The Basement Reveal!

We finished!  We finally finished!!  It took a lot longer than I expected, but the end result was worth the pain.  I am so happy with it!  Sure, there are some things left to do.  We really do want to finish the ceiling, but the white paint has brightened it up nicely for now. What I want is not cheap, so I'll be saving up.  Dean will be hanging a chandelier for me this weekend and we may even install a gas fireplace in the near future.  But, for right now, it's a place we really like to be! 

Remember what it looked like before?  NOT a place you'd want to hang out....

More on the before here and here.

Drum roll..... I LOVE it now!!

It's so bright and cheery.  I went with a farmhouse/retro feel because I incorporated some special items from Dean's family.

This door was salvaged from his great grandparents' old farmhouse.  Yes...that's original chippy paint!  The painting is by Sidney E. King, who was a nationally known artist and local resident.  He painted this one of the Old Sparta Mill, near where Dean and his mother both grew up.

The screen door grill above the TV was from my mother-in-law's house.

His aunt's vintage stereo/turntable has finally found its perfect home - and adding some pieces of my vintage paint-by-numbers really brightened it up!

This one was painted by Dean when he was young.  There's another one somewhere that I am determined to find!

A happy place for me to work out on the treadmill.  Now I just need to use it. :)

The French doors got a new coat of paint and dressed up a bit.

It didn't seem like we had a very long or difficult list initially, but boy, it was a lot of work.  I painted the ceiling with a paint sprayer - which I will never do again.  Very, very messy.  The concrete walls were left as is because I honestly love the texture and just painted them a nice khaki color with white trim.  We installed a carpet remnant which covered most of the floor.  It worked out perfect because we had already planned to tile in front of the door down to the stereo corner and also the back part of the room where the treadmill is. 

Here is our supply list breakdown:

Wall Paint - Valspar "Swoosh".   Free for this project - leftover from the construction of the addition.

Ceiling White Paint - McCormick White.  Free - also leftover from the addition.

Trim Paint -  Valspar "Bright White".  $12.50 qt

Carpet - Remnant piece from Lowe's - $104.00 (SCORE!)

Carpet Padding - $40.00

Tile - Two boxes -  Lowe's - $32.00 box of 30 x 2 = 64.00

Wood projects (Shelf on half wall, trim around door, corner molding and shoe molding) = $78.00
The chandelier and gas fireplace are both things we had already.

My hubby's skills and dedication = PRICELESS! 

TOTAL - $298.50

It's amazing how much warmer the basement is now, so hopefully it will save us a little on the heating bill.  I know Tiger is enjoying it!

It was a lot of work and patience...but we did it!  The best part was both of our grandsons and daughter absolutely loved it!  Jordan, the youngest, has already transferred his Army men down there. :)

Is it perfect?  No.  But it is so much nicer and an extra space in the house.  It was worth every penny and we do plan to invest a little more down there...but for now....it's a nice place to hang with the family.

I'll be linking up at

Thanks for stopping by!

Getting Ready - Our Basement Makeover on a Shoestring Budget

This is going to be a difficult post for me.  Those that know me well know that I am a perfectionist in many things and as soon as I know someone is coming over, I get out the detailing supplies.  Because I can't stand anyone outside of the immediate family to catch me with a messy house, showing the world our basement in its current condition is not easy for this girl!  However, I know that the end result will be beautiful and will be completed with very, very little money.  Sure, I will eventually want to do the wood floors and finish off the ceiling, but I will be using a lot of material and furniture we already have for this phase.  Just wait!

OK...here we go....the MESS!!  Close your eyes if you wish!

The above is looking at the room coming in from upstairs.  A lot of the stuff laying around is going to Goodwill.  We are saving the sofa with a new slipcover and the server will be getting a gorgeous makeover.  It weighs a ton and has a LOT of storage space.

This is the other side of the room.  Full of junk (not the good kind)...some stuff we'll keep, some not.  Yeah...it's a mess!  Paint splatter is all over the floor...but, I have a plan for that.

As you see - there's Molly...this is why she and Tiger are kept apart.  He is on the other side of the couch and well....she is just being mean. :)

I love the fact that we have french doors leading to an outdoor patio.  We actually reused these from the original part of the house where they lead out to our porch before the addition.  A little paint, trim and real window coverings and they will be gorgeous. After this, I hope we actually start using the patio!!

Just look at how pretty it is from the outside!  It's time for the inside to be just as gorgeous.  The backyard is a steep hill and we are lucky that we have a little usable space back there.  Because we have a walk-out basement, it gives us a lot of natural light through the doors.

We built this addition about six years ago which consists of a large family room with cathedral ceiling, a breakfast room off of the kitchen and the unfinished basement and laundry room.  Originally the basement was going to be the "Man Cave" - which is why there is a lot of Cowboys crap (I'm a Redskins fan....) and man-related collectibles...  Dean has decided he doesn't want the room now (he is VERY comfy in the family room), so it's going to be MY little haven!!  Yay!!  It's going to be light and bright, rustic and chic.  Yes, I am going to use some of the vintage inspired posters and we have a REALLY cool Coke sign with "Deano's Diner" that I have the perfect place for.  :)

How cool is this sign?  We picked it up when we went to Luray, VA for our anniversary years ago.   It'll be going over Dean's mom's vintage turntable/stereo in the "music corner".  I'll also finally get my treadmill in a place where I'll actually want to be!

The Laundry Room is just off of this room....that will be next.  I can't bear showing that room just yet....

Tomorrow will be a sunshiney day - and I'm hoping to get the cleaning and purging done so that I can start spray painting the ceiling with my Wagner paint sprayer.

After that mess is done, I think that this will be a fairly quick project!  Stay tuned!!