Basement Update... we have "walls!"

The framing begins...

Entrance to the new bathroom

 

 Main area- crawlspace access will move, as will all the pipes for water and HVAC.

 Here's a close-up of all those pipes- yes, it'll be a pain to move them, but we can eliminate soffits with the extra effort - and it'll feel less like a "basement" room.

The wall here had to be furred-out to the width of the I-beam, which is part of the soffit-removal effort and also hides the brown metal support pole seen on the left side of the wall if you look carefully). 

Our first plumber was very good but we made a mistake when we decided on our framer *after* the plumber started work.  The framer is awesome and has pushed  get me an extra 4 inches of width to the bathroom and an extra 5 inches of depth, which equates to a wider, more comfortable  shower door- but it also means that all the rough plumbing is getting redone, and now with a new plumber.  Ouch.    Here you see one of the tricks we've played to get the extra space- taking a chunk out of the foundation's footer so we can move the pipes back to the wall (The "old" plumbing shown before it was ripped out).

As we go, we are putting a lot of effort into insulation and air-sealing to make the room warm and comfortable, and energy efficient.