put in a real set of walls, and learn how to do the plumbing to set up a spartan but full bathroom in the top right hand corner against the back wall. [#1] And then where the shower stall currently stands, we'll throw some shelves and storage space (#3). I figure this is a two or three year plan, so I'll get to enjoy my demolition day today