Basement Redo!

I’ve been non-existent for a week and this is why! I’ve been hard at work on my basement. I needed a space for crafting, and now I have a huge one! Here is my basement in the WAY before stages:

And the "during" stages (when the house was gutted and being re-done- there had to be a bathroom somewhere!)
And more recently, how it's been for the last year and some months:






At the community sales this year, my dad got a dehumidifier and it worked like a charm, so I decided to get to work making the basement a space that could actually be used. On an extremely limited budget, of course. So I talked to dad about what I needed and started shopping around for the best prices. For starters I needed block filler (basically concrete primer) and I thought the only place I could find it was Sherwin-Williams, where it was 170.00 for a 5 gallon bucket. That was out of the question since it was over what I had to spend to begin with. I started thinking maybe the basement would have to wait until tax time, but then I kept shopping and a couple weeks later I realized they had the same thing at Lowe’s for 55.00 or a 5 gallon bucket! Now that’s more like it! So I painted all the walls with block filler and dad filled the holes with latex caulk, and already things were looking up!






It took me a while to decide on colors. I knew half of the space would have to be for my son to play since he’d never just sit down there while I crafted, and I wanted there to be room for his stuff, since he has TONS! So he wanted his wall blue (of course) and after waiting and thinking forever (I have serious commitment problems) I decided I wanted a peachy-orange color, so I went out and bought the orange paint (14.00 at Walmart for a gallon) I already had ½ gallon of blue from my son’s room. I had some great fabric in mind by Moda, but it was going to cost me 50.00 for 6 yards (which is about what I needed to cover stuff) and that wasn’t working with my budget so while I was buying paint at Walmart I decided to look at their fabric. Nothing. :( So I stopped in the clearance section and looked for curtains. Nothing. :( I got bummed but then thought about sheets! They had sheets for 3.00!!! A twin flat sheet is only 3 bucks at Walmart! And that’s a ton of material, folks! Seriously. I was pumped. So I spent 12.00 on fabric! I also got a few cans of spray paint to match the paint and fabric I got.
Then I painted some more!

I also shopped around for some cheap flooring for the last month, but had no luck. I would find something but there wouldn’t be enough, or it wouldn’t be as cheap as I needed so I just kept looking. I finally came to the conclusion that I’d have to just paint the floor to get by and put some rugs down or something. Then my parents gave me carpeting they had to go in their basement! How awesome is that?! I mean, I have AWESOME parents. I was pumped! I was hoping for lame paint on the floor and then I end up with SWEET FREE carpet! Woo hoo!
Here it is waiting to be laid:

My dad is possibly the king of Salvage! He got this before he retired from a job where they were throwing it away! THROWING IT AWAY! Can you imagine?! That’s craziness! Great save, Dad!
So I started laying it! Yup- I started laying it. I had help in the end, but I did do quite a bit by myself, and I’m pretty proud of that!

That was all me, then I got some back up: :)
I was already looking pretty good, I think!

However, when I was laying the floor, it occured to me that putting the play room side where the furnace, water heater, dehumidifier and condensation pipe were was a pretty bad plan. I really didn’t need the kids into all of that. So I switched sides at the last minute and got stuck on the blue side. Ughhh… oh well, I am just excited to have tons of space for my stuff! I was working out of a closet before and dragging it out and in and out and in… So I started loading stuff down:

There were still some problem areas:
So I used my bargain sheets and sewed a curtain to cover it, then hung a curtain rod in the wood above the concrete wall.
Much better!

Then I tried to organize my stuff a little, but I'm still shopping for an armoire for my fabric and things, and some shelving for the toy side. All cheap, of course!

I'm thinking the book shelf may need to be painted lime green? Just a thought. Any suggestions?

There was only one outlet in the entire basement, and it was clear across the room, 35 feet from my sewing machine, so my dad in his complete awesomeness ran tons of electrical boxes for me tonight!!! Suh-weet! And a new light over my sewing space cause it was a little like a dungeon! I’m super spoiled!
Look how great things look now:


He also bought this to go in:
Yeah, that's a basement window! I’d been shopping for one of those, too, but hadn’t had any luck. So woo hoo again!
Then for a little seating for my son, I had this old ratty papasan chair that was pretty rough and had been around quite a while:



A little spray paint and a removable cover made from the sheets:
MUCH BETTER! The other side is green so it can be flipped for a change! I think everything turned out better than I could have hoped for! I'm super excited and extremely thankful to my parents for their help doing it and the supplies!

I hope this INCREDIBLY L O N G post makes up for my missing the last week! :)

Happy (almost) Monday, everyone!

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