Countertop

We finished the basement office counter tops this past weekend. I am trying to decide on the color for the laminate tops, so technically they are still not complete. I also have to find a distributor for sheet laminate that doesn't charge an arm and a leg.





I also have to finish the design of the upper cabinets and get those in. It doesn't appear that I can easily get the cheap IKEA cabinets up top to work out in the exact configuration I want. *Sigh* this is going to take some work.

Kitchen

I realized the other day that we had been posting lots of photos of our basement, and yet none of the rest of the house. So, I went digging and found some more photos that I took in our walk through of the house. Below you will see the lovely kitchen that we had to work with.





The very first thing we did was order a new fridge and dishwasher, both in stainless steel. Then the first or second week in the house we ripped, well not literally, off all the cabinet doors. We proceeded to paint every last inch of those cabinets in a semi gloss white. We also took off all the handles and the hinges and I painted those a nice gloss black. We found some track lighting at IKEA and replaced the fluorescent, along with some under cabinet lighting. In the midst of all that we managed to paint the walls a nice light green. We think it is a nice improvement.

I will post new photos soon.

A door, floor, and some color

So, we haven't been up to date in awhile. I guess a new post is in order.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and since we asked mostly for gift cards for restaurants or the house we have ramped up work on the basement again. First on the list, was finishing the drywall and getting some paint up on the walls.


We picked a nice blue color, and tried to get our light yellow from the hall to show up downstairs. I really like the blue, but the yellow comes out rather blah. Maybe we need to invest in some better lighting and then it will look a little more professional.

Then, we moved right into hanging a door, adding more insulation, and getting this place a little more air tight. It has been a cold number of months, and it really helped to close off the garage from the rest of the office.

On a whim we decided that tile was going to be best for the flooring down here. Not sure how we both came to the same agreement so quickly, but we did. Floor and Decor around the corner from our place has a great selection in all kinds of prices. With the recent sale of my truck, we headed off to buy some tile.

Installing it was a bit trickier, since we had to completely remove all the items that were in the office. With my brother-in-law's help, we got started on the tile and finished all of the mortar and laying in one day. Nevermind that the day started at 8 am and lasted until 1 am; the point is it got done.


Grouting is a different story, as it is still a work in progress.

Next up, cabinets and a countertop.

Office

Finally, I can post something that isn't finished yet. Here are some before pictures of the space that will become our downstairs office. We have added this whole wall to divide it from the garage. I also added a new ceiling light fixture, some more electrical outlets, and a new switch. The wall has been framed with a nice big door, yet to be filled, and some creative layout to avoid the HVAC system above. When it comes time to hang drywall, later this week, we will see how good my framing really was.


The space beside the stair and behind the office will turn into a relaxing library and retreat for my wife. She plans to setup all her sewing equipment down here. Maybe in the future we can update the electrical panel, which is full and very confusing, and add a doorway into the crawlspace beyond.

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Playroom

UPDATE: More found pictures.


The basement was a major selling point for this house. It was unfinished when we bought it, with a little wood framing in place. We have slowly been adding and completing this part of the house. The large room that opens onto the side yard we have turned into the kid's playroom. The first winter we added insulation to the ceiling, which increased the heat in our master suite by at least 10 degrees.


We have also drywalled, sanded, and painted the walls in a light purple color. We have temporary window shades up, but I still need to finish the trim around the windows. We tried to stain and seal the concrete floors, but it turned out more like a paint than a stain. Eventually, we found a whole stash of Interface floor tiles from a friend that we really wanted. These floor tiles are great, as we can pull up each one and hose it off when the girls get it messy. We still need a few more to finish the floor, but it looks great so far.



Part of the concrete block wall is showing and we have also begun sealing to keep the moisture out. In the future, we will frame and drywall this section, but for now the paint will have to do. You can also see the horrible brown paint that was supposed to be concrete stain.

Girl's Bedroom

In a bit of disarray, but here is the girl's bedroom. The first step was to remove the wallpaper from the walls. This involved using a round scrapper that tore up the paper all over the wall. Supposedly this was to help pull the paper off, but we seemed to run into more problems. In the end we found that just wetting the wall down and tearing at it seemed to work. After we ripped it all off, some of the drywall had been destroyed and needed repairing. We skimmed the wall with some drywall mud, and sanded it down a couple of times. Painted a pretty pink and installed a new chair rail all around the room. We painted the underside white and sealed the whole setup with some caulk. The bottom has since been painted purple.

Bathroom Remodel

UPDATE: I found the photos that I took on our first visit to the house, pre-purchase.



So, this was the first major undertaking in the new house. I will try to find the first photos we took of the house when we were hunting to help show how much this room was changed. Originally, the sink was huge and the cabinet left little room to walk in once the door was opened. The toilet stayed and we didn't change the tub. We did cover up the small hexagonal floor tiles with this birch hardwood. This required me filling the space of the old cabinet with a couple of sheets of plywood to get the new floor to flush out. We also had to modify the door transition strip to work. We painted the room a lively blue and added an oval mirror and eventually a cabinet over the toilet.