Basement Before Pics – Planning the renovation of my forgotten space!

When I wrote my Winter To-Do-List last fall my poor basement was literally the LAST thing on my mind. In fact I had totally put my basement out of my head! But that certainly was not always the case: After I threw my ex out two years ago I moved my workshop out of here with the plan to put in a rental suite ASAP for the extra income.

With my divorce final however suddenly I no longer needed the income to survive. (My ex had been draining me financially over the course of our marriage far worse than I ever could have imagined.)

So, the basement took a back seat to more important projects.

Until Now!

WARNING: VERY UGLY PICTURES OF A VERY DIRTY SPACE!

When Lodi moved his furniture out here we were going to just haul it to the basement but once he pulled up with the trailer it just seemed so STUPID. It was WINTER, it was freezing, it was dark, slippery and there was a literal four foot snow bank in front of the basement door.

Seriously, were we really going to haul his furniture downstairs only to have to haul it out again to finish the basement at another time?!

NO WAY.

(And, let’s be real, the basement would have remained unfinished and his furniture probably would have sat down there for years in that scenario. In this scenario, we’re FORCED to finish the basement no matter how badly we would rather procrastinate!)

So, we stacked everything in the garage but that means we can’t work on the garage now without first finishing the basement.

Suddenly, I needed to get a plan together!

Without the need to impress renters I realized that I didn’t need to ever sheet rock again in my life if I didn’t want to… and I don’t want to. So, after Lodi takes down all the barn and pallet wood, we’ll be covering the walls with paneling of some kind – maybe beadboard like the ceilings in the rest of the house… Or, who knows, we’ll see what we like when we go looking

The kitchen down here is very fixable. All of the cabinets need to be painted out, new hardware added and we absolutely have to rip off that fricking stone my ex put up as the back splash and replace it with something nice.

I want this space more modern than the rest of the house and am leaning toward a two tone kitchen. Thinking white for the top cabinets and a dark gray or dark blue for the base cabinets. The back splash will probably be peal and stick in a glass subway tile look.

Besides that its ready to go with sink, stove, refrigerator, toaster, microwave and kuerig now that Lodi and I have combined households!

Initially my plan had been to put in sound insulation in the ceiling and then a drop ceiling. But that was in the case of renters… What we decided to do instead is to just spray paint that cool old ceiling black!

It will cost FAR less, be a lot less work and it will literally give us a look that we absolutely LOVE.

This space is going to be a real testament to the wonders of paint! We’ll be painting whatever paneling we decide to put on the walls and we’ll also be painting the floors too. Lodi is partial to a gloss finish on the floors which I am all in on.

Currently we’re looking into garage floor paints and finishes etc. I’m pretty excited about the kind of effect we can get down here without having to spend a lot. And, of course, do it all ourselves too.

The bathroom is its own monster… at first I was leaning toward painting out all of the barn and pallet wood I put up. But, actually, I did a good job in the bathroom so instead of painting it we’re just going to give it a light sanding and several coats of polycrylic. And the floors will be painted like the rest of the basement floor and the cabinets will have the same color scheme and hardware as the kitchen cabinets as well.

Both the kitchen and bathroom have solid wood counter tops I made out of oak that my Grandpa had stashed in the barn so they’re already done!

The whole basement will be a kick ass theater and hangout space complete with a full kitchen! Lodi’s furniture includes a bar height table and stools besides a coffee table, end table and theater couches so we won’t have to make many (if any) purchases.

Especially when we close up the garage “bar” in the late fall this is gonna be great for us!

I initially wrote this post before the world became the dystopian craziness that we’re currently processing and living in. With quarantine hitting us like a truck and me an essential employee this space down here is already coming together on Lodi’s blood, sweat and tears.

I’m so proud of him and can’t wait to show you how he’s progressing!