Project Basement

We have started Project Basement....we have BIG plans for it. Right now our basement is what some might call finished--tiled floor, sheetrocked, drop ceiling, and flourescent lighting. In that sense, yes it is finished. However, the tile & lighting does not make for a cozy environment and our plans include making part of the basement a playroom for the kids. So you are probably thinking, "Just lay carpet." No, no we can't just do a simple job like that. We have to think BIG. Feeling the pinch of raising twins in a 3 bedroom house with no attic storage is causing us to think about how to really utilize storage space. Twins create a lot of stuff!

Our plans include laying tile in the storage room (currently has concrete floor) and installing shelving. In the larger area: lay carpet, put new base moulding on, sheetrock the ceiling & install recessed lighting, build a half wall around a column, and possibly make some doors into pocket doors. Any bets on how long this project will take? Bob is doing it, but he has a full time job which has nothing to do with carpentry. He is handy and has sheetrocked walls and done well. He is by no means a fast worker. He meticulously plans out everything that needs to get done. My worry is that this project just keeps snowballing. Putting up crown moulding was even mentioned. I'm beginning to think the kids will be 5 before they get to enjoy their playroom. We'll see.

The basement has three parts--a utility room, storage room and then the larger area of space. This weekend, Bob took out the closet that was in the storage room to make more space we can utilize.

Closet being ripped out.

That required moving out all of the "stuff" that was in the room. We have A LOT of stuff and of course discussed which one of us has the most stuff down there. I win! I was a teacher before becoming a mom, so I have TONS of teaching things that I may need. Afterall, all that stuff was once in a classroom. It's not my fault teaching is the only profession where you need to buy stuff to do your job. Is it? (Sorry for the overuse of the word stuff.)

And I also admit to having some boxes of "childhood memories." I really need to let go and purge it all. We got a dumpster delivered today, so I am hoping that will be incentive to go through some of my accumulations and simplify. Where I'm going to find the time to do so, still remains. I'm a little embarrassed to show these pics, but this is all the stuff we have down there. Keep in mind most of it (everything you see behind the elliptical, if you can even see that! HA!) was in another room you can't see at the moment.


I hope to keep you all updated on the progress. It should be fun watching it come together. If you got this far, thanks for reading!! :-)