Well I think I am as far as I can get in the hallway without needing some help from a friend. Was able to get a few more sheets up last night. Have the area all blocked off so taylor cannot get into the utility room or into the main part of the basment. The bottom of the stairs is starting to pull together now. I guess it is back to finishing the speakers jacks. Hopefully that will only take me about 30 minutes to do tonight. I then need to build out the two sofet areas. I believe after that is completed I need to make a decision on what projector I want so I can put in the conduit for the projector, and then I need to run the black pipe for the gas line. I believe I can go around the entire room putting drywall at the bottom of all the walls. I just do not want to put the uppper pieces until I get the ceiling finished and drywalled. So I do have plenty to do by myself if I find the time. I am hoping I can find time on a upcoming weekend to work with a friend to get part of the ceiling drywalled. It is amazing how drywall can transform a place.

Last night I was able to work on the basement for a few hours. Have much of the lower drywall in place, cut and screwed on the wall. I have about 3 more sheets of lower wall drywall to hang tonight and then I can remove all of the dogs stuff so I can move the cage and other peices of wood that I have used as a barrier to keep taylor our dog out of the basement. I will not put any of the upper peices (execpt the one I put up last night since that part of the ceiling is finished) up as of yet. I may need access to that area for a short time and the bigger problem is I am ready to put a full sheet of drywall up right now and can not do that on my own. They are a bit heavy for one person to hold up and screw in. I hope I can clear that area out at the bottom of the stairs tonight and then get that area all drywalled though. I can even do the ceiling in that area I think. Last night I did the most complicated sheets. A few of them needed a few holes in them for plugs and switches. Tonight I will have one on the ceiling that will need a hole cut in it for the light and one on the wall that will need two holes in it, one for a light and one for a outlet. Hope I can do most of that work in about an hour or two.

Last night I finished up all the electrical connections that needed to be changed or removed so I can drywall the hallway. I have all walls ready to finish that area. I hope I can get at least all the lower peices of drywall up in the hallway this evening. I will need some help to get the ceiling finished. I still do not know what I am going to do with the vent in the ceiling. Not sure if I should make it so it can work or just drywall over it. I have not used it since I moved in. What to do, what to do. Once I get all the lower peices of drywall hung I can then just put a peice of wood or something across the door way the french doors will go into and then I will not have to have a special gate or wall up to keep taylor out of the rest of the basement. It will be nice to open that area up again. Might be tonight, only time will tell.

Over the weekend I finally was able to move the two water lines that were in the way of a wall I wanted to put up and also would make it so I would have to build the ceiling down about 1 inch from the rest of the room. I just moved the water lines into an area I will be building a sofet around anyway to cover up an existing heater duct that I cannot move. After I tested the lines and then started the dishwasher and clothes washer just to make sure to run enough water through the line to make sure there was no leaks I then moved on to building the rest of the wall so close off the main room and finish up the hallway. I framed in the opening for the new french door I picked up last week. I also bought the hardware for the three doors we bought. I have the utility room door hung and working. I plan to try to finish up the most of the drywall tonight in the hallway. I need to move one outlet and get it mounted. I then need to perminatly mount the light switches on the wall and I should be ready to finish up the drywall in the hallway. I have decided to add one more light in the hallway. Hopefully I can go pick that up today at lunch. I just need to wire that up and I can finish up the drywall on the last wall that needs to be completed in the hallway. I think I can do most of the drywalling in the hallway myself. The only part I am not sure I can do myself is the ceiling. I have to lift one maybe two full sheets up and get them into place. I might be able to get my lifting jig in there but not sure if it will work or not. I will probably have to get a few more 2x4s to finish off the last two sofets I need to build in the main room. Still a bunch to finish up before I can do the drywalling in the main room but getting very close to being able to start that room. Still want to finish up the office so all I neeed to do is paint it. Just don’t feel like sanding and doing the last set of corners I need to mud still.

I decided to work on getting some of the hallway finished last night. I put up a few small peices of drywall so I could mount one of the new doors. Took me about 2 hours to get drywall on one side of the wall and part of the ceiling and to get the door mounted and working. I was cooking dinner at the same time and played with the dog a bit also. But was pretty easy to get the door up and looking good. I need to get the hardware for the knob and what not but the door looks good at this time. I have it mounted so it will swing into the utility room and it will swing to the left. It looks great. I hope to be able to get most of the wall for the hall finished and maybe even get most of the drywall up and in place for the ceiling and walls in the hall this evening and rest of the week. Tonight it would be nice if I can get the wall built and the speaker jacks finished on that same wall I need to build. Then tomorrow and this weekend I can try to get the drywall all hung and the hallway will be ready to mud.

Well I was able to pick up all three doors for the basement last night. Got a 24 inch door for the bathroom a 32 inch door for the utility room and a 48 inch french door for the main room. I still have to frame in the wall the french door is going to go into. Was waiting to see what type of door I would get. Ended up getting a pre-hung pre-primed glass pained door. Would have like to have bought a 5 foor door instead of a 4 foot door but this will do just fine. Found it on clearance. Nice thing about it is the glass has plastic over it right now so I will be able to paint it and get it all set and then take the plastic off the glass and there will be no scraping to get the paint off the glass. The other two doors are six panel doors just like the doors we have upstairs. Will need to buy two door knob sets for the normal doors and then a set of fake door knobs for the french doors. The door has latches at the top so it just snaps into place no other hardware needed. I hope to get the doors ready for install later this week if time permits. Will not put them in perminatly until the drywall is up and ready to be painted. Will need to move some of the sheets of drywall down about 10 inches so I can build out the rest of the wall for the french door.

Well I have been letting the basement project go lately. Over the weekend I started working on stuff again. I have all the spearker wire run and most of the jacks all ready to go. I do not want to put the covers on the jacks yet(will do that after I get the drywall up). I still have two jacks to put up as soon as I get the wall framed and door in to the main room. I then have one last jack I want to put in for the second sub. Right now the wall I want o put that jack on has about 30 sheets of drywall on it. I will wait until we start to drywall before I finalize that last jack. I have wired for 3 front speakers, 3 back speakers and 2 side speakers. I have also run two more jacks that have a total of 6 wires(4 I will use right now). Those jacks are for my subs. I need to run one last run of conduit for the projector and then all conduit should be finished. I then need to move some water lines that run to the kitchen. Want to run them in a sofet area I will be building to cover up a heater duct. Then that area of the room will be ready to drywall. I have one other area I want to build a sofet that will hide one other heater duct and then I have to decide if I want to insulate the ceiling or not. Last thing I have to do is run the gas line to the area I want to put a gas burning stove at. At that point I will be ready to put drywall up on the ceiling and then the walls. I still have to decided on what I want to put in the bathroom because I will probably have to take down a few studs to get the shower and cabinets in that small room. I have to do that before I drywall the wall there. Hopefully I can get most of the small items taken care of this week and then get the plumbing part done saturday morning. Have to see if I can get a friends, friends gas tester before I start on the gas line. Maybe we can do that saturday sometime. When I say we, I mean me and my friend shawn. He has worked with gas line before so I will feel better if he is helping. Just have to run it about 15 feet. If all goes good I might have everything ready to drywall the ceiling by the end of this week. I really want to get a bit more mud on the walls in the office so I can then put all of the stuff in the basement into that room so the main room is empte execpt for tools and supplies.