Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Basement Renovation Is Complete...well, Almost!

I can't believe I'm actually writing this but it's official...our basement is complete. Sortof. When I say complete, I mean we have a finished empty space with a laundry room, bathroom, workroom, furnace room, a space to watch tv and play. Phew! (Oh by the way, this is a long post, just warning you).

When I started this blog, Mr. Fix-It was talking about renovating the basement. With an entire house to renovate it was always on my "that's nice honey, but not happening anytime soon". Three children later, it was time. It was time to expand our space and create another floor to live on. You'll remember, this is what we started with.
 
 


To this...
 
To this...

 

 

 
 
To this...

The "whipped" walls are gone. The stairs will be carpeted, but it will be the last thing to be done once everything is down there. I'm thinking a dark, durable, grey carpet. This is a side door.
 This is the first space when you come down the stairs. That wall is partially painted because we'll be adding barn board to that wall and creating a gallery wall.
 These are the laundry room doors. They fold open and in behind lies the laundry and a pantry. The pantry is yet to be built but it's coming.
 You'll notice the little cut out for our kitty's litter ;)
 Our contractor added these built-ins where he had to build around a major supporting post. Just in front of that beam (in the centre of the room) was where the main stack was to our house. It's been re-routed, along with all the ducting.
 That back wall is where the built-ins will go. We're currently working with a carpenter to work his magic. The pocket door on the right leads into Mr. Fix-It's workroom. You might notice the green painters tape on the floor. Once we found the couch we wanted, we taped the measurements on the floor to make sure it would fit. It's like it was built for the space, it fits perfectly. Although, it almost didn't make it down to the basement. Keep reading, I'll tell you more. That's our giant cat Cooper.
 An additional electrical panel has been added and the whole thing will have a white panel to cover it.
 This little door leads to a storage space under the stairs. Although the kids have been playing in there, building Lego so we're going to try our best to squeeze in our storage in other places and keep it as a fun hideout under the stairs for them for now. I have a few ideas to decorate that little space.

So...the couch. Oh man. I love these old houses, but they can be so difficult! The door frames are smaller, the hallway sizing is wonky, nothing is standard. Last Friday it was being delivered. It's a sectional with a Queen sofa bed in it. The delivery guys tried the first piece and it was just too wide to get down the stairs. Ugh. They were sure if we took off the inside trim from the door, it would give the extra few millimeters to slide that baby down. So they left the couches in the backyard.  How were we going to get these back to the store if they don't fit?!
Mr. Fix-It took off the trim after work before the kids got home. Together, Mr. Fix-It and I moved the first piece through the door, onto the landing. It started to go down the stairs as I was at the top, and Mr. Fix-It at the bottom. Then...it got stuck. Not just a little stuck. The couch was literally in mid air wedged between the new basement walls. Awesome. It wouldn't move up. It wouldn't move down. To top it off, the only way Mr. Fix-It could get out was to climb his way out of one of the basement windows. Both of us were SO done with the couch in this moment. So.DONE!

Literally this baby was stuck!
So now we had a wedged couch, damaged walls (Mr. Fix-It literally put a body print hole in one of the walls) and I crushed my thumb during the process. With the rescue of our friends Graeme and Carlos, that couch went down and will never come back up in one piece ;) Good thing we love it. I'll share it with you soon.

A process that was planned for four weeks, turned into 17 weeks. Although we still need to get those built-ins done. Renovations are awesome and crazy at the same time. However, we're thrilled with the results and we're so ready to get the rest of our house back and move our storage back downstairs, decorate and use the space. It will definitely be on a tight budget so thinking about creative ways to do it. 

I haven't shown you the bathroom yet. I will. Baby steps.
 
Have you done a big renovation lately? I would love to hear your stories and share what you've done.

Keep it Beautiful.

11 comments:

  1. Wow Alicia, you've done SO much and it looks GREAT!! I love, love the flooring you picked out and the white on white in there - just beautiful!! It will be worth it in the end, sore thumb and all.

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  2. Wow the basement looks great. Will be sure to use a lot of the colour schemes when planning our reno. Can't wait to see the bathroom design.

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  3. Wowza!!!!! It looks fabulicious - so clean and crisp and uber functional. Phew (and then some)!

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  4. Thanks everyone for your kind words. We're thrilled about the space, just need to make it cozy now :)

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  5. We celebrated the one year anniversary of my flooding our upstairs bathrooms.

    They still need to be renovated.

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  6. It's going to add so much to your home - great job!!!

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  7. It looks beautiful! You would never guess it wasn't a basement and those floors are gorgeous.

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  8. It's gorgeous! I had nightmares about our sectional arriving and not fitting down the stairs. We had it custom made, so it was getting down one way or another! Thank goodness it came and just squeaked by with a little scuff. And I know about the weeks turning into months. Our main floor reno has been going on for 4 months. Should wrap up soon- hopefully!

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  9. That is amazing!!! You must be so thrilled! I LOVE those floors... did I miss that post, I'll have to go search for them and that paint colour, so light and airy in that perviously dark basement! Excellent job!

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