August 25, 2015

Our Basement Renovation Project with Lowes!

When we bought our house we were glad that half of the basement was “finished”.  Well, turns out “finished” was using the term lightly. Not truly habitable, we basically use it as a storage space for our crap.  After we got rid of Andrew’s office to make way for our master bathroom- he had to move his desk down there too.  He works from home, so this kinda sucks for him is BIG way.  So when Lowes wanted to partner up to do a basement makeover with me I jumped at the chance (like, frantically scrambled).  With little Baby Gates on the way and visions of piles of toys in my future, I thought this space could make a great den/playroom and office for Andrew.

Turns out we have to build out the walls a bit for proper insulation and wiring (the wiring right now is super shifty and exterior) so it will be a little but smaller than this, but here is our overall plan to make the space usable.  A spot for a sofa (sleeper?) and media center, a small bar area for drinks and stuff and an area for a desk.  Obviously when the baby gets bigger and actually plays down here we’ll add some more storage for toys.   To keep things contained (and quiet) I want to use a cool reclaimed wood barn door on a track to close off the door opening to the room.  We also have to add an egress window into the space to make it legal (since we took out the basement door when we did our first renovation upstairs).
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Here are the terrifying pics of the space now.  Note the lovely textured plaster ceiling and walls (yuck!)  We also are getting rid of the fireplace.  We would never use a fireplace down here and have plans to make our living room fireplace a two sided gas one (shared with the sunroom, which I hope to make a family room next summer) which will need two flues to operate.

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Wow, this is like showing people naked pictures of yourself. AHHHH.

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The stairs down to the basement will be refinished to match our current wood flooring and I’ll put a runner down the center (and a new railing).  The previous seller encapsulated asbestos flooring with new ceramic tiles and to avoid having to spend tons of money on abatement to rip up the tile we are just going to put down vinyl plank flooring on top (it’s so think we won’t lose much headroom that way as we would with a wood laminate floor.

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Here are the finishes we are planning to use!
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1. Vinyl plank flooring // 2. Barn door hardware // 3. Hoping to get a door like this made // 4. Classic French Gray walls// 5. Recessed lighting // 6. Floating shelves above beverage bar  // 7. Countertop  //8. Wall sconces by sofa // 9.Beverage fridge // 10. Cabinet base // 11. Hardware // 12. Baseboard around the room

We plan to start demo on September 8th so we are done well before the baby’s arrival!  I’ll be blogging the progress as it moves along as well as my decor plans for the space (very boy friendly since I will be SURROUNDED by boys!) :)

 

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