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 1
interior 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 shower
bathroom 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!)