We bought our first house!

Story #1

Hi! We’re Mim & Josh, owners of Beams to Basements Contractors and first-time homeowners. Since we started our family business last year, we’ve been so fortunate for the support of our customers, friends, and family. We’ve enjoyed sharing pictures and explaining what makes a top-notch quality finish that you should expect from any general contractor. Now, we invite you into our personal lives as we share stories from renovating our first house.

With Josh’s master carpentry skills, we can add instant value to our first home by renovating it and finishing the basement. And with Mim’s flair for storytelling, we’ll break down the steps of common home renovation projects and general info about how houses work. Plus, we aim to improve our communication and service as a small business based on what we learn from our own experiences as clients. Be prepared for honesty, especially about things that don’t turn out like we planned.

These are the radiant smiles of 2 Coloradans who just bought their first home!

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

We’ll post short stories with pictures and/or videos as we completely remodel our first house. We’ll share details on specific projects, working with contractors, buying during COVID, and endless before and after pictures. Plus, each story will have a brief summary section like Things We Learned, Products We Love, Bang For Our Buck, Contractor Tips, Homeowner Tips, and Specialist Spotlight for the folks we trust enough to work on our own home. Thanks for following our stories of our first remodel as the homeowners and general contractors.

Meet Our House →

OTHER STORIES

It’s great to save money by doing projects yourself, but you may have to pay for the materials, like paints and brushes.

Revealing Hidden Costs of Remodeling

We accounted for the big-ticket items, like countertops and subcontractors, but it also felt like we were always adding things to our rehab budget. Little changes can add up quickly!

IN PROGRESS We covered this countertop with contact paper to match the new combination bathroom/laundry room in the basement.

Reuse As Much As Possible When Remodeling

To protect the environment & our budget, we reused many of the original materials in our first house even though we completely remodeled it.

You don’t need any construction knowledge or even a ladder to notice these warped, wooden shingles and the white patches in the brick.

Homebuyers, Look for These Clues to Potential Costly Repairs

Homebuyers, you don’t need any construction knowledge to spot these clues to potential, costly repairs.

IN PROGRESS Everett installed snap-together, floating engineered hardwood floors on the main level of our new house.

What the Heck are Floating Floors?

Our flooring services are only for snap-together products that can be installed as a floating floor. We explain what that means and why we chose it for our first home.

BEFORE Josh & the home inspector both noticed that the basement floors were attached directly to the concrete slab, instead of being floated.

What the Heck are Floating Walls?

Building codes in Colorado require floating basement walls, but you don’t need magic to make that happen.

AFTER You don’t need to know anything about building to know that this doesn’t look right! The concrete company shouldn’t have filled the window well with dirt and rocks.

Some Things Didn’t Go Smoothly

Even though we regularly work with other contractors on clients’ projects, we still had issues with some of the new-to-us contractors & vendors we used to remodel our first home.

We made LOTS of drawings, lists, and plans to completely remodel our first home.

The Best-Laid Plans…

If you expect your plans to change, you may be able to roll with the design changes without freaking out.

BEFORE When you walked in the front door, these wood-topped pony walls made the entryway feel cramped and the living room feel smaller.

When a Wall Has Got to Go

You don’t have to live with a wall you hate! See what a HUGE improvement we made by removing walls in our main living area.

BEFORE: The stairs came down in the middle of the basement, awkwardly cutting up the space and limiting our layout options for finishing the basement.

Moving the Stairs Maximized Our Space

We knew the first time we saw the house that we wanted to move the stairs, but it took longer to come up with the best new spot for them.

AFTER: Foam insulation fills gaps between the egress window and foundation to keep insects and moisture out, while keeping in heat or air conditioning.

Digging into Egress Windows & Legal Basement Bedrooms

With “Basements” in our company name and window installation as an expertise, we are asked to add egress windows a lot. Let’s dig into what an egress window is and why it matters.