Before I get into the story about finishing the basement, I first want to thank a few people, whom without we would have never met the deadline. Jerry Mantle, thank you for all your hard work and countless hours. You really made things happen whether by doing the work yourself or making a number of calls and appointments for us. Lisa Mantle, thank you for helping clean and prepare everyrhing and for always entertaining Greyson while we worked. Buford Perry, thank you for taking care of all the electrical work. From fishing wire to installing the lights you took a big chunk of work off my shoulders. There are several others, too many to mention. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. Without you we would most likely still be trying to get stuff done. Most of all I want to thank Emily and Greyson. Greyson was always there to climb a ladder or drill a hole, surpervised of course. Emily did many things on her own those few months, mostly growing two perfect babies. Thank you both for your patience and udnderstanding during that time. I love you all and am so happy to have you by my side.
blank slate
Emily and I purchased this home back in 2018. We talked about finishing the basement from day one but never got around to it. We had a few quotes over the years but at that point we couldn’t justify the cost. The basement quickly became storage for all the toys and random junk we had accumulated. When we found out we were pregnant with twins, this project became number one priority. the first step was to clear out all our belongings so there was room to work. We donated several items and used a spare bedroom, now the twins room, as storage for the rest. Once the basement had been cleared it was time to get to work. Papaw(Jerry Mantle) and I spent several nights looking at the layout and configuring everything. When we had a general understanding of how things should be we started pricing out the project. Below are a few pictures of the basement before construction began.
construction begins
The first few quotes were extremely high and Emily and I were worried that we would not be able to proceed with the project. Originally we talked about doing the work ourselves. After some serious thought we realized that with our schedules and Greyson’s schedule, nine months was not enough time for us to get everything finished. We both started asking friends and family if they knew of anyone interested in the work. Turns out an old friend that I playe baseball with was in the construction business and was willing to take a look. He stopped by one evening and gave us a very reasonable price for framing the basement. We purchased all the lumber and hardware he needed and he knocked out the framing over a long weekend. During the framing my dad was speaking with an HVAC guy about some issues in his home and talked him into stopping by. He happened to have a friend that was in the drywall business and gave him a call. We got a quote and proceeded to use both the HVAC guy and the drywall guy. While the framing, HVAC and drywall were being completed we were busy working on plumbing, electrical and all the other small things that need done when finishing an unfinished space. My dad took care of all the plumbing which turned out to be quite the task. The original paperwork for the house showed plumbing for a full bath but the shower drain was covered by the slab. We got extremely lucky when my dad called the builders and asked about the drain. He happened to get a lady on the phone who actually sold the house new, and had the original blueprints saved on her computer. She gave him the exact measurements on where to dig, which saved a ton of work. My dad used an air chisel to bust up the area and the drain was located under the slab and down another few inches, buried in gravel. My father-in-law(Buford Perry) and I did all the electric. We mapped out where all the puck lights would be and ran cable to all the new outlets and switches. Me, being the computer geek that I am, had to run ethernet into multiple areas then terminate the run back in a little homemade network closet. Once the drywall was complete, my dad was able to finish the plumbing and Buford came by one morning, while Emily and I worked, to install all the outlets, switches and lights. We hired a painter who had done some work for us previously and while he was painting the walls I painted all the trim and door casing. After the paint was finished it was on to the finishing touches. The pictures below show the progress from unfinished to nearly finished.
just in time
Just in time is an understatement. It was September 14th. Emily and I both took the morning off to schedule the twins c-section. We met with her doctor and had it all worked out for the morning of October 15th. I vividly remember calling my work from the doctor’s office to have some paperwork faxed over. Every person I spoke to asked the same thing, did you have the babies! I had to disapoint them and let them know that we had just scheduled the c-section for mid October and I was just in need of some paperwork. Emily worked from home the rest of that afternoon while I put the finishing touches on the basement. We picked Greyson up from daycare and came home for what we believed to be just another, normal night as a family of three. After dinner Emily was able to get the twins room finished up. She got their clothes organized and put away, their beds made and a couple shelves hung on the wall. It was just before eight that evening when she came out to say it was ready. She then took Greyson to bed while I went down to take pictures of the finalized basement and enjoy the new home theater with some Thursday night football. I may have had a few adult beverages to celebrate finishing the basement with, what I thought to be, an entire month to spare before the twins would come. I got to bed shortly after the game had ended. A few hours later I was awoken by Emily telling me her water had broken. I was half asleep and could not comprehend what was happening. After some scurrying around and panicking, by me mostly, we were ready to head out the door. Funny story, I had been on Emily for weeks to get her hospital bag packed. She had just finished with it a few nights before and was thankful that I was so persistent. Heres the funny part, I did not have a bag packed and was not prepared in the slightest. Guess I should have listened to my own advice. We called Nana(Lisa Mantle) and she made it to our house in record time. We were out the door and to the hospital just before four in the morning on September 15th. Now if you look at the last picture in this section you will see that the screensaver on my laptop is on and displaying the time. It was 9:37pm on September 14th. Only six hours before Emily’s water would break and we would be at the hospital to welcome our new additions. What I had thought would be a month of rest, after working on the basement relentlessly for months, had turned into only a few hours. Nonetheless, we finshed the basement just in time.
