the basement diaries: volume 1

We are officially ready to start Operation: Finish the Basement.

The basement that started off the whole building experience for us back in September…

…Progressed to this in October…

…and by November had come just about as far as it was going to, remaining unfinished

From December until now, this area has served as storage and staging area during the move-in and decorating process, then became Page’s workshop while he built the bookcases upstairs.

Now that we’ve swept up the sawdust, sold a massive pile of garage sale items, and kept only the necessary tools down here to get started, the basement looks like this as you come down the stairs to the lower level…

You turn around at the bottom and in this cove to the left is where we would like a mini bar area to go. (Yes, still have a few things to get moved out of here.)

And straight on ahead will be come a short hallway of sorts as we close in everything to the left to be closet/storage that will give us access to our HVAC…

…And a half bath (fortunately a bathroom was stubbed down here) will go to the left of the doors that head out to the patio. We would like to put a hot tub out there, so having a tiled entry and bathroom right inside will be convenient.

If you turn to the right, away from where the storage closet/bath will be, you can see the future TV/living room in all its “before” glory. How do you like our decorating down here? The exquisite window coverings are compliments of Goodwill’s “linen” department…until we have actual walls to hang window treatments from, we thought it felt a little exposed being on the ground level with a jackpot of tools just inside.

I have been pinning like a madwoman to my “Finishing the Basement” board as I try and figure out which direction to go in when it comes to decorating. We both want to do something different than what’s in the rest of the house – a little more drama and a little more modern. The word “industrial” keeps popping up. In short, we want to have a little fun on this level. Thankfully, I think we have a little time before any of those decisions need to be made!

In the meantime, we’ll be referring to this book as our bible, and our first steps are to measure and map out exactly where walls and any insets to the walls will go, apply for our permit, and order our lumber to start framing (Page is stoked for this step). We will hire out the drywall and painting, as well as electrical and plumbing (since it’s not only required that we hire this to obtain our permit, but it’s well beyond our knowledge!). Beyond that point, I think we’ll decide on a case-by-case basis what we can/want to do ourselves – I wouldn’t mind trying to install tile ourselves, and Page has already declared he can install the countertops, but other things like carpet and cabinets we might leave to the pros. It’s a lot to coordinate, but we’re looking forward to working on this over the coming months (our goal is end of the year) and taking a little more time to weigh options and make decisions than we had the rest of the house. Stay tuned…