Satisfaction

In the fall, I embarked on a project to turn my basement into a livable apartment.   It's something I had been thinking about ever since I moved to this house -- I constantly felt nagged by the fact that my huge, spacious basement was serving as little more than a storage area for a few boxes, and a free range zone for my cat.  

Of course I could have turned my basement into a speakeasy, as I did for one night in early days of the year 2010 (caution, loud):



but I decided it was better to go with something practical instead.    I estimated it would take about two months to get this project done, but it ended up taking six months after various things I hadn't really thought about, such as the intricacy of moving pipes around that were too low, and waiting for multiple DC inspectors at various stages in the project, were factored in.

The kitchen came from Ikea -- and despite a false start, once I got the hang of this it was easy to design, order, have delivered, and assemble, and amazingly inexpensive for what seems like pretty good quality.

The most important thing of all, I had a good contractor, and a good architect, and despite the extra time required it all turned out OK and within budget.