Remodeling a basement into a mini-apartment (with tips on how to avoid the ER)

Dustin and Patti Lavallee's project to remake their unfinished, dank basement into a full-on, mini apartment landed Dustin in the ER only three times.

Once he was in a hurry to cut something; twice he didn't use protective goggles.

He imparts these lessons learned with the skill of the middle-school teacher he is: holding his hand up to prove his thumb is still attached; pointing to his eyes, which still work.

The project transformed 800 square feet of, well, not much -- other than a washer and dryer as far from the stairs as possible, some water damage along the side wall, a toilet sort of in the middle of nowhere, and a few windows tucked up next to the ceiling.

The one thing the space had was a ceiling high enough for 6-foot-2 Dustin to clear.

The other thing the space had was two owners with smarts, design savvy, patience and pluck.

"You really have to see what it used to look like," Dustin says, walking down the newly re-coated concrete stairs, explaining that there was one load-bearing wall and an exposed furnace and water heater.

"It was icky," he says.

But not any longer.

In a year of weeknights and weekends, the Lavallees created a basement in their Northeast Portland home worthy of renting out -- something they considered until they fell in love with it too much.

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Remodeling a basement into a mini-apartment (with tips on how to avoid the ER)