11. The Basement

I never did get to tell you about the basement.  Tuesday, when Jake did the inspection, part of that involved looking around below the ground floor, and examining the heating and cooling systems.  As I mentioned, the air compressor unit, rescued mid-burglary, was placed in the basement.  It isn't that old, and I will eventually have it re-installed.  But  even though it's the hottest time of the year right now, I realized when we were there, that the house was really quite comfortable even without A/C.  The central heat and AC has vents into the first floor, but there are no vents into the upstairs bedrooms, so I had already planned to have a portable AC unit in each.  They make some really good ones now that will stand in a corner, and even dehumidify - it's important to be able to sleep comfortably if it's really hot and there's no breeze.  I won't have ugly box units in the windows.  I hate those.

Now heating is another issue.  Sometimes the heating and cooling is one unit - a heat pump.  But this house is equipped with a gas heating unit - a furnace I guess?  It looks a little rusty, but Jake seemed to think all the parts are there.  I am definitely going to have this looked at and if it is in anyway unsafe, I'll have it replaced.  I like the idea of the gas heat - I'm thinking more and more that the heat will be even more important than the AC.  Most people will be visiting during the cooler months anyway, and you have to have something to take the chill out of the house during the winter.  This heater uses the same ductwork as the AC, so nothing into the upstairs.  If heat from the downstairs will adequately work it's way into the bedrooms upstairs, great.  If not I'll have to have a couple of space heaters up there.

I don't think I mentioned before, but the roof, electrical wiring and plumbing have all been replaced in approximately 2004.  All updated and up to code.  One of the bathrooms has also been completely redone.  These are some of the biggest expenses associated with renovating an ancient house, and they are already done for me!  These items alone could easily cost close to what I paid for the entire house.

Jake also informed me that the pilings (the brick columns that you see in the picture below) are also new or newly shored-up, nice and sturdy to hold up the house.  All of the beams look good and there is no sign of rot or insect damage.  Hooray!!




The rest of the basement is filled with crap.  There are leftover cabinets, tile, flooring and other materials from work that was done to the house previously.  There is a boogie board.  There is some ugly furniture.  And God knows what else.  I'm hoping there is some treasure buried back there in the back... up under the front of the house, where nobody has been for years and years. Wouldn't it be fun to find some old coins, or buttons, or some kind of remnants - this house has been here for almost a hundred years, surely there is something interesting buried under there!!



One of the first projects that I will be taking on is the cleaning out of this basement.  It is important because I will need the space for material storage, and a workshop where I can do various projects.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I just can't stand the mess.  I have to sort through all that stuff, throw out whatever I don't want, give some of it away, and hyper-organize the rest.  I'm thinking there are enough cabinets to complete the kitchen remodel that I want to do.  There's a few bags of concrete I can use when setting fence posts.  There is enough laminate flooring leftover to do Jake's whole house (I hope!)  There are some tools, flatware, and lots of odds and ends that will be incorporated into life at Grandview.  So before long, this space will be neat and clean, floor swept and a new door in place.  I could even park my car in there, if I drove a Mini Cooper.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll be posting pictures of the awesome treasure that lurks beneath all that mess!!!