Our Finished Basment (FINALLY!)

Some of you may have seen the post I did a couple of days ago about 2008 in review. I thought our greatest accomplishments were our shed and the basement. Since you have already seen the shed pictures shared on my blog, I though I'd share our other pet project of the year.

Our basement started out a normal run of the mill type basement. The spaces were wide open except for the supports and the stairs located in the middle of it. We found it rather odd though that the utlities were so widely spread out. We were forced to have two different utility/storage areas because of this.

I had some pictures of the basement before we did any work, but they must still be locked in the memory of my old computer. I guess that will teach me not to back up my files! I may one day find a way to unlock that computer, until then I'll have to improvise.



It stays pretty warm down there despite the fact that we haven't had money to install supplemental heating yet. We did insulate the walls on the exterior walls. Cheesehead and I did most of the work except for the drywalling which we hired out.



It was a bit difficult working down there while also trying to store 1/2 a house worth of furniture in the two storage areas and garage, but we got it done. As you can see, it was piled pretty high. Dry wall dust is a killer too, so we put plastic up to help keep our furniture clean.



This might look a little strange to you, but we wanted to build a bathroom without having to break holes in the cement. Our solution was to buy a lift station for our basement bathroom. This required a series of steps in the bathroom, so we decided to go all out and put in a tub/shower down there too.



The drywall was done early this year... in February I think it was. Then came the tedious job of painting. Drywall soaks paint up like crazy, so we used primer for a less expensive way to get the walls covered. We used a different color in each room.



The bathroom used the rest of the left over paint we had bought to stage our house in MN. I like the color, don't you? It also looks great with the leftover tiles from our kitchen and entry way remodels over at the old house. Boy, seems like we used a lot of leftovers around here! The accessories in our bathroom were purchased to stage our old house too. I think that the white looks nice with our floors and wall color choices.



The faucets were bought on black Friday. Apparently I didn't have to go quite as early as I did, but I guess I was better safe than sorry. Cosmetically our bathroom looks finished, but alas we are still not up and running with that yet. I am also still planning on grouting the tiles.



Peanut's room color came from a mixing of our paints from the old house. We had several cans with varying amounts of paint in them. I decided rahter than dispose of them I'd mix them all together and see what we came up with. The color ended up being almost the color of Pepto Bismol. She loved the color so we didn't even have to buy any paint for her room.



Son's room paint had been chosen for our master bedroom when we first moved in. It didn't match the bedspread that MIL bought for me for Christmas last year, but I thought it looked great with son's green furniture. Green and gold, it's his dream come true. A Green Bay Packer colored bedroom!



Our family room is a nice place for us to sit and visit. I showed you the workout angle before when I showed you that gym I put together so I thought I'd show you a comfy place where we could sit and chat.

I don't know if you can really see the green color on the accent wall in the corner, but it is also another free cycle paint.

Cheeshead had some friends come over that helped with the flooring and various other tasks. We aren't exactly handy at laying carpet if you know what I mean. He did a very nice job of putting down the laminate flooring that we bought on clearance.

We have a few finish details left to do, but they aren't obvious enough to show up in pictures. I'm so glad to have most of this behind me!

I have been babbling about my craft room too, but it is nowhere near ready for display yet. It won't be finished like these other rooms, rather I am working on getting it organized and easier to work in.

New year, new basement! I hope you all have a wonderful new year!

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy