Dude, I got sooo plastered....

After the drywall was done, I started getting quotes on taping all of it. We did an average job of hanging drywall, so an average job of taping would no hide any of our various errors. The price wasn't too bad, but then I would have to prime and paint everything afterwards. We were also getting a quote from a plaster guy about the stairs. Smooth drywall and textured stair wall don't exactly scream "We belong together!", so we wanted to smooth out the stair walls. Just for S&G's I asked him how much to plaster the whole thing. To my amazement, it was about the same price for plaster! The bonus is that there is a square footage of ZERO that I would have to paint! The second super bonus was that plaster would hide our crappy drywall hanging! That sounds like a bucket of WIN to me, so we did it! In my head I was thinking flat plaster, but not smooth. Just a little texture, almost like ice that has been skated on (see how I tie it all together). I think it turned out great. It's a light grey, with a slight blue tint to it.

Nice cans!

It's true, I have nice cans. 11 of them! The recessed (can) lights are up and working. It may look bright, but no, my high beams are not on. Here's a fun math question. How do you put the can lights exactly 6 feet apart so they are all in the center of 2x2 ceiling tiles when the ceiling joists are on 16 in centers? The answer I cam up with was "you can't!". Hopefully once the ceiling tiles are up they are at least evenly off center.

Drywall Smywall...

The drywall is all up!! Take that unwieldy substrate! Overall it really wasn't too bad. Of course, I'm not the one taping it, so I don't have the final judgement. The top photo is the hockey board area with all the drywall up, and the lower photo is the artist rendition of how it will look when finished, if that artist was a drunk 5th grader who has used photoshop for a total 11 minutes. Whatever, good enough for now, and I didn't have to buy him the good beer.

Putting the "hockey" into "hockey basement"

Here is where the replica board is as of now. We still need to put drywall on the front of it. Originally I was thinking too literal on this. I was wanting it to look like boards, so I was trying to figure out how to make metal pieces to hold up the plexiglass. After searching and searching and not finding anything and being perplexed as to how I could fabricate metal pieces, the realization came that it doesn't have to be built to NHL specs. The point of replica boards is that they just have to look like them. We looked at the plexiglass sheets, which are about 1/4 thick. They have a lot of bend to them. The decision was made to make the supports out of wood. The grooves in the wood would hold up the glass, and there will be another groove in the bottom wood for support. The glass can be bent into place and then it will stand up on it's own. On the front of the wood supports I will attach a wider piece of aluminum to complete the look and I think it will turn out well. Then all my crap will be on shelves behind the glass. So don't go throwing body checks into my boards, the glass isn't quite that sturdy. Plus I won't get a 5 minute major for kicking your ass when you do.

Drywall is heavier than it looks

The framing is done, HOORAY!! Next we moved on to drywall. My dad and I have done all the drywall so far. I think we have done a good job. I will keep thinking that until someone comes over to mud and tape it and says "What idiot hung this!?!?". My reply will either be "Shut up and tape it!!" or "I don't know, but he sucks". I'll decide when the moment comes. It's looking much more like walls now which is cool because you can see it coming together.

Can money buy happiness? Yes it can

Sometimes you come across some items that even in your dreams you didn't think of because it seemed to crazy. These are some items I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and was able to get.

My friend Todd has the coolest basement ever. When we visit him and his wife, Jess usually can be found at the bar playing the megatouch machine. It's basically a touch screen with about 100 games on it, including her favorite, photo hunt. I thought it would be cool to have one on our bar someday. Todd was buying a new one, and the guy actually had 2 for sale. He was selling for less than he should've been, and we got an even better deal for both. So now on my workbench is our megatouch machine, just waiting for a bar to sit on.

In high shcool, I think I put enough quarters in a Hat Trick machine to buy one back then. That was one weekend night in high school, going to the mall arcade and playing Hat Trick. It is still a really fun game to play. What better to put in a hockey basement than a hockey arcade game? Imagine my surprise when one popped up on craigslist. The best part was that since it wasn't one of the classics like pac man or donkey kong, it wasn't $600 like those are. $100 later, it's in my basement!

Something every Blues fan wants is some seats from the Old Barn! I had always wanted some, but they are crazy expensive. I just happened to find these on a forum for a great price. I figured if I can redo the basement I can restore some old metal seats. How hard can it be to brush off some rust and repaint them yellow? It was a great find and will not only look cool, but add 3 more seats!

More frames than the optometrist

The basement in my head was awesome. Mostly because it was already built. Funny thing about the real one, you have to build frames for all those structures you want. The lower photo is the frame for the replica hockey board. The most fun part about that was that the floor isn't level, and the back wall bows a bit. Trying to make that front corner level and square was a whole bucket of fun. Turned out pretty good though. Sometimes you can even surprise yourself with what you can do.

The bottom photo is the new wall frame for in between the laundry and main room. We decided to put a bathroom downstairs, so that will go right behind this wall. The bathroom door will be on the left of the wall, and the door to the laundry area will be to the right by the stairs.

On the floor you will notice a frame. That is the base to my new bar! I just happen to come across a website that sells plans to bars. If you are ever thinking about building a bar, I would recommend this site. http://www.barplan.com/
It costs $20 to join, but then you can download the plans to about 30 different shapes and styles of bars. Between that and the forums with tips and photos of other people's projects, it has been well worth the money. I decided to go with the L shaped kegger bar. Instead of the keg, I will use that area for a mini fridge.

Is that wall load bearing?

Did you know some walls keep your house from falling down? I did too, but trying to guess which ones are and aren't is never a good idea. There were 2 walls we tore down, and the one between the main area and laundry area was a question mark. Luckily I didn't just go ripping down walls without checking. The good news is that it was not a load bearing wall. So you can see where it used to be in the photo.

There are two metal poles (load bearing) in the middle of the basement, one of which you can see (framed in wood in the bottom photo). We decided to move the wall by the water heater out about 18 inches to encase the other pole. I also decided to move the door around the corner so there wasn't a door in the wall in the main area. We framed that half wall as a way to make a little separate sitting area that will have a futon in it so it can be used as a sleeping area in the event of family visiting or a neighbor too drunk to walk home.

Turning the ugly duck into my hockey swan

Here is where we began. As you can see, I had already started the demo when I took these. I know what you are thinking, "that is some sweet wallpaper". "Nay NAY!" I say, "That isn't wallpaper!" That is paneling printed to look like wallpaper. All the tackiness with only half the effort! It sure was fun to rip it all down. At this point I was getting excited, I was finally going to build my cool hockey basement! And all the fun little surprises that would ensue....

Slapped in the face by reality

The first two lessons I learned starting this project. 1. I have no idea what I am doing. 2. No matter how cool you want to make something, unless you are super rich, reality will grab you by the throat and tell you to make it a sandwich. Just like living with a wife, projects take compromise. All those cool ideas you have in your head can be made (or some version of it), just be prepared to alter it a few hundred times. I am happy to report that as of now things are still going well and will still be my dream vision, it has just been revised about 10 times. I'm sure it will be revised 10 more times before the project is done.

So here is the overall thought I had going into this. I wanted a big screen tv, and a bar. We have one long wall, and I thought it would be really cool to make that look like a hockey board (how hard could that be?) and put all my collectible stuff behind the glass. Then I could invite people over to get drunk and look at all my cool stuff. I also wanted a bubble hockey table. That was as far as I thought it out. Since then things have been added and subtracted so many times that I lost count.

I also learned that "do whatever you want" means that "you run it by me and I will have final veto power". I have learned that is both a good and bad thing sometimes. Overall, good though! I mean that, too. I'm not just saying that so she doesn't hit me or anything.

A long time ago in a basement far far away.....

Every guy has a vision in his head of what his perfect basement would be. Each vision is different and unique, like a snowflake. Some visions suck like a vacuum, but mine was awesome. The perfect hockey haven! Sitting at the bar having a beer while watching the game on a big TV amongst all sorts of hockey memorabilia and collectibles. What should we do during intermission? How about a game of bubble hockey?

It was a dream that I enjoyed, but never really thought would happen. There are certain phrases that a wife can say that will make her husband very happy, like "can I get you another beer?" or "dare me to go kiss that girl over there?", but on this day the wife chose "we decorated the whole house, so you can do the basement however you want". YES!!! Could this finally happen? I was one step closer.

Then the layoff came. While searching for work, I had picked up some freelance. I soon noticed that freelance work keeps me busy, but no all the time. Not having a job, you feel very lazy just sitting on the couch watching tv, and then it hit me. Why not use my down time to start on my dream project? WIth the help of my father, father in law and neighbor, we usually fit in one day a week of working to make my dream a reality. And so it begins....