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"  It&amp;#039;s hard to pinpoint the worst part of Danny Tracewski and Courtney Jansen&amp;#039;s pre-renovation basement (1) in Brookhaven, Pa. The rickety bar comes to mind, with its sticky, matte black counter surrounded by mustard-colored brick and sooty gray grout. Or there&amp;#039;s the foam drop ceiling with knobby plastic fluorescent fixtures and, beneath it, an industrial brown carpet best suited for indoor soccer. The couple wanted a space where they could work and entertain guests. Instead, says Jansen, &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re afraid to go down there.&amp;quot;  When HGTV&amp;#039;s James Lunday and his Rip &amp;amp;amp; Renew team first looked at the basement, they saw unrealized potential. The lifelong carpenter and his renovation crew typically tear a place apart and start from scratch (2), rebuilding with inexpensive materials that they customize to overcome a room&amp;#039;s limitations. In this case, Lunday explains, &amp;quot;We used light and dark to create depth and give the illusion of a high, wide space.&amp;quot; Says Jansen, &amp;quot;Now, we spend pretty much all our time down there.&amp;quot; Popular Mechanics tagged along to see how they pulled it off.  Managing Masonry Unfinished masonry can often pose a problem when converting a basement to a living space--exposed foundation walls may need to be masked, and ugly brick or tile may have to go. The couple, who described their basement&amp;#039;s brick as &amp;quot;awful,&amp;quot; dealt with both issues. Hammer It   Tearing down nonstructural brick and ripping up old tile are the types of jobs that call for renting a compressor and pneumatic demolition tools, such as an air hammer and chisel. The Rip &amp;amp;amp; Renew crew also used a sledge\u00ADhammer to knock loose bricks from the wall supporting the bar (3). Hide It   Removing structural brick in a basement can be impossible, as was the case with the knee wall ringing the room&amp;#039;s perimeter. To conceal it, contractors mounted 1 x 2-in. lath on the brick vertically using concrete anchors. The lumber became a base for mounting plywood or drywall. Two design elements added a feeling of height: Fluorescents concealed beneath the plywood cast light upward (4), and a stained plank Lunday calls a beer shelf caps the knee wall (5). Dealing With Drop Ceilings &amp;quot;When things in a home go wrong, they often go wrong in the basement, between floors,&amp;quot; Lunday says. Drop ceilings allow access to critical plumbing and electrical lines, but they haven&amp;#039;t traditionally been an attractive solution. Fortunately, drop ceiling design has steadily improved. Even if a basement is not ready for a full renovation, replacing the ceiling can provide dramatic change.  Pull Out the Old Track   New ceiling panel dimensions meant that Lunday (center) couldn&amp;#039;t reuse existing track (6).  Hang the New System   The crew mounted new ceiling track intermittently to joists using twisted wire and metal hardware (7). The supports wouldn&amp;#039;t be visible, so Lunday could install them quickly. Mount Recessed Lighting   Fluorescent tube lighting can make a bad drop ceiling worse. The Rip &amp;amp;amp; Renew crew installed standard round recessed-can fixtures throughout Armstrong&amp;#039;s 2 x 2-ft raised ceiling panels (8). Using templates that came with the lights, the crew cut the panels with a utility knife to fit the fixtures, and decorative flanges hid the knifework. Maximizing A Small Space Confronted with a shoebox-shaped room, Lunday chose finishes that would maximize the small, squat area. The light maple floor adds brightness and warmth, while low-slung furniture keeps lines of sight clear. He calls the result &amp;quot;industrial modern meets a country living room.&amp;quot; While specific to this basement, his solutions use principles that apply to any long, low space that needs to be made more livable. Divide Public From Private  By hanging three hollow-core doors from an overhead ceiling track, Lunday created a room-dividing screen. This separates a private office area from the media room. The doors slide on casters in a track that Lunday mounted to joists before the drop ceiling was installed (9). The crew routed -in.-deep vertical lines into the doors and darkened them with a stain pen. Use Functional Furniture    Made of a solid door, the desk folds up, Murphy-bed-style, on a pair of chains (10).    As a result, it provides ample work space when needed, but also tucks out of the way when the couple wants to entertain guests in their brand-new basement (11). "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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