Let the Games Begin

As I mentioned in our very first post, in order to buy and maintain a house in our ideal neighborhood, we have been renting our basement. The original basement layout was missing several crucial elements that would allow us to rent out the floor as a separate unit, most notably- a kitchen.

Last January we discussed options and got quotes from two contractors. The quotes came back five thousand dollars apart. In addition, the layout and quality outlined in Pablo’s estimate was far superior. The first contractor wouldn’t even entertain our ideal layout because it involved moving our washer and dryer (and associated plumbing). It was an easy choice. We were able to get Pablo’s quote down another $2,500 by completing all painting and flooring ourselves, which brought the budget within reach.

The original basement layout looked like this:

And we had re-imagined the space to look like this:

The plans were complete with plumbing to reroute, walls to remove, and the promise of hidden problems. We braced ourselves for our first renovation.