The Empty Basement

It’s just over a month late, but we finished another item on my Thirty Before 30 list. #9: Clean out the basement. (It’s getting scary down there.)

We went from this:

To this:

Brandon worked pretty tirelessly to get it done, and we also had some help from our family. I’m rounding out (literally, ha) my second trimester and I haven’t been much use in the physical labor department. We donated a lot of our stuff, and the rest is either scattered throughout the house (yay) or in the 10×10 storage unit we rented for the duration of our remodel.

Say what? A remodel? Hell yes!

We’re finishing the basement!

Eventually, we will have a half-bath instead of an indoor outhouse. You can see our red washer peeking out of the background in the photo below. The washer and dryer have always been the nicest things in the basement (we bought them when we first moved in). Do you know how excited I am about having a cute laundry room? I might even have a skirted utility sink, just because I can.

We’re having the floor leveled because there are some pretty nasty cracks, but we’re not sure what flooring we’d like to have in the finished space. We may just paint the new concrete.

Brandon and I hired a contractor (first time ever!), and he began work this morning. We’re having the shell of the basement finished: level floor, new walls, glass-block windows, and trim. The future half-bath may just be an empty room with plumbing hookups for now to save money. We’re also leaving a large corner of the basement unfinished for storage and utility (again, to save money). And we’ll be doing the painting and finishing work ourselves.

We should have a finished basement sometime next month!

…I hope.