Stick a fork in it (The basement is done!)

Well, almost. :) Done enough I tell you! Today was the day – the carpet was installed in the basement and we have been so excited about it! I know I’ve said it about every big part of the basement reno, but the carpet made such a HUGE difference.

I talked about our plan for the basement flooring back here when we had a different carpet picked out. Since then a new one came available that was SO much softer and only $200-something more than our original option.

It’s a Mohawk carpet, and the design is called Honored Tradition:

We went with a lighter carpet with a gray tone to it. I chose this one because our upstairs carpet has a really slight gray undertone and I LOVE it. I brought this sample upstairs to match that color as much as possible – but this one is much grayer (and a bit darker).

It has a slight design to it, but in my pics you really don’t notice it. I’m so glad I changed the plan at the last minute cause this is soooo much softer than the first one we had picked out! We upped the thickness of the padding too so it’s super cushy down there.

LOVE. And by the way, it is not lost on me that I couldn’t wait to get rid of the carpet on our main level last fall (for the hardwoods after a leak), and now I’m thrilled about carpet. :) We were just so tired of those cold, dusty cement floors. So. tired.

Here’s some before and after pics of the basement – it’s come a long way in the past seven months!! Bear with me though because things are still very basic and I kinda just threw toys on the shelves. I spent the whole day putting the room back together. :)

Here’s a shot of my craft area before:

And that same spot now:

Little different, eh? :) OH my goodness, I am so thrilled!!

Those who are super observant will notices my DIY craft table got moved. I changed things up a bit, and I love it so far. I’ll talk more about that soon!

This was a shot of the basement last year, into what is now the family room area:

This is that same spot now:

One of my favorite parts of having a finished basement? Getting rid of all those random rugs and carpet remnants. I think we had eight of them down there and they were so gross from the drywall dust!

The Bub’s toys used to line the “wall” of our storage area:

And now that area (to the right) has an actual door and walls. ;) Best. things. ever.:

I got rid of so much stuff, there’s not many places to sit down there. :) We have a solution for that, but we have to figure out if we can get it down the basement steps first. (Crossing fingers.)

This was a picture of the length of the basement before, and it shows how how far back it goes:

That area is segmented into rooms now – most of which are still awaiting finishing. :)

Those doors still need to be painted – I’m going dark!

Here’s another photo of the opposite direction:

And how it looks today:

It keeps striking me that the space looks so much bigger with walls, ceilings and flooring. You would think they would make it feel smaller? But I think it feels massive now! Of course that will change as we fill it back up with items, but I do want the family room to feel cozy and warm so I’m good with that.

I can’t believe it’s (pretty much) done!! There’s still a very long to do list. Lots of painting yet to do, tiling two rooms, moving the washer and dryer, lighting in the laundry and bathroom, a sink, toilet, trim work…and I haven’t even started all the fun decorating projects I have planned for this space. I cannot wait to have some fun with it instead of constant DIY projects. ;)

Once I compile all the receipts I’ll do a final post about the whole basement finishing process and how the costs came out. And there’s one final BIG project that we’re working on this week that I can’t wait to show you!

So what do you think? Big changes huh?? It feels like forever since we started but it’s only been about seven months. I think it will be a good nine or ten months before it’s completely finished, but having dust-free, cushy flooring underfoot feels like the final frontier. I have been fighting the urge to roll around on it all day. ;)