Stairwell and New Hallway

I went more framing crazy and decided to attack the stairway down to the basement and create a hallway. Before I'd have to wander through the laundry room in order to get to the storage room and utility room.
So, here's what it looked like before.

Doorway to the left goes to the laundry room.

More of a look down to the hallway created.

With finished wall and insulation.

So why would I do such a thing? Well, the wall to the left wasn't load bearing, so that got me thinking. By opening up the stairwell to the basement it'll make it lighter, and more inviting. The laundry room was huge too, so I had room to spare by cutting into it to make the hallway. Here are the rest of the shots showing the transition to the new hallway and wall demolition.

Where the door used to be.

After tearing out the drywall and insulation.

Making a space for the new door to the storage room.

Then the creation of the hallway and ripping out the wall began. Spent a full day moving the electrical, rewiring the lights and plugs for the laundry room and storage room, and adding a ceiling light for the hallway controlled by 3-way switches on either side of the hallway.

Look from the storage room into the hall.

Hallway wiring.

Look into the storage room and laundry room door.

Wall all gone.

Looks a lot more open.

A look from the laundry room.

And another.

A/V Room Done!

Well, I've been religiously layering coats of plaster on the walls to smooth them out, and after a coat of primer and two coats of paint, the walls are all done. I still need to work out the table and shelving for all the a/v gear and install the door, but that's another story. At this point I can at least start to move the wiring from under the stairs to the a/v room, and also finalize all the wiring connections for the room.
So, here's the view through all the steps: drywall, then mudding, then primer, then paint.

Ceiling has a texture too, which you can't really see.

As you can see I went bold with the paint. Thought I made a terrible decision when I was first painting in the edges, but after it was all done, I really dug it. As you can see, was finally able to install my wall sconce as well. Fancies up the room a bit.
And here's a look from the other side looking back at the entrance of the room.

The green stuff is mold resistant... just in case.

And here's a close up of the corning. I used paper backed corner bead which consisted of mudding the edges then pushing in the bead, using the mud to adhere it to each side of the walls. Took some finesse, but overall turned out well. I'm glad I tried it instead of the metal corner bead.

This is before several coats of mud went over the corner bead.

A/V Room Drywall

Small update. I ended up drywalling the A/V room so it's close to getting done. Here's a little before and after display. If I can get it mudded/taped and painted, I can at least finalize all the wiring and build the shelving to house the future A/V gear.

Before...

Definitely looks smaller enclosed.

Misc. Work

Have done a lot of random projects over the past month or so. Forgot to take a bunch of before photos, but here's a mix of what I've done. First off, wall sconces. Decided to install wall sconces for accent lighting instead of some kind of rope lighting around the perimeter. Mostly 'cause I figured it would look classier, and would be a lot easier. Wiring took forever, but I think'll look good all finished.

Had to rip down the drywall to install the light/wiring.

And the other side...

Here's a random other look at the before and after of the sliding glass door at the back of the house. Finally got some plywood to finish the work below the door too. For some reason they never finished it before as that's where the deck stairs were.

Before.

After, almost.

More not terribly exciting stuff - I finished most of the wiring necessary for all the A/V hookups. Here's a look at that running through the walls and the pile of cables it created.

Next! Finishing up the osb installation in the garage. I still have to decide on if I'm going to finish it. I've been thinking of painting and staining each panel a random color. That'll definitely spice up the garage.

The left side before.

And after.

Mostly before.

And after. Those top sections were not fun to lift into place.

And yet more. I fixed up the framing of the door for the utility room, ran the electrical to the room and framed in the wall for the utility room / last bedroom. I had to tie into the power from the first floor. For some reason they only ran a single outlet off one 20 amp breaker in the kitchen, so I drilled a hole up through the basement ceiling into the wall space to tie into it.

The before, a while back. No A/V room installed yet.

Door moved to below the beam. 

Wide view from room.

Wall added to enclose room.

Theater room shelving

I wanted to create some shelving for extra gear that can't really go in the A/V room (stuff like the playstation, etc). So, I figured that building some shelves into the wasted space in the corner of the room that's been built out for the ducting would be perfect. I framed it out so I can eventually slot in a wood cabinet with shelving that will have connections for power and A/V wiring back to the tv and a/v gear.

Before. Wasted space below the ducting.

After. Framed to slot in a cabinet at the bottom.

Better look at the whole thing.

Opening for A/V room

Finally framed in the opening for the A/V room which is accessed from the hallway. After the finish work is done, I'll install a 24" louvered bifold door (this way the room will get ventilation if it gets hot). Already have the door leftover too, so I dig recycling it.

Before - the look from the hallway.

After - doorway created.

Before - inside the A/V room.

After - wiring/lighting installed too.

A look at the two recessed lights and junction box I had to wire in.

Still have to wire the electric outlets and all the a/v wiring for the room, but after that, should be all ready for drywall.

Move of electrical and expanded doorway

One of the major issues of the future theater room downstairs is that the doorway to the space opened against part of the south wall and it was also tiny, only being 30 inches wide. If I was to attempt to get a sofa downstairs it would definitely be interesting getting it through that door. So... what I did was expand the door opening for a standard 32" door, and also move the light switches for both the theater room and stairway so they made more sense and were more accessible.

Before (almost) as I've already cut to relocate the switches.

After - If you look closely you can see the wall has moved.

Wide look of the before.

And after. All the electrical moved and framework done.

Different angle.

My goal is to eventually remove that wall (seen in the last photo) that frames the laundry room and move it back, so I can add a hallway that gains access to the room past the laundry room, and to make the stairwell more open and light.