Basement: Before and After (It’s been a doozy of a journey)!

I’m sure you’re wondering how on earth I could find any more to tell you, or even maybe catch your attention with, in relation to the basement.  Well, I think you will be surprised when you get a peek at some of the before and during basement pictures.

Let's start at the beginning....

Once upon a time, about three years ago, my husband and I were newly engaged and ready to buy our first home.  We started looking in a quaint area that features mostly older houses, specifically Cape Cods.  One of the criteria for our purchase was to find a house that already had a finished basement or would have the ability to do so in the future.  Unfortunately, there weren’t many contenders due to leaky basements and other foundation issues (this area is a little more prone to it), but we found a few contenders!  One of which, eventually became our home.  You’ll see in the before pictures that it definitely needed a little TLC, but we thought we could re-use what was already there.

 

We added the basement access from the dining room; prior to this you had to go through the kitchen.

 

Not great, but not terrible.

 

Fast forward a few months and we began discover that our house had some foundation issues as well.  One morning, this came to a head.  My husband and I were both traveling for work and we found that our basement drain backed up into the finished part.  However, it was 6:30am and we both had flights to catch, so we had to leave it.  The mold and musty smell we came home to was horrible, and quickly became an issue for allergies.  We ripped out the previously finished basement and began the water proofing process.

 

As you can see by the carpet, the water issues have begun; and it got a whole lot worse!

We were too invested in our house to sell at this point, so we decided to take an aggressive approach to our water problem.  We did the following to waterproof our basement:

• Repair/re-route the sump pump (internal and external)
• Foundation wrap (external)
• New window wells (external)
• Additional braces/support for the basement (internal)
• Install proper drain tile (internal)



Right around here, is where I think our neighbors thought we were crazy.



Back view of our house.



After we tore the finished portion out, the foundation company used a jack hammer to go around the edge of the foundation on the inside.  If you've never experienced this, it is i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-i-l-y dusty!

 

After proper drainage was installed, they filled it back in with concrete.



It took a LOT of concrete (and a cement mixer in our basement) to fill it in.

After looking at the yellowish/greenish foundation walls for awhile, we decided it was time to paint.  To make it less of an eye sore and further seal the foundation, we used a white elastomeric paint.  Then, the floor was painted with gray patio/concrete paint.  It really helped to clean things up while we waited and saved for the basement finishing project!

Lastly, before we began finishing, we applied fiberglass sheeting, which bumps up against the internal drain tile.  If water would ever get in (I cringe even typing that), it will remain behind this and go directly into the drain tile, rather than molding the drywall.

This then brings you to where some of my early blogs began.  As you can see, it took us awhile to get to where we are today, but we now feel like it was worth it.  I’m moving on to our next room (our office) and my husband is leading the charge in adding final touches and sports memorabilia to the walls; after all, this is man-land! 

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our "little project”.  J

A Means to an End; an End Table That Is…

As we started to use the basement we quickly realized we had a little dilemma; where do we put our beverages when we watch movies?  After a long week at work, I’m sure you’d agree this is a pretty big dilemma!

There’s two ways we found ourselves working around this.  Option 1; put your drink in the cup holders on the poker table.  It’s not a terribly far distance from the sectional, but it’s far enough you have to get up to get your drink.  Option 2; put your drink on the carpet.  The frieze we selected is fairly fluffy so depending on the drink, we may have some stability issues with this option.  Also, I have some clumsy tendencies, particularly with spilling things, so this seemed like I was tempting circumstances.  Based on this, we decided it was time for some end tables!

I knew I wanted something round, to balance out the square/rectangular edges we already have in our other furniture.  When we were shopping for our sub woofer, I wandered off and ended up in a small section of decorative items.  It included jars, end tables, trays, signs…basically all the little touches you would want to grab right on your way to the checkout line.  In this section, they had two silver, hammered drums.  I will admit I regret not having grabbed those two on the way out that night; they were adorable and would have been perfect!  But, we were working within our budget and timeline for basement purchases. 

Fast forward about 3 months and it was time to shop for end tables.  I did go back to try to find the silver drums, but they had all been sold out.  I did however; find a slightly smaller version with a more open body.  Unfortunately they only had one, but I knew this one was coming home with me!

I also ended up finding another round end table, with a silver textured top and rusted iron legs.  I know these don’t technically “match” but I actually like that.  

My basement efforts are coming to a close and I’ll be moving on to the next room, but I do want to share one final blog about this space and the journey it’s gone through from start to finish!  Tune in next week for details. 

Feathers+Fabric=Fabulous!

First and foremost, I must apologize for my significant delay between blogs!  My “day job” is keeping me a little busier than I’d like…but whose doesn’t?  I’m sure you can relate.  :)

So where did we leave off?  Pillows!  Right now, the options for gray pillows are amazing!  

My first stop was Crate and Barrel.  I fell in love with an over-sized gray and ivory striped pillow, Olin Grey Pillow.  I admit that when I made this purchase, I was aware that it was probably too big, but I bought it in the hopes that it would work.  I also grabbed a few other gray pillows that complimented it.  Unfortunately, l should have just stuck with my instincts; I put it in the corner of the sectional and the scale was off.  So, it had to go back!

(Excuse the image quality on this one, I took it with my old cell phone)

The next option was pillows in various textures and shades of gray.  I really liked some of them, but it seemed a little…boring.  

At this point I turned to a local, designer store for inspiration; they have all sorts of wonderful furniture and accessories!  I quickly learned that while some things are affordable (we purchased our china cabinet from there) their pillows are not quite in my budget (starting at $150/pillow).  Of course, while I was there I did manage to find a pair of pillows (and fabric) I became obsessed with; a blue/gray geometric pattern.  I became so obsessed that I even made a few trips to the store to stare at them in admiration.  However, I would never allow myself to buy them (I’m not sure why I felt the need to torture myself).

Eventually, I went back online and searched all the usual options; Pottery Barn, Z Gallerie, Crate and Barrel, West Elm, and Restoration Hardware.  All had lovely options, but nothing that quite fit what I was looking for.  Then, I randomly decided to try something different and searched Etsy.  JACKPOT!  There were all sorts of great options in the EXACT fabrics I had found at the designer store, but much more budget friendly ($30-40/pillow cover).  It took a little time for them to arrive (maybe 2 weeks) but it was worth the wait. 

The final product is an assortment of the original Crate and Barrel pillows, the Etsy purchases, and some sale items from West Elm.  Lastly, I stuffed these with some Pottery Barn inserts (they’re my favorite) and we were in business!  

What do you think?

Still working on my picture quality and flash settings...

They needed a little something too!