The Basement-Never-Ending-Project!

Basement Renovation Progress Post!

Remember my hot mess that I posted about here?  When I went crazy & ripped up the carpeting from the stairs to the basement because I was sick of cleaning them (yucky light cream berber does NOT last in a house full of kids and animals).  Yeah its still a hot mess but progress HAS been made. Unfortunately I've had some health issues that have kept me from painting walls so I'm a bit behind on that.

This is the tile we are laying down in the foyer and bar area...looks like dark hardwoods but the durability of cermaic tile.

But I HAVE cleaned & painted the cement floors with primer and they are prepped for the tile we are going to lay (see above).  And I sanded all the steps and cleaned them so they are ready for stain and paint.  

{source via}

This is a pretty close example of what my stairs and banisters will look like (I hope) when I'm all done.

Lots of manual labor hours to do still before mine look even close to that.

I'm staining the treads and handrails in an ebony stain, and painting the risers in a bright white.  BUT FIRST I have to paint all those walls...egads...in a nice fresh warm grayish-cream color.  That large bottom wall in the basement foyer is getting a special wall treatment as well.

This weekend we spent a lot of time in Home Depot...A LOT OF TIME...I think they thought we were moving in ;)  But we bought all the lumber to build the wall, shelves and door in the basement foyer.

Here's hubby starting the wall/door project. My hubby is VERY handy and when he does it I know its done right...but he can be a tad slow (shhhh don't tell).  We are building a wall with a door that will go into the rest of the basement.  That doorway to the right is the kitchenette/bar and beyond that is the game room, sitting room and family room, media room, bedroom and bathroom.  We don't want the cats back there anymore basically so a permanent wall and door needed to be installed.  You can't see it in this picture but before the ladder is another door with a kitty door and that goes to our storage area. That is where our litter boxes and beds are for all the cats (plus 2 in the laundry room).  So its Kitty Land in there and they have their own space down there but no more in the back basement.  They liked to claw the furniture and cough up hairballs on the couch and floors...and I'm OVER that!

Hubby got the framing done pretty quickly in one evening while 6 teen boys played Madden

on the XBox 360 down there!  Still have to rip up that extra carpet and the tile in the bar area has to come out as well.

TADA we have a door folks!  The door is hung and he actually nailed it all in and its good.  So next is drywalling this weekend and then the painting begins...oy vey..a warm grayish cream is what I've chosen.  That's an old computer desk peeking out with the golf dart game hanging off of it...it will be out to the curb on Thurs if anyone wants it ;)  I'm thinking of painting the doors black or charcoal gray with bright, white trim...hubby groaned...but I do as I please when it comes to design :)  And he ends up loving it!

These are the two colors from Benjamin Moore I got sample pots of...just gotta decide which I like best.

Edgecomb Gray has a wee bit more of a brown tone in it and Sea Wind has more gray...so not sure yet till I paint some swatches on the wall.  Because that area gets no natural daylight with the new wall up I don't want dark & dreary but light and pretty!

{Stencil source via}

The wall treatment will be stenciled on with a large stencil like these above on just the one wall. I haven't decided yet what stencil I want but I know it will be fun, modern and a great background for a picture gallery I have in mind.

This is the mirror I bought from Lowes ($65) for the center of the wall and then I will arrange photos, art and other goodies on that statement wall.

So another busy work weekend to try and get things closer to the finish line.  I'm hoping to paint this weekend as well to get that all started!

Aren't renovations fun???? LOL!