The finished basement

Hello and welcome to a new week! Let’s talk about the weather, shall we? Cause I’m annoyed. We’re supposed to hit 60 today and then have a chance of up to TEN INCHES of snow starting tomorrow night. I. give. up.

If it snows we’ll be down in our basement – our favorite place to be! We finished our basement two years ago (I can’t even believe it’s been that long) and I’ve been promising a recap post since then. I am superfast. :) I’m sharing some updated pics of the space throughout this post as well, since it’s been a while.

When we were talking about if we wanted to go ahead with finishing the basement (we had lived here eight years at the time) we were trying to decide how we would have it done. To get a basement finished in our area by a contractor it can cost up to 50 thousand dollars, depending on the finishes. Most estimates we heard were in the 20 to 30 thousand dollar range. Friends of ours had theirs done (it was a bit bigger) by a contractor and the cost ended up at about $40K.

We didn’t want to spend that much. :) So instead of using a contractor that oversaw the whole project, we used a few local guys who own their own small company. Overall I have found that the “smaller” guys can do the same services, at great quality, for sometimes half the price. Recently we even switched our heating and cooling company to a smaller, local company and have been incredibly pleased. I’m NOT saying the big guys are bad. We’ve just had great experiences with smaller businesses for the projects we’ve done. I would use a bigger company in a heartbeat for other projects.

I became the contractor in a way, overseeing the whole thing. I think we ended up saving at least ten thousand bucks by doing so. A few of you asked if I could have finished our basement. Could I? Yes, probably. Would I? No -- I’m one person and it would have taken me about ten years. And that’s a low estimate. :)

I worked with the guys and figured out a game plan – the timing of things is pretty self explanatory – framing, plumbing and electrical, drywall, trim and doors, carpet, etc.

So to spread out the cost (we paid cash for the entire project), we broke each big step down monthly. Framing was in February and that involved a little bit of electrical too – we started with framing out the storage room so we could have a dedicated breaker box put in for the basement. Later we had the rest of the basement framed out as well. The total cost for framing (and that little bit of electrical) was $3300.

The basement is about 900 square feet and we wanted to have a HUGE family/play room as the main area, so that takes up about two thirds of the space:

This is a partial basement for our house and it was “free” when we built. We had a bonus from the builder so we used that towards the partial basement. BEST decision ever. The full would have added about 300 square feet that would have been nice, but we really don’t need it.

A few details about this space – we went with eight foot ceilings because I about choked when I saw the cost to dig one foot deeper. Now I kind of wish we would have just done it but the height doesn’t really bother me. We didn’t add windows on purpose – it freaked me out to have windows down there, simple as that. :)

The next month we tackled plumbing and electrical and with the help of the professionals I figured out a lighting plan. I wanted a TON of light -- I never wanted it to feel dark down there unless we wanted it too. We ended up adding 28 overhead lights. (One we don’t use because we changed the floor plan a bit.) I added dimmers to almost all of them so we can turn it down when watching movies.

We had the bathroom roughed in when we built so there was a little bit of work to get that set up. We also added plumbing to move our washer and dryer down there and a kitchenette sink. Total cost for plumbing and electrical: $2,000.

That fireplace “cubby” is a future project. Very excited about it!

Speaking of fireplaces – let’s talk about the temperature. We did not have the walls insulated (we were told it wouldn’t help with temperatures much), but did have the ceilings all insulated. This was mostly for sound control – we barely hear people walking around above when we’re down there and it really does help with the sound when the kiddo and his friends are playing the drums. :) I cut two holes in our duct work and installed vents myself before the drywall was done. It was not an easy job – cutting that stuff is no joke. I wish I would have added one more vent in hindsight.

It is a little chillier down there, but we just turn on that fireplace and it’s toasty in no time. Sometimes we have to turn it off because it gets too warm. And in the summer the slightly cooler basement feels amazing.

Next up was the drywall, which we hired out another small company to do. When you work with small contractors they know other small contractors and it definitely helps with the cost.

All the ceilings and walls were put up, taped, mudded and sanded in April and the total cost was $2000.

By the way, the popcorn bowl wasn’t staging – I was actually eating it. The whole bowl. By myself.

Before the carpet was installed the whole space was painted – we used regular flat paint as the primer and ceiling paint and then I painted the whole space with Marina Gray (more on the other colors and details here):

I painted the doors black last January and love them!

The bathroom straight ahead is this one:

This was finished out much later, about a year after the basement was finished – the only part we had installed during the finishing process was the shower.

That back area is hubby’s office and storage on one side and the laundry room and a bigger storage room on the other:

I’m still working on this space and figuring out more storage in there. I gotta say – we LOVE having the laundry down here. It’s SO much better than where it was before. It’s glorious having a dedicated space for doing laundry, I truly love it.

The final piece of the puzzle was trim and doors and carpet. The doors and installation were about $1000. We had the laundry doors done special order because I made that door way bigger – 36 inches wide – so we could easily walk in with baskets in our hands. I didn’t want a big three foot door swinging out and taking up space in either space so we went with the two doors instead. Love them. Still need to put hardware on them. :)

I installed all the baseboards – they are taller mdf base and I put them in before the carpet was installed (the installers said either was fine). Now I wish I would have done it after because I’ve run into a couple issues getting them to match up when I’ve done more recent projects.

The carpet was the part that made the space finally feel DONE:

You can see more about that huge IKEA art here.

Again we used a local smaller company instead of a bigger shop. The price difference was unreal. We got REALLY great, high quality carpet and thick padding for about 800 square feet for $2000. That included installation.

Overall the entire basement finishing cost was about $11,000. We later did a few things like tile in the bathroom and laundry room, finishing the bathroom with a sink and toilet, and this huge built in:

And all of that stuff was about another $1500, but that was done throughout all of last year.

There’s still more projects we’d like to do down here – the fireplace wall, the kitchenette and hubby’s office are the big ones. I want add some kind of table where the drum set is eventually as well. I think it’d be nice to have a place to play games or do Legos or just sit and eat. Sigh. I LOVE basements. :)

I found overseeing the project to be quite fun – and that’s probably because we were in no hurry. We did it as we had the money and it took about six months. You get it all over much faster if you pay more, but I was fine with spacing it out. I think it helped to make sure we did things the way they would work best for us, you know? It kind of forced me to take my time when planning things out like lighting and all that stuff. So far it’s all worked really well for us!

If you have any other questions about this space I’d be happy to answer them! (All of the costs I mentioned included the materials by the way.) Let me know if I forgot anything. To see all the basement projects (and how we used it before it was finished!) go here.

Stenciling a wall

Hey hey all! How was your weekend? Uneventful here and we’re home today for President’s Day. I did make some progress on the basement kitchenette and I’m pretty excited about it considering I was a little anxious about it at first.

Last I left you I had told you about our little kitchenette spot that I’m super excited about:

I had finally painted the cabinets and installed the countertop. I’ve actually made some progress over the past few weeks but this big project I finished up last night. My goal all along has been to tile the wall above the cabinets but I haven’t found what I want just yet. Actually…I have, but it’s really expensive. So I want to pull the rest of the area together first and then decide if I want to drop some cash on the tile.

So to dress it up in the meantime, I decided to go with a stencil instead:

I thought it would work great with the slightly more modern vibe we have going in the basement. I actually had this one in my hands months ago for another project and decided against it but remembered it and went back for it. It was $17, but 40 percent off with my Hobby Lobby app and coupon.

When it came to the color to use with the stencil I went with this stuff from Krylon:

Again, from a project that never was. :) I got it last fall from True Value but I’m guessing you could find it anywhere Krylon is sold? I think it’s made to mix with another color but I liked it as it was – it’s a very light silvery finish.

Just like tiling or flooring, the first one is the most important – make sure it’s exactly where you want it because it will set the tone for the whole wall. Some use a light spray adhesive on the back but I didn’t need it:

As long as the stencil is level it will lay down flat. I used my small one to check it each time:

Now the amount of paint you use is really important. They sell stencil “stampers” at the craft store for projects like this but geesh, a wall would take forever with something like that. I always use a foam roller, just make sure you roll most of the paint out of it:

You hardly want anything on there at all. If you have too much it will get under the stencil and you’ll be mad. :)

Use decent pressure to paint over it – not too heavy but enough it covers well:

The great part about using so little paint is that it dries super fast. I was able to keep moving and even use my delicate painter’s tape over it within about five minutes.

I stood back after a few and LOVED it:

It took a few hours – I did it while we watched the All Star game in the basement and it took the length of the game – about three hours from start to finish. The last little corner by the light switch took me longer than anything. It’s always the last part of the project…always.

But I was pleasantly surprised by it – I really love how it turned out!:

I was just using what I had but the silver paint ties in perfectly with the hardware and the lights. The drawer hardware is the same as what I used on the mudroom bench (from Lowe’s) and the door hardware I already had.

Here’s a look at it without the lights on:

Love it! I got the base installed around the cabinets while I was at it – it’s coming together!

Next steps – paint and caulk the base then install the shelving on the wall. I’m using these Ekby brackets with wood: 

And then finally get that sink installed! (It will go on the right side of the kitchenette.) A wise reader reminded me we need to install a GFI outlet there since we’ll have water nearby, so that needs to happen too.

For now I’m really pleased with it and I toasted some pizza rolls last night to celebrate:

:)

Once I get our basement cleaned up I plan to give a rundown on the whole space. I haven’t shared the costs and how our plan came together and want to do that.

Have you stenciled a wall? It’s been a while since I’ve done it (last time was in the pantry) and I’m always surprised with the difference it makes. It’s such an inexpensive project too!

A basement kitchenette

Hey everybody! It’s time for the kids to go back to school around here, after a THREE week break. I’ll miss the kiddo but getting back to the schedule will be good for us. I guess. Boo.

So I got a ton done again this weekend, but like the other projects I’m working on lately this one going to be a multiple step thing. This was step two of who knows how many but I’m excited about the progress! I like to share the process with you all instead of before with nothing and an after with it all done, cause obviously that’s not how it happens.

When we finished the basement last year we knew we wanted a kitchenette down there somewhere. It’s not a HUGE space though so we needed to make it work in a spot that wouldn’t take up a lot of room. We decided on a small wall in the family room, just outside the laundry room:

I shared that pic late last year after the cabinets were installed. What you don’t see is there is a rough in for a sink – the part I’m most excited about. :) But today we’re talking counters and paint.

I’ve gone back and forth on the counters for months now. My original plan was butcher block with an undermount sink, but then a few weeks ago I found a laminate counter I loved at Lowe’s. They didn’t have the one I loved in stock though, so I went back to my butcher block idea.

But getting the block means a long trip to IKEA (which I’m planning on doing today, but whatever, it was last minute) and I already need to get some butcher for the mud room bench, so getting two was going to get expensive. And then last week I was back and Lowe’s and the counter I loved was in stock and I noticed it was only $34! Thirty bucks people, seriously…I couldn’t believe it!

Laminate means no undermount sink but I’ve lived with a regular drop in sink for all of my 38 years so I think I’ll survive.

I tackled the installation of the counter last week and for the most part that’s easy – but I had to deal with the rough edge on one end:

Thankfully there’s little kits that are sold right by the countertops for just this problem. It was nearly $20 so that cheap countertop get a little more expensive, but still, pretty good.

It comes with wood pieces and laminate for the edges:

First you take those nailed in jobbies in the photo up above out, so the edge is flat. Then you nail the little bitty piece to the back to fill in that part:

And then you’re supposed to do the same underneath with the long piece. This is all so the laminate edge has something to stick to. Well, this wall and the cabinets were pretty much exactly 72 inches (which I don’t think we did on purpose, but it was a nice accident so cabinets and counters were easy to find), but this meant there wasn’t enough of an overhang to add that piece of wood underneath the counter. So I just didn’t add it – we’ll see how this hold up without it.

The next step was a little scary – you take an iron and use it to “glue” the laminate on the edge of the countertop. I didn’t get pictures of this cause I was sweating, but I put the iron on medium heat and used a lot of steam (just as I do with webbing tape when “sewing”). I just steamed it like crazy and was careful not to hold the iron down on the laminate too long:

It worked great! There’s stuff on the back of the laminate that melts and glues it right on. (You can hear it “crackle.”) I couldn’t get it to budge once it was dry. But as you see above, it’s not a perfect fit. The next step was to use a wood file and knock down the excess laminate along there.

I didn’t have a wood file and thought I could just file it down with a chisel. I was wrong. :) It didn’t work. It was about 9 p.m. and I so didn’t want to run out to get the annoying wood file, so I started trying anything I could find. It went…OK. ;) These heavy duty scissors worked for cutting vinyl tiles so I figured they would work for this and they did:

But I couldn’t get close enough to the edge to get it flush. I was also afraid I was going to damage the counter by messing with it so much, so I put a line of my Frogtape along there to protect it:

Then I went back at it again – this time with tin snips. :) With those I was able to get much closer to the edge. And then I got it real flush by ending with my original plan, the chisel:

You can see there why I put the tape down – it really did help and the counters are just fine even after all that abuse. :) After all those tools and the time it took to get it all done, I just should have made the run to the hardware store, but whatever. I was already in my pj’s and not going anywhere.

The counter is actually quite cool, I love the way it looks! It’s got the “3D” look to it – it has a very minor texture that’s supposed to look like granite. We have similar counters upstairs and they get mistaken for granite on first glance all the time. They’ve also held up GREAT, so I know it will be perfect in the basement:

So I know we still need to cut the hole for the sink but I wanted to make sure it was staying put for the time being, so I got some pillows to lay on and got underneath and secured it to the cabinets using screws:

Nice picture thanks to the Bub. ;) It was not the most comfortable thing I’ve ever done. Remember when doing this part to use screws that aren’t too long so they don’t go through the top of the laminate! Yikes.

Then…it was time for paint. Why must EVERY SINGLE PROJECT involve so much paint? WHY. I’ve done a coat of primer and one coat of glossy white on everything so far:

Yes, the kitchenette also serves as the basketball court. :)

The cabinets still needs another good sanding and one more coat of paint, but I was tired people. So. much. painting. 

Next steps are to install the hardware on the cabinets, continue the baseboard around the bottom, install the sink and then decide what I’m doing on that wall above. First I need to decide on uppers or no uppers – I wasn’t going to do any but more storage wouldn’t be a horrible thing, right? I’m thinking maybe skinny ones one easy side of the lights, then maybe shelving between. Or just shelves and no cabinets? No idea. It will come to me eventually.

So it’s not quite a full after yet, but a halfway after still makes me very, very happy:

We are just giddy about the thought of a kitchen sink down there. I swear we’re all just moving down to the basement. We’ll be back upstairs for the summer. Or not, it’s nice and cool down there in the hot months. :)

Have you ever installed countertops? Do you have this granite lookalike stuff? My dream one day would be soapstone counters, but until then the laminate holds up great! Hopefully I’ll be able to show you this space with a sink soon!

P.S. This color was called Labrador Granite, here’s a link to a larger piece.

The “This will be easy” curse

Today’s tale is one that started out with, “This will only take a few minutes…”

Dangit, I know better to say that – out loud or in my head. It’s the kiss of death my friends. From now on I’m just going to start out every project with “Oh this will take five times longer than I think it will!” and I’m sure it will be the opposite. It’s how I do.

This is one of those projects I wouldn’t have even blogged about but when it became a pain in my butt I figured I would share. It started with a mirror. I’ve been looking for one for our basement staircase for about six months. You may remember the wood planked wall I installed there last summer. I loved it as it was for a long time, but finally decided I wanted to put something on there. Specifically a white mirror in a fun shape.

So I looked for said white mirror in a fun shape for months. Finally found it about a month ago (at HomeGoods), brought it home, then realized there was a crack in it.

Wahhh wahhhhhhh.

I’d seen another one while there, so I took it back to exchange it but they didn’t have any more in white. They did have pink!:

And I had to pay an additional ten bucks for the pink version! (Cat not included.) Pink is worth ten dollars? But now I was hooked and I wanted the dang mirror, so I got it.

This is where the “this will be so easy came in” – I saw there were little screws on the back, so I figured I could just remove them and the mirror would come out. Then I could spray paint the frame and have this sucker hanging 20 minutes later.

Well, 20-something screws later:

I realized the back was glued on. Wah. WAHHH. So why the screws I ask you? WHY.

So…I had two options. Spend an hour trying to tape off the curves and details of the frame so I could spray paint it, or just paint the thing. I went with paint. I should have just taped it off. :)

It took forever. I used white chalk paint so I didn’t sand or anything (just cleaned it well), but it took at least three coats:

I stopped counting at three anyway.

And oh yeah, he’s not helping. I think he thinks he is.

OK, chalk paint is great, I’ve used it many times and love it. But the one draw back is it dries so quick. I think it dried even faster over the plastic. So you have to work quickly. Another thing about this paint is it leaves brush marks (which usually don’t bother me), but I wanted this to be smooth and shiny. Not happening:

My paint kept “pulling” – I would go back over a spot to try to smooth it out and the paint would gunk up, even thought I had just painted it. It was a little frustrating. I did sand lightly between coats to get rid of a lot of it.

The good thing about this paint is that it is easily wiped off with just a wet rag. So no razor needed to get it all off the mirror when I was done – I just wiped it off. That kind of rocks.

All in all what I thought would take 20 minutes took an afternoon. I’d do a coat, go do something, sand it down, do another, go do something…you get the idea.

I’m not thrilled with the finished product either – it looks a bit messy to me close up. But from far away it looks great!:

And in the world of DIY sometimes that’s all you need!

I love the white pop on the dark wood! It makes me want to add more white things, but I’m keeping it to just this. We have enough going on down there with the gallery wall:

After I hung it my husband went down the stairs and told me how much he loved the new mirror. When my husband notices a project I feel like a get a gold star or something. (In his defense, things tend to change a lot around here.)

I think my favorite part is when I’m talking to my kiddo or husband I can see them either at the top of the steps:

Or at the bottom:

You can see the big map art there at the bottom of the stairs too. :)

I still have a few things I’d like to do this staircase – beef up the handles a bit and install thicker baseboards. And after that I think I can call this little area done. Wow. Can you believe it??

Do you have the “this will be a quick project” curse too?

The Laundry Room: Making it work

Hello everybody! Hope your week is going well! I can hardly believe it’s Thursday already. Crazy pants.

I’ve been working on purging the basement (you can see one of my big projects earlier this week here) and it was when I moved on to the laundry room that I realized I haven’t shared progress in here since last year.

It’s been a year since I’ve blogged about this space when I built the shelf behind the washer and dryer:

When we got the new set I knew I wanted a top loading washer, so the little shelf along the back gives us a spot for some items we need within reach and it hides all the ugly stuff behind the set. :) 

But we’ve made some updates to make this a more functional space over the past year and although the room is still very much in between, I wanted to share some of them!

The room is smaller than we originally planned -- we had to work with beams in the basement so this room get a little tighter. It’s just over eight by five feet, which is still a dream compared to the mud/laundry room space we had upstairs before. A DREAM.

But with the washer and dryer taking up most of that space and a door to the storage room, I’ve had to be smart about storage and any additions in here.

We’ve always used one of those wooden drying racks that you open up on the floor, but this hanging rack from IKEA works just as well (and takes up way less space!):

I wanted small laundry baskets that would stay in here all the time and last year I found ADORABLE polka dotted ones at the container store:

One for lights, one for darks. It’s so great to just grab one and just dump it in the laundry. And they’re tall and skinny so they fit perfectly right next to the dryer.

I’ve added some storage in here so the shelf behind the washer and dryer only holds the necessities now. My glass jar for the detergent and a little box hides the dryer sheets:

 

I like the necessities to be cute, alright? :)

We moved the ironing board down here and it hangs next to the door:

We set it up right outside in the family room and watch TV while ironing. It makes it suck a little less. ;)

You can see a lot of the to do’s in the photo above – I installed that cabinet to use some of the awkward space in here and it needs to be finished up. I have ideas for the wall above it too. The storage room door needs to be painted (it will be black like the rest of the doors) and the trim all needs to be painted too.

One thing I did to help make this room a little bigger when we finished the space was to push it out to the family room area just a bit more than planned (to the right):

That allowed me to put double doors on the room instead of a standard door. I LOVE it – I can easily carry baskets or armfuls of laundry through the door without banging into them. (And yes, they still need hardware. On the list.)

I still love love love the hexagon tile we put in here – it was so inexpensive and looks great. It is chilly on bare feet though so I have small mats in front of the washer and dryer:

I’m always looking for one rug that would be the right size/color but it’s hard to find. These get dirty really easily so I don’t think they’ll stay forever.

And obviously we installed two small cabinets on the wall (that need to be painted) – I didn’t want it to be all cabinets and I didn’t want just shelving (I wanted some of the stuff to be out of sight), so we went with two. Initially I was planning on hanging a rod between them to hang clothes but quickly realized I didn’t want to look at that all the time. (And we really don’t keep clothes down here.)

So now I’m planning a mix of both hidden and open storage – shelves between the two cabinets. I’m also planning on bringing in more color to this space and doing some kind of treatment to that wall. Haven’t decided just what yet.

There’s still so much I want to do but it’s already wonderfully functional and it’s come a long way from how it looked just over a year ago:

Compared to how it looks now:

And yes…a year later I still LOVE having a laundry room in the basement. It was the right move for us but it may not be for everyone.

Do you have a big laundry room? Is it combined with your mud room or does it stand alone? This one is way bigger than the space we had in our old mud/laundry combo but I’m still always trying to use every bit of it as best as I can.