Finish Work
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The ceiling in the "lobby area" is a drop-ceiling made of 2'x2' raised tiles. They look much better than the standard drop-ceiling tile and if they're painted a dark gray and the grid-work is painted the same color, it makes an interesting look. |
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As this is a fun game-room, we chose bold colors - burgundy, green, and beige. They look good against the oak and mahogany. It is a shock, though, to slap that first roller of "red" paint on the wall. What was I thinking? |
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Val applied her painting expertise to the bathroom and stairwell using a rag-roll technique to give it a leather-look. And, yes, that is a urinal. |
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Ron's Dad, Walter, helps put up the bead board in the stairwell. |
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Ron's fastening up a board. |
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An almost completed corner. |
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A completed built-in cabinet and chair-rail. |
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Hanging the upper cabinets for the wet-bar. |
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Valerie putting down the countertop tile. |
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And the tile-in sink. |
With the sheetrock up, we're getting close. It's time for the finish work of painting, trim, and cabinets.
The entire area, although one big space, is broken up into a main section and what's called the "lobby" at the bottom of the stairs. We wanted this lobby area to be unique and set-off from the rest of the basement so instead of just having sheetrock on the walls and ceiling, we used a drop ceiling and oak bead board. Of course this meant much more time and work, but the end result is fantastic.
Two important lessons were learned here...
One. Never, ever paint a ceiling in anything but flat paint. Ron painted the walls and ceiling in a satin (a step above flat, but still not even semi-gloss). The look was good, but you could see every roller start, stop, and direction change on the ceiling. Argh. Do over.
Two. If you order a custom part, like a sink, that takes 7 weeks to arrive, order it 14 weeks in advance of when you need it. Why, because the first one will be defective and will need to be re-ordered. Ours arrived December 1, chipped. We set it in temporarily so we would have a sink for the New Year's Eve party. As of this writing (Feb 13) the replacement has not arrived. The nice people at Eagle Hardware (a.k.a Lowes) gave us a $50 credit but said that our problem was not unexpected from The Kohler Company, maker of the sink. They get defects from them all the time.