The Basement Before

We’re lucky enough to have a finished basement in our house. Lucky if you consider the house is 111 years old and the foundation is solid as a rock {we think}. They just don’t make foundations like ours anymore which means two things:

1. It’s thick as all get out. About 2 feet of rock and cement, as far as we can estimate.
2. Foundations as old as this can sometimes get a little, well, leaky.

Thankfully as far as we know there’s been no flooding or anything in the basement, but we did repair some cracks earlier in the year by the windows because some water had gotten in through the corners.

Overall the basement in great shape with some paneling, drywall and lots of storage space. It stays pretty warm and since we removed evidence of the previous owners cat {eww, don’t ask}, it doesn’t even have a bad basement smell.

Since we moved in last June the basement has been a catch-all space of things we just don’t want in other areas of the house, kind of like the attic. It’s also home to our tools and a spray painting and craft area for me. There are three closets down there, the laundry room and a full bathroom, which desperately needs a makeover.

In light of all that, we decided to do a basement spruce up. Once you see these pics you’ll know why 🙂

Here is our basement in its own messy, unorganized, wood panel, half pink walls state.

It’s half pink, half wood paneling, half white.

This closet we’d like to make a wine cellar, now it just stores paint and random things.

This is the near side with doors to a closet, bathroom and wine cellar.

There is some dirty, dirty going on down there. Now you see the need for a makeover, right?

There was even pink windowsills. I think these walls were two colors because there was wallpaper over them at some point that came off but the walls were never painted.

This is the stairway going down. Make sure to notice the wallpaper and wood paneling. It’s a double don’t. Oh plus the pink ceiling, triple.

Our plan is to paint everything including the trim, walls, ceiling, and wood paneling, remove the carpet and replace it after the spring, repair some of the paneling, put in new baseboard, and organize.

We’ve been hard at work almost everyday. Painting, painting and more painting. Come back soon and see what we’ve done down there.

This is a perfect project for Emily’s Real Homes, Real Messes, Real Life link party. You know you’ve got messy pics, link up on Monday!

In other news, today I’m at sewing class. So excited about that. I hope to come home and sew on my own. What should I make first?

Hope you are having a nice weekend!