Well, that sounds overly dramatic. An electrician was here this morning, installing GFCI circuit breakers, and so I had no power for the first half of the day. But while I’m thinking about it, I really should find something to cover up the 31″x16″ fuse box. It’s the first thing you see when you come down the basement stairs.
A quick Etsy search for vintage tapestry wall hangings brought up some interesting choices (Led Zepplin? JFK? Kitties?), but perhaps some more searching is in order.
Ta da! Does it suddenly feel like December again? Because that’s when all of this was supposed to be finished. Here’s the floor plan:
Let’s head down the stairs to take a look around.
And now a before:
And after:
After:
That’s as good as it gets for empty basement ‘before and after’ photos, because once we reached this stage we started moving in all of our stuff. Witness, we couldn’t even wait at this point to start filling up the storage area.
The play space used to look like this:
Now it’s a play room, and it looks like this:
And of course, we have the bathroom and laundry room sneak peeks you’ve already seen:
Our house feels so much bigger now. I think we added about 600 sq. ft. of living space to our existing 1400. Now it’s on to the fun part: decorating it!
The laundry room looked like this a couple of weeks ago.
There is still a bit of work to be done before I show you the finished room, but it’s looking much better now that the back door has been replaced. It’s been painted a beautiful robin’s egg blue too!
I picked up a couple of matching accessories when I was at IKEA last weekend. I don’t remember where I picked up that little geometric mug, but isn’t it cute? It’s more orange than the red washer and dryer, but close enough.
Now I’ll need something to put in those pots. Any recommendations for houseplants that survive neglect?
I made the trip out to IKEA on Saturday with August, specifically to buy the Ekby Shelves for the basement bathroom. They’re only seven inches deep (vs. 12″ for the west elm bookcase I had been considering), so I figured that was the way to go.
Clearly a lack of sleep is getting to me. What was I thinking? It might be all right for a lady, but you know, a man needs room to stand in front of a toilet. That’s not going to happen with shelves on the opposite wall, even if they are only 7″ deep.
This half-bath is tiny. And short — I’m 5’5″, and you can see how close the ceiling is even for me. So… I guess I’ll be cutting back on the tchotchkes? On a positive note though, the eyesore vents have been painted to match the walls and ceiling. Much better.
The basement still isn’t done. STILL.
No, you haven’t missed August’s nursery (many people have been asking). Eleanor is still in the nursery until we can convert my studio into her bedroom, and the studio needs to be moved into the basement for that to happen.
The bathroom is nearing completion, and the laundry room is nearing what I’ve begun thinking of as the 1.0 version.
Also, sleep? We could all use a little more. August is somewhat nocturnal. He’s a sweetie though, so we forgive him.
The last thing I need to choose for the basement half-bath is shelving. I just want a place to put some pretty odds and ends on the wall opposite the sink and toilet. I like these three choices:
Remember, this is what I’m already working with for the rest of the room:
Which option would you choose?
