Basement Boogie: Treasure Hunt

We made basement progress last night! It had been a while since we got to go down there ourselves and get our hands dirty, so this little step really had us jazzed. (We've spent the past three weeks or so negotiating with the window dudes and getting a little help from the pros when it came to a pesky shower leak.)

Our next big step was to figure out how everything down there is wired. You see, our old basement had really thin and cheap insulation and of course, we are stepping it up a notch. This means the walls will be thicker and we'll have to bring every outlet and switch an inch or two out so they aren't all sunken into the wall. 

This means we had to map out the wiring, which is pretty tricky when you have a finished ceiling across most of the basement. 

We were on the hunt for junction boxes. Once we found those, we traced which lights and outlets they went to and then determined the breaker they were connected to. We got through 2/3 of the basement just fine.

 In the fireplace room though, we have a finished ceiling and no way of seeing how all the wired connect. We think we might now, but you kinda don't want to be halfway sure about electrical work. So, Hubs is conjuring plans up and will take his questions to the pros and the permit office before we move forward.

 So, yes, it was a baby step. But, it's one baby step closer to being finished! I'm told by our resident basement expert (that's Hubs) that after we get the electrical figured out, we get to do electrical demo (and who doesn't love demo?), vapor barriers, insulation, more vapor barriers, electric rebuilds and then we wait for the window guys (they're thinking they'll install in early February). But then (oh, glorious then!), we drywall. We paint. We floor. We trim. We celebrate. We collapse. We re-emerge into the daylight. We cease being mole people.

Because 2011 is the year Bigger, Better, Best goes underground.