Basement Update - Theater Room... Progress

So this room started out looking like...

Lovely :)

And then... a little better

Jerry has always wanted his own movie room.
But not anything with movie theater seating... just somewhere we could hang out as a family... and veg out and watch movies.

So this past Christmas I got him a movie projector and screen... and it all began :)

We have been working on the basement on and off for the past few years... just an extra area that wasn't a necessity since the rest of the house needed so much work... but I am happy to say I love having this movie room down there. We have a lot of fun on family movie nights... eating popcorn and just hanging out watching movies... :)

This room isn't close to being done... however, it has made A LOT of progress over the past few months. It's still pretty plain. But it's functional. Jerry has a few things he wants to put down in here... and I promised I would let him do what he wants... (I'm a little worried)

Here is where the room is today..

To Do List

• Put up door to storage area
• Let Jerry decorate... try very hard to not wince and roll my eyes when he tries to convince me we need a cardboard cut out of... Rambo.
• caulk and paint trim
• cut in and fix the few painting mishaps down there.... 
• buy rug for kiddos to play on
• build shelf for Jerry's toys Memorabilia
• coffee table 
• build a long table along the backside of the couch with bar stools for kids to snack and watch movies 
• build low media center for blue ray player that is currently just sitting on the floor :) 

So as you can see... The room still has quite a bit of changes to go through... and I am hoping we can get a few knocked off our to do list in the next few months. However, Hudson's arrival date is sneaking up on us... and realistically I am not sure what will get done and what will be pushed back.
But at least for now the room is functional... and we are loving spending weekends down there watching movies and eating popcorn! 

Updated basement

We have been working away at the basement, it has been a very frustrating process/

We last left off with the basement looking like this.... and the area we have been working on is that corner area to the left... 

Since then we started working on the nook in the far corner of the basement. We decided this space could easily be used as a serving area/wine bar/etc. etc. It would be a great place for us to place the food and drinks at family gatherings... 

So we made a stop at Ikea and took around the "as-is"section for some cabinets. We found a couple that were marked 50% off and started from there. We continued filling in this section with the wine fridge and built a shelf unit to store glassware or whatever ends up going there. 

We took 2x4s to build the table top and decided to put in rock tile across the back of the wall. 

This area still has a ways to go... but its finally shaping into what we had in mind... so I thought I would share an "In progress" photo. Don't mind the mess... we are still in the middle of this project...

We still have a few things to do. 

1. put the doors on the Ikea cabinets and buy hardware

2. paint the shelf that will hold the glassware

3. paint all the wood framing out the cabinets and wine storage

4. add a wood shelf to the bottom of each window

5. finish the rock wall

6. add another coat to the walls.
7. paint the window panes
8. put up trim and doors in the basement
9. add wine glass storage in the open shelves

But at least its to a point where I see it coming together. Slowly but surely. 

The basement itself is far from being done. but at least this small little corner is shaping up nicely. 

The rest of it... is still quite a mess... 

Basement Updates ... 8 months later.

Remember when we left off on the basement back in..... December????

No???

Shocker...  since I have only taken 8 months to put up an update.

Well here is where we left off. Before we took a break over ... spring... and most of summer :)

Well we got everything taped.. mudded... sanded... textured... primed...

and.....

We even started laying floor!!!!! Now its still dusty down here (we have the saw down here cutting and finishing up a few things)

We are waiting on the a few more boxes of flooring to come in so we can finish up. But for now... we are just happing it is starting to actually look like a room.

Now its finally starting to look like a room. We have a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG way to go.
But its coming along.

We are hoping to finish up the floor. Start boxing out around the duct work, build some wood beams around those, prime the windows, start painting the walls, put in doors, and put up trim... all before Christmas.

This week concentrating on painting the window and door trim white, giving the walls another coat of primer, and then hopefully get the wall painted. Which should make this room look completely different at the next step.

So we will be busy around here for the next few months. But I would like to think that some of the hardest parts are behind us now?

Maybe?

And just a note... we decided to go with the vinyl wood planks. They were super easy to put in. They clicked together like laminate and just went right over the concrete. They are waterproof.. and seemed like a really good option for the basement. So we decided to give it a try. plus... it looks pretty :)

Deck... after week 1

So last year we changed our deck around a bit. We put in stairs that kind of wrap around the deck so that they would land on our patio as opposed to just a random spot in our yard...

But then you have to let the wood sit for a year...

But finally this summer we are able to stain it.
We are fighting rain and spring thunderstorms so we got quite a bit of it done the first week and this week we are planning on finishing up the one side and fixing a few spots here and there... and also doing the underside of the deck.
So hopefully within this next week I can do a full reveal. But looks like we will have another week of rain ahead of us... so hopefully soon!

It is amazing what a difference stain makes. Truly.
This deck looks 1000 times better. and I am shocked at the difference.

You can see the stain color in this photo. We also grabbed an outdoor rug that brings a ton of color to this space!

This is a window box I made last year. I am hoping to attach it to the top of the deck... somewhere not sure where yet.

This is a pretty accurate color of the stain we used. Hawthorne - Sherwin Williams. Don't mind that sad dirt area.. we are laying seed as I type. and don't mind the random wet spots... Nala got in the mud... so i had to wipe down the stairs before taking a photo.

We still have a long ways to go.
Finishing the stain
Adding in deck lighting
Adding in some cushion storage up on the deck
Buying more throw pillows
Switching out the sad little light next to the french doors
and maybe picking up some seating for the other corner of the deck

But this is definitely a step in the right direction and we are excited to move forward on this project so we can get as much use out of this area as possible in the upcoming months!

Library Update

Along with final reveals... I realized I have never updated any library photos.

I am still wanting to trade out these chairs for a chaise or two... but here is the library in its current state... with stuff on the shelves and furniture and all...

The last update I gave it looked like this. Complete... but very empty

And now... here we are.... with some chairs there (those are temporary) and some things on the shelves. I will admit... I still have a few empty shelves... I am still working on getting enough stuff to fill all of these!

But here it is now... and looks much more lived in :)

Its still a work in progress. I am hoping to trade out those chairs for a chaise or two... and get a rug in there. and yes... those are still my Christmas snow globes. I just left them there ... and keep meaning to pack them up. If I keep going at this rate... it will be Christmas again before I know it...

But at least the room is no longer empty...  :)

Dining Room Reveal

We started working on the dining room this past winter... and then life happened. Things got busy... and I never did a final reveal on the room.

If you remember way back when I showed you a very messy... messy... messy before photo... Don't worry... it didn't always look like this. this was in the middle of the chaos of the library building and the stair redoing.... so this just collected... junk.

And we put up some DIY wainscoting on the walls... painted it all white.... bought the most amazing chandelier ever (that I may just pet and talk to every time I walk by) .. .built our own table... and benches... my amazing mom and step dad built me the knock off pottery barn workbench... bought some cheap Ikea Shears.... DIY'ed some Art... added in a fancy schmancy dimmer switch... and framed some recent family photos...

And we consider this room done.

I did consider a rug under the table. I really did. Then I watched my son drop half of his plate on the floor while eating... and my dog... eating it off... well any surface it fell upon and just decided... its better this way. Maybe some day when we learn how to get the food from our fork to our mouths efficiently... maybe then. But for now... this is better. Safer. Cleaner.


So enough rambling...
Here are the photos of the completed room.

So there we have it... this room after months and months of working... is finally D.O.N.E.

Mudroom Closet Day 2.

We left off with the progress on the closet looking like this

We started with adding a simple bookshelf on the inside left hand side of the closet for shoe storage.
We tend to collect shoes at the entrance so this will be a nice place for them to go rather than spread all over the floor for me to trip on. The bottom shelves on the shoe storage are a little taller... so that way we can accommodate boots... or whatever else needs to go in there.

We took a piece of plywood and used brackets to put across the top. We will finish this off with molding to give it a clean look which will hold baskets filled with whatever junk we need to store.
We also added in some bead board paneling across the back. The paneling is a little bit more durable and will stand up more against my child who will probably use this as another piece of furniture to jump off of... hide in... attack villains in. Etc. etc.
We also added in some crates at the bottom for additional hidden storage. I have a feeling this will be used for seasonal items or sporting equipment. or just a place for me to frantically shoves stuff into before people come over. We built simple crates... you can find plans for something similar Here.

So here are some photos on what it is looking like about now.

So what is next?
We need to prime this sucker. And start painting.
Add molding to the top shelf and the outside header.
Also add face frames to the drawers ... and handles.
We also need to find some hooks for coats and everything else.
And I am debating on what i want on that right inside wall....

Let's see if this can be done before we leave on vacation. Fingers crossed!

Mudroom Closet Day 1.

Last week I shared with you our hall closet inspiration.
If you missed it you can find that post Here

In case anyone wanted to try this themselves, we documented the steps along the way.

You want to first start by emptying the closet.
Cleaning it out... which is where we started here

You need to remove the doors, the trim on the inside of the closet, and remove the door casing

So after removing all of that.
We started building our base. We used 2x4s and drilled them into the studs.
The bottom base is the same as what you see on top.
But after building the bottom base we cut a piece of MDF to fit over that base and then built up from there.
We added a few cross beams for extra support.
This part took a few hours.

After we got the 2x4s set. we cut another piece of MDF to go across the top. to create the bench. 

You can see here where are the tools are currently laying... where we plan on putting some cubbys for storage in here.
It is a curved wall so it might be tricky. We aren't sure what our plan is exactly yet. But hopefully we can make it work.

This shows you how deep the bench will be. and we might have a little bit of room on that right side for some extra storage also

Here on the bottom we are planning on putting in a couple of drawers or crates to fill with miscellaneous junk. most likely some shoes... and sporting equipment.

So there we are with our day 1 progress. The basis of our bench is put in. 

Up next...

- Put in beadboard. 

- add side storage. 

- build storage crates

-put in overhead shelf

- build header for closet (maybe something with curves like This.. In a way

Hopefully we can knock out a few more tasks off that to do list on day 2. 

It doesn't look like much yet... but this will be a major transformation over the next week....