Heading into week 16 of our basement reno we had come a long way but still had quite a bit to do before we could get any dry wall up. First up was tackling the new pocket door frame at the bottom of the stairs. It used to be a swing door but I didn’t really like the function of that so we went with a pocket door so it would feel open but we could close it off when we needed to. I had a couple other places I wanted to use pocket doors in the house so this would be the first of many time I’d hear “we can do it, it will just add time to the schedule” when I pitched my design plans. To further complicate things, one of the beams ran above the door, so when we wrapped it in wood it would run into the casing a bit. Just one more thing for my very patient carpenter to plan and work around! Here he is and the beginning of the install and the laser level is all fired up!
We went with a commercial grade pocket door track from Johnson Hardware which is the same hardware we used for our huge bi-fold closet doors so they would operate smoothly. Mace had to build everything about the pocket door frame, it wasn’t something that you could just pop into place like a swing door frame. Lots of measuring and making sure things were level and square because it you don’t, the door might not operate right or even close properly. And once the dry wall is up there is no going back to make small adjustments. Here are a bunch of progress pics that don’t do justice to how much work (more mentally/mathematically so the finished product looks good) this actually was.
Mace was feeling very confident after making sure the hidden frame was square (insert fist bump) and now he just had to install the track.
Also during this week we removed the last piece of paneling from the stair well. Getting the new piece of drywall in was actually very difficult because it was so tight between the stair treads and the wall. The drywall isn’t as flexible or easy to work with as the paneling either. It doesn’t look like it would take that long but it actually took us a couple hours… and a few choice words were said if I remember correctly. That area on the unfinished side is where we just added a playroom/guest room a few months ago. Amazing how quickly you can forget what a space was like before!
We also got the framing in the stair well done so it was ready for drywall and added an outlet. You can see the on the far wall we just used furring strips instead of studs so the drywall would line up with the pieces we just hung along the stairs.
We crossed a few things off the list but there was still plenty to keep us busy! There are so many small details that go into making a great looking finished product and all that credit goes to Mace because he does all the behind the walls/unseen work that really matters.
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