We are cooking with gas! A lot happened this week with the Jeffrey Court All-Star Renovation Challenge and the room is finally at a point where I feel like we could actually pull this off before the deadline! I did ALL the painting this week!
If you’re new here, let me catch you up to speed… I have been chosen by Jeffrey Court to participate in a 6 week All-Star design challenge! I am building a vacation rental in my basement. I’ll be completing alongside 7 other designers for a grand prize of $5000
Jeffrey Court All-Star Challenge
It being said, that we might actually pull this off was a bit touchy all week. I’m not going to lie a few tears have been shed. An important sponsorship for wall and ceiling materials fell through due to production delays due to C-19. Which set my budget back about $6000, so we had to shift gears and think of a new plan on a shoestring.
I’m happy to report we devised and mastered a plan (crushed it actually) to do a wall and ceiling treatment to cover up all the nasty basement vibe. We decided to do board and batten to cover the seams in the drywall, and put underlayment on the ceiling nailed directly to the strapping.
However, while doing so something went sideways with a new smoke detector that left us with no power in the basement. Let me tell you, no lights in a windowless room didn’t make for a very well lit workspace for a few days while we waited for an electrician. Despite a few ups and downs, let me show you our progress for this week.
One of the biggest jobs was insulating everything for fire and create a sound barrier. My two small kids sound like a heard of elephants from the basement.
Initially the walls were going to be shiplapped from floor to ceiling so we had patched the drywall from the flooding just willy nilly. Wilson went back over and redid all the drywall and the crack filing. I’m so thankful for his willingness to help compete this project, I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without him, he’s really giving it his all.
My friend Aaron also came to lend a hand (he’s the insulating master btw) I managed to squeak out of those two nasty jobs. The boys started on the ceiling and got as far as they could until the electrician arrived.
Here is where I came in. I trimmed out the board and batten walls. I specifically chose this pattern so we could hide the seams of the drywall behind the battens to lessen the amount of crack filling that needed to be done.
After the underlayment (really thin cheap plywood) was up on the ceiling, we built faux beams from MDF to cover the ceiling. I am SO happy with the transformation. I think its almost better than what I had planned!
Vote for my basement renovation here
Plans for next week:
Let’s hope for less hurdles this coming week! It is all begging to wrap up, I’m a dying with excitement for my project to come together as well as everyone else in the challenge.
Interested what the other contestants are working on? Check out their blogs below:
- Love Create Celebrate
- Woodshop Diaries
- Her Tool Belt
- Eye In The Detail
- Simply Aligned Home
- M+B Home Design
- Newbuild Newlyweds
What have you liked most so far about our Jeffrey Court all star challenge design concept? Let me know in a comment below!
I LOVE your comments