Remodeling the basement..
 

Well a little back ground on house.. i just bought the place 11-30-11 its a 1700sqft house with a full "finished basement" its a 4 bed 2 bath. 2nd bath and 4th bed room are in the basement and neither are usuable. im going to talk to my auditor to see what i have to do to get the 4th bed taken of the house. ( i dont need a 4th bed) i purchased it for less then half of its value the guy i got it from paid 211K in 2008 i got it for 100k (short sale i think he just got a divorce) and the house is on 3.3 acres in the middle of the city..

Ok now lets get down to business.. my plans are (not in any order)
1.insulate/ seal everything up tight
2.redo some wiring (see pic below)
3.make the bath a little bigger and remove bed room
4.structured wiring for the house (cat6 coax phone)
5.redo some plumbing in the 2nd bath
6.redo duct work it leaks everywhere..
and much much more..

and this is only half of the basement.. the other half will get done when this side is done :)








http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...48960935_n.jpg bath is the door on left middle door is just a weird little room and the door on the right is the bedroom

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...65482227_n.jpg
this is looking back at where the first pic was taken. (20 year old furnace on the list of things to replace)

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...04402078_n.jpg
its hard to see but the actually insulated the ceiling in the basement.. the however did not seal up the rim joists or anything..

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...46677587_n.jpg
can o wires anyone??

Sounds like a fun project, and lots of work too.

BTW, your pictures aren't loading.

Hmm do they work now?

pics work fine here.

What's the tube running from the furnace for?

The white one on the floor? That's the drain for the ac coil and the humidifier

wow that's annoyingly placed isn't it.

Are you planning on gutting to the studs and starting over or trying to fix what you have?

yes it will be changed also.. ill try to get some drawings up in the next day or 2 of the current lay out and of the final layout..

Are you planning any insulation or air sealing methods in particular? I am finding that insulating a foundation and air sealing up the basement nets about a %18-25 reduction in energy usage, summer and winter. Not to mention that you can then finish the area and gain a good deal of living space.

I look forward to seeing this play out.

And you might want to check out my basement thread. There's a lot of information there put forth by me and other members.

Good luck!

EDIT: One more thing. I saw you mention running both CAT 6 and phone. No need. Just run two CAT 6 lines. You can plug a phone right into an RJ 45 jack. Then you can use it for data instead when you decide to scrap POTS and go with VOIP or a central cordless system, or both, like I did.

Well S-F its funny that you say i should check your thread out because i already have lol and i plan on doing things similar to yours.. i dont think ill be going the spray foam route probably just the 2 inch foam and the great stuff route on that.

so here is some progress from today..
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...48500142_n.jpg

inside of the bed room
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...63027549_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...11393458_n.jpg


previous owners wiring...
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...63109872_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...88704567_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...09917703_n.jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...13467307_n.jpg

Most of the joists are like this.. i have lots of sealing to do..
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...06838726_n.jpg

So the joists are actually in the foundation? That's really weird. I know people do that to sister up old joists. It's easier to just cut through the rim joist and slide the new floor joist in than it is to try putting one (or one cut in half) over a large support beam. In your case it looks like you don't have a rim joist or a sil plate. I don't understand what's going on there to be honest. Your foam has it's work cut out for it. The only way to escape from the thermal bridging there is to outsulate. And why aren't you going to go the two part foam route? It's cheaper than getting a bunch of cans and it's certainly cheaper and much more effective than using great stuff. That stuff isn't really that great.

Also I recommend that you use either foil faced polyiso or XPS unless your foundation is bone dry all the time, year round, 365, for years and years and so on.

And that wiring! I'm not a strict proponent of following all the electrical or building codes if you don't need to but that's pretty bad. I'd be worried about fire.

Nice progress. Keep us posted.