Brand-New Basement

Is this real life? Our basement is finished! This is something that seemed so out of reach and now our wish has been granted. We are so blessed. Our contractor Dale started basement construction on Wednesday, June 10. The final inspection with the city was on Friday, August 14. Dale finished the project with time to spare and came in very close to budget! We told him we wanted the basement done by September 1 with the baby coming.  I cannot speak more highly of Dale and have since recommended him to 2 others who have had him come out for bids.

We've already had some unforgettable experiences downstairs. Penelope learned how to lock herself in the guest bedroom which traumatized us all and only took about 20 minutes to rectify.

We now have about 1,100 more finished square feet in our house which makes a world of difference.  We spend so much time downstairs! It is much cooler and blissful that the kids have some space to spread out. Half of our basement remains unfinished. Now we have a bathroom downstairs, 2 bedrooms, and a large family room. 

We have a dedicated guest space! The other bedroom is Andrew's office. Andrew does not work in a dark, nippy cave anymore. We upgraded and got a 65 inch TV for the basement and moved our sectional couch downstairs. Kudos to Andrew (and Ethan) for getting that beast down the staircase and through the doors. It was nearly impossible and took an engineer's brain. We got new couches upstairs and I'm in love with both the upstairs space and downstairs now.

Our new couches are green and add a nice earthy touch. To avoid Christmas colors, we got new kitchen barstools too since our other stools were red. I ordered 2 matching chairs for our family room for additional seating. The room seems so much more open now that the ginormous sectional doesn't overpower.

Living Spaces

Wayfair

A coffee table is in the plans... I already have one picked out. Holding off on more spending for a bit. Also now have a new wall to decorate (above the couch) and the ideas are spinning.

Old stools

New stools

The basement isn't fully decorated yet, but I will blog updates as we get to the various spaces. Blinds have arrived for 1 room and more will be delivered this week. Curtains are in the future as well.

The basement room that is fully "done" is funnily enough the bathroom. Probably because it's the smallest? I love the green and pink.

Bathroom

Hooray for sisters and sisters in law! I sent many group texts and talked through several options as I worked out style options. The bathroom tile is from Floor and Decor. It is small white hexagons. I learned that there are a variety of grout color options. Who knew!? The grout we went with is called "moonbeam."

t

Wayfair

Etsy

Amazon

Amazon

Target

Target

Family Room

The walls throughout the basement are painted Alabaster white. I tried my best to avoid a dungeon dark space and it worked! There is a lot of recessed lighting which perks up the space too. For the hardware, I went with black. The carpet is lighter than I anticipated but looks great. It is called Champagne Fizz and is patterned which is something I have always wanted. Someday we plan on getting a game table of sorts (ping-pong, foosball, etc) for this area.

The kids are very invested in keeping the basement sparkling. James has taken it upon himself to vacuum the carpet regularly without being asked. The children also take regular "foot baths" to scrub off any grime to keep the carpet fresh. The newly finished smell cannot be replicated and I love it! I need a candle with this exact scent.

New carpet on the stairs!

Welcome!

Future game table

Left door: bathroom

Middle door: furnace

 Right door: unfished portion/linen closet

Office

In Andrew's office we intend on adding a futon for more guest bed options and hanging art.

Guest Room

We'll eventually get a dresser and add more pizzaz to the guest room. 

Storage

There are 4 finished closets downstairs! All of them are double door closets. There is a closet in both bedrooms, as well as 2 additional closets which I'm utilizing! One closet we're using as a game closet and another as a linen closet.

Guest room to the left. Office to the right.

Unfinished Portion

There are about 1,200 more unfinished square feet in our basement. TBD what we will do with this portion but we won't be completing it anytime soon. For now it makes a great storage space for us and some of our nieces and nephews.

I'm so thankful this project happened. Our basement still feels too good to be true. Now plan a trip to visit us because the pictures don't do it justice. And know that I'm in full nesting mode and can finally check this blogpost off my list!