The Batcave Build - Part I

Here are a couple pics from the room as it was before the renovation ... 

Batman looks cool, but not cool enough!

The whole room before.

I decided to use Google Sketch-Up to determine the layout because it gives me the ability to really see what things are going to look like without having to do the work in real life.  What if I got all done and decided I didn't like the layout?  That would not be good.  I say if you have some time to learn it (it doesn't take that long), then use Sketch-Up to plan things out.  Here was my plan:

Notice there is a couch where the closet would normally be in the bedroom.  The plan was to remove the closet, and put a sitting area in that recess!  Although a storage area would be nice in the room, it'd be even nicer to have a place to sit down. 

The first thing I wanted to do to the room was remove that ugly carpet.  It really was not fun to do because the foam mat underneath it was glued to the cement floor.  That means scraping and scraping and scraping to get it off!  After I got tired of doing that, I started in on the drop ceiling.  I've found that while drop ceilings are nice for access and ease of installation, they are also ugly and take away at least 9" of ceiling height.  They are a lot of fun to take down - especially if you aren't trying to save the parts.  Eventually, I got both the carpet and the ceiling removed, which left a lot of trash!



Next, I had to tear out the closet.  "I tell ya what," it's a good thing I have that reciprocating saw!  There ended up being a lot of nails and wood that I just had to saw through to get everything out.  It was easy enough though, and they don't call me "Johnny Destructo" for nothin'.

With the doors and trim off.

Everything removed but the header (and shelf).

At this point, I had to think about how to build up the rock walls.  I had seen videos online of professional companies spraying concrete onto walls and sculpting that out.  However, there is no way that concrete is going on the walls in here.  I decided that I would have to use some sort of skeleton on the walls with a lighter material covering the skeleton.  For the skeleton of the rock walls, I used chicken wire.  I braced the parts that I had coming away from the wall with anything I could find - but found that pieces of cardboard were best.  Light, sturdy, and cheap!  I also ended up using balled up plastic, wood, whatever!

I spent a lot of time Googling and talking with people to see what I could cover the skeleton with.  The best idea I'd heard was to use paper maché.  However, I'd read online that paper maché, if made with flour, can REALLY attract bugs.  So I found some plaster of paris at a craft store and went to work.

Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes I could see that the layers of cheesecloth with the plaster on it were not going to stick to the wire vertically.  So, time to find another plan ...

The Build - Part II is on the way !!!