Basement is done....wahoo!

Ok, finally the unveiling of our basement remodel. Its finally here. This (other than the kitchen of course) is probably the greatest change in the house. I am so glad that it is done, cause now we can live in it. Its been great to come down with the kids and play with them. I know Kya has loved the attention and play I'm giving her lately.

So I will give you a walk through tour with "Before and After" along the way. Its more fun to see the before and after right next to each other.

The stairs descending to the basement (duh!)

BEFORE

AFTER

The hallway to my office at the bottom of the stairs.

BEFORE

Midway

AFTER Ceiling BEFORE
Ceiling AFTER
My office

BEFORE

AFTER

The furnace out in the middle of the room...yuck, what an eye sore.

BEFORE Midway
AFTER No more eye sore...if you turn around on the other side of the entry room you see this.
TV room

BEFORE

Midway, we kind of moved in.

AFTER

I know, you can say it...pleasing to the eye now, right?

Carl's office/hobby room
BEFORE

AFTER Carl built the closets...what beautiful craftmanship. In another post, I will post the egressed(sp) windows that we put in. This has been a great project...so glad we are done.

Even the kids are able to enjoy it now.

Bookcases

I have always wanted bookcases flanking my couch, so I decided to make some. I bought some antiques five panel doors and here are the pics of before and afters.

Before

An old door (one that looked like this)......

....some paneling from my sister's house that they tore down.....

... and an old piece of MDF....

...some paint and style....

This is how they turned out

After

The pictures don't really show the detail in the sides from the doors, I will have to get some pics and get those up too.

Our basement is finally done. Stay tuned for a post of before and after of the basement. This is exciting. Probably the biggest changes.

Main Bathroom

Here is another update...figured I ought to get on it since we are moving in this weekend....WAHOO! So this is the main bathroom...really the main bathroom because the only other one in the house is in the master bedroom.

BEFORE

AFTER


BEFORE floors (hideous)



AFTER floors (beautiful tile work...done by me...if I do say so myself)
BEFORE
AFTER

(we go the pedestal sink from craigslist in Boise (thank you D.T.) for only $10. Lovin' it!

And for your enjoyment...a little decor. Those are brown towels if you can't tell from the picture.

This is the view BEFORE, that you get of the bathroom as you walk into the house.

And this is the AFTER view

And then just a few pics of us working on that hideous bathroom that is just gorgeous now. Totally patting ourselves on the back...can you tell. Carl probably trying to give me instructions....hey buddy, I am a pro (hee hee hee)

Nasty, disgusting old tub BEFORE
Beautiful, new tub AFTER (well IN BETWEEN stage)

Carl redid most of the plumbing (with help from J and J, thank you)

Cutting into the lathe (sp?) and plaster to fit the tub and other such troubleshooting.

Crazy how one UGLY thing can become something quite cute and enjoyable...yes even a bathroom.

Its about time!

I have started this blog to share and journal our home remodel project. Rather than clutter up my family blog...here it is. This project is definitely worthy of its own blog and I will continue to post other rooms as the days go by. We are actually done with the house and moving in the first week of November.

This has been a love/hate relationship. I love the house because of all the work we have put into it....and I hate the house because of all the work we have put into it. But now that there are just minor projects left....I am really excited to move in and make it our own.

I have posted The Kitchen (thought I ought to just get to the good stuff first), Laundry Room and Mud Room.

In posts to come....

Front room
Bathroom
Kya's Room
Baby's Room
Master Suite
and
Floors and lighting

Moving in
Home decor
and
The basement

As I have mentioned before (in other blogs), it has always been a dream of mine to remodel a house. Although, my idea of a remodel was a large home built in the 1800 to early 1900's that has character....a history....and charm. A remodel that was supposed to be my dream home. This has been a fun project, but certainly not my dream home. Part of me feels like I can't wait to actually do that dream home project and now that we have the experience....we know what we are headed for. And then the more sensible part of me (not that I really have a sensible side), wants nothing to do with a home remodel again.

Who knows what the future will bring. As for now....we are going to enjoy our first big project together and being home owners for the first time. Looking forward to many memories made with our little family in this house.

Stay tuned for more posts of the finished product and then even home decor pics after "the move in".

Kitchen

Ok, here's the kitchen, the most important part of a remodel. As you can see, there is no dishwasher and the cupboards are disgusting, among many other problems we found along the way. Here is what we did.....

Tore out the bottom cupboards and plumbed for a dishwasher.

Tore out the backsplash...thank you MD (brother-in-law).

Tore out the laminate floors...

Found this underneath....glue for the laminate.

Sanded the floors really well...thank you A and T (sister and hubby), and B (friend) for your knowlegde of redoing floors.

Thank you MD for ripping off that disgusting backsplash...you rock!

Look at that hideous back splash in the kitchen.

Painted the whole house
And this is what we have now....

AFTER

Added a bar (not done yet), because I do not have a dining room in this house. When life gives you lemons....make lemonade.

All new (semi-new) appliances. Thank you mom, mother-in-law, aunt and Lowe's.

Check out those floors....LOVE them.

BEFORE

AFTER