basement floor plan

Here is a look at our basement floor plan, if you're interested, and a breakdown of the changes we are making. I created this on floorplanner.com, which is a free tool, by the way.

1) Every exterior wall and most of the ceilings were gutted to allow for new duct work and insulation.

2) The back storage room has no windows, but it is a large room so we decided to finish it out for a media room (or Tom's man cave as we lovingly call it). On one side we want to install a little kitchenette, which would be really nice when we eventually tackle the upstairs kitchen remodel.

3) To allow for a larger media room, we relocated the closet in the guest room. There was a pipe in that corner we needed to conceal anyway, so the closet covers it nicely. The guest room is still quite large, and we sold the sectional that was in there before.

4) Out with the old carpet! Please don't put sticky back carpet/padding in your basement. The main room has to be painstakingly scraped off the cement still. In with the new (probably carpet again, except in the traffic areas where we will do cork.)

5) The bathroom is gutted to make way for a new travertine tile and vanity. Only the toilet stays.

6) The family room will share space with a craft room for me. Yay! We are updating the lighting throughout the basement as well.

7) Abby's room gets mostly cosmetic changes with new flooring and lighting. I'm hoping to get new bedding for her for Christmas and we'll surprise her with a newly decorated room (hopefully). Shhh, don't tell her!

8) The second storage area stays and is completely full of our basement furniture right now.

9) We are going to do a fun little play cubby under the stairs.

10) Oh yeah, and the stairs will get a makeover too: new railings and floor.

11) Since we destoyed most of it anyway, we are going to update all the molding, caseing, and doors.

This project should take us well into the new year, and it might be all we accomplish before the busy farming season kicks in again! Oh well, we do have lots of smaller projects we can do in between the big ones. Like stripping wallpaper. And painting. Much to do! One of these days I will show you the upstairs floor plan and wish list.

I {heart} cork floors

Yesterday I mentioned that we would like to put cork floors in our basement. My husband and dad are a hard sell, however, so I've been gathering photos and info to help them see the vision. Today I came across these photos from realcorkfloors.com, and I am positively drooling.

Real Cork Floors is a website dedicated to educating people on the benefits and beauty of cork, and they do it well. Cork is a great floor for below grade. It is warmer to the touch than wood, and it is more cushiony. It wears well, too. And another big bonus: it repels mold and insects—a perfect fit for the basement.

One of the big sales pitches for cork is the fact that it is an environmentally friendly option. It is actually harvested from the bark of oak trees, so the bark reginerates itself without harming the tree!

Someone asked in the comments yesterday if I would consider doing it in the entire basement (rather than just the traffic areas). Yes, absolutely! I would love it. However, I think it might stretch the budget too much. And Tom really likes the feel of softer carpet in the bedrooms and living area. So compromise it might have to be. Now cork stairs—that I am intrigued with! We'll see.

basement picks

Our balmy fall weather has officially gone south. The wind is howling and every leaky window and door in our house is whistling. Shingles are flying off our new roof. I know. Not good. Eva and I are nursing colds and coping with way too little sleep. So, needless to say, I've had perkier days.

We have a few deadlines to meet on our basement now as we have an insulator and taper lined up to help us. Demolition is complete and framing and wiring commenced. I'm starting to stress out a little about all the decisions to be made, like moulding styles, door styles, carpet and tile, bathroom fixtures, lighting, etc. The dreaming and idea gathering process is loads of fun until you have to actually commit to something.

We have to replace all the exterior doors on the house to improve heat efficiency (and whistling on windy days!) and keep the mice out. We are planning to just get regular Jeld-wen exterior steel doors, and some with half-lites (windows in the upper half). We will paint them brown to match the exterior trim (or what the exterior trim will eventually be), but should the insides be painted brown too? Or left white? I can't decide.

exterior door

interior option 1interior option 2

We are also choosing new interior doors, and I'm looking for something a bit contemporary. Of course I would love solid wood doors or carved styles etc. etc. but the molded types are more within our budget. Do you like option 1 or option 2?

For the bathroom I am thinking of choosing a basic travertine with a trim tile like this mosaic:

bathroom floor and showerbathroom trim

For the traffic areas we are thinking cork floors, and for the main living areas and bedrooms a cut/loop style carpet sort of like this:

cork for traffic areas

carpet for living areas and bedrooms

I suppose we will do carpet on the stairs also, but for wear I wonder if it would be cool to do cork instead. Might be difficult to do, but would it wear well? We are planning to update the railing as well:

The last 2 rungs are duct-taped. They show the wear of too many cousins swinging on them. :)

Anyway, there is a little update on our basement progress. Leave a comment and tell us what you think. Honest opinions, everyone! :) (Really offensive comments that insult my intelligence will be deleted. Ha!)

wallpaper removal

I've decided its time to start thinking about tackling the wallpaper removal project in this house. Maybe I can do a little at a time and finish in about—I don't know—a year?

I could start with something small and easy, like the floral kitchen border. (And I could probably take down the matching valance as well. I've lived with the floral motif long enough now to sufficiently know it isn't going to work for me. :)

And then move on to the beauty in the Living Room and the floral in the Master bath.

In the hallways we find these two papers. The one on the right isn't so bad, really, so maybe I'll leave it for last.

And last, but certainly not least, is this one in the basement. Actually, we have already peeled some of this one off and it removes very easily. Some of the others upstairs, not so much.

So, the real purpose of this post is to ask for recommendations of what method to use. Have you done it? With steam? Chemical? I've never done it, but I'm quite confident I will be an expert before I finish.

house progress report

With all the craziness around here it is hard to keep up with a daily posting habit. But this time the craziness is due to this: We have finally started working on the house! The weather turned colder this week which turned the guys indoors. I'm not complaining about the cold.

So now two of the back rooms in the basement are down to the studs. Most of the interior walls will remain intact, except in this room where we are relocating a closet. The exterior walls are all getting new insulation and updated wiring.

And I've been busy doing this:

Seems a little silly now that we bothered to unpack anything in the basement, just to repack it a couple of months later. Abby is moving back upstairs into Sarah's room for ahwile, and we are making as much room as possible in our storage room for our basement furniture to be stored out of the way while we work and until carpet is installed.

My job has been to consolidate the boxes in this room, and hopefully soon it will be stacked to the gills with our basement furniture. So there you have it—our first progress report and one happy momma!