A new bedroom

The Crofton rental house was a two bedroom house when we purchased it. To make it more attractive to renters we decided to add a third bedroom in the basement. There are large windows in the basement, two of which were in rough shape and needed replacing, so we decided to locate the bedroom such that it would have one of these new windows as well as an original fixed one on the other wall.

Our initial plans were for a large 16 by 12 foot room with a regular sized closet located so as to hide the cast iron plumbing. This, however, prevented movement around the basement stairs in one direction and obstructed access to the bathroom plumbing. So we opted for a smaller room, with an angled entrance to allow a four foot passage between the door and the stairs and moved the closet to the other side of the room to stay away from the bathroom plumbing.

Starting to frame up the walls

The photo above shows the first wall in place. Note the use of pressure treated lumber to raise the sill off the concrete just in case we experience issues with moisture. The basement perimeter has been completely ground out and filled with hydraulic cement as have all cracks in floor and wall and this, combined with drainage improvements outside, appears to have corrected the slight seepage issues we had initially. The ceiling was made from the existing 1/4 inch plywood that has been taped, plastered, and skip troweled to give a stucco appearance without reducing the ceiling height too much. We installed 4 LED pot lights - which were quite inexpensive (less than $100 for four) and very simple to install in 4.25 inch cutouts as they simple snap into place on spring loaded arms.

Doorway framed and door hung, knee wall in place so we can add electrical outlets and insulate the concrete wall.

Framing complete, insulation in place and closet framed out (on left). Note the angled doorway wall.

Our new tenants plan to put either a large armoire or a desk in the closet nook, so we decided to leave it quite open with an option to put on a door in the future. We also made the closet extra deep at about three feet.

Most of the drywall cutting was fairly simple but there were a few trickier cuts. We used a knife for most cuts and snapped the drywall and cut out the outlet boxes with an oscillating tool.

Rani screws in some drywall

We watched some excellent YouTube videos on dry-walling from Vancouver Carpenter and tried to put into practice what he suggested for tackling corners (inside and outside) as well as flat and butt joints. I made a hawk from plywood and bought 4 inch and 3 inch drywall knives to add to my 6 and 12 inch ones.  This project was the first one that Rani has helped on, after getting out of her quarantine. She has been a great help! 

Mudding the closet

Outside of bedroom with taping underway

Taping and mudding the flat joints.

We had some nice weather so took a break from dry-walling to install the two new windows in the back of the house.

Old window comes out. The window sill was rotted so we put in a new one of pressure treated wood

One new window in place. The blue stuff around the window is a butyl tape that seals the window frame to the underlying sheathing. 

Thermoproof is a local company that makes excellent vinyl windows. The window has been trimmed out with comb-face and sealed again with plenty of caulk.  

Back inside, we finished the plastering and sanding in a few days (3 coats) and then painted. 

Painting with our favorite colour - Burmese Beige, which we also used in the main floor bedrooms

Repainting the yellow trim on the original window. Rani actually did this job - I am just touching up.

After trimming out the windows inside, the next job was to install the floor. We used an underlay that allows for airflow underneath in case of moisture issues and is also waterproof and insulating.

Putting down the vapour barrier underlayment. You can see the cap we have added to the knee wall also in this photo.

We chose a "Canadian Walnut" laminate flooring made in Germany that has lovely colours and looks quite close to real wood due to beveled edges and varied grain and shade.

Flooring laid and window trimmed out

The last step was to install baseboards and a threshold. We also painted the outside of the room in a brighter whitish khaki.

Room finished - note electric baseboard installed.

We don't have a great picture of the room interior, but the above photo should give an idea of how it looks. We are happy with the results and were able to remain within our materials budget, with the exception of a bit more cost for lumber and trim wood than I had estimated. The project took about four weeks to complete.