Basement Reveal

It's not 100% done--we still need to switch the baseboards and paint the walls--but whatever. You get the idea. NEW BASEMENT! (Just to warn you now, there will be a lot of caps lock today.) Aaaah!

It's funny how quickly my brain forgot the old space. Now that everything is painted white, it feels like it's always been this way. Wrong, because here's how it looked when we first moved in:

And then even after we got some new furniture things were still all weird in here:

But then the basement flooded, and although we honestly could have saved that ugly yellow-beige carpet if we wanted to, we took it as a sign that it was time for a major overhaul. That foundation crack was FATE. We actually put off doing some work in one of the bathrooms so we could gussy this up instead, and now I'm glad we did.

It makes me so happy. Not only does it look bigger and brighter, but it's been straight up euphoric to do all of the work yourself and see it turn out so well. It's EXACTLY what I wanted. Hubsey digs it, too, but he didn't have as clear of an idea from the beginning. I don't want people to think it's just "my" room because he was involved with the whole process. I painted, he laid the flooring. We both dealt with the rug and moved furniture. I did the accessorizing, he grilled the hot dogs. Teamwork.

Here's the full rundown for ya (with rounded prices):

>> We painted the built-ins, trim, and support pole using Benjamin Moore Advance in plain old white. No tint at all, just straight outta the can. Paint, primer, and teensy foam rollers: $100

>> The floors are Swiftlock laminate from Lowes in Fireside Oak, and we literally got them for 50% less by installing them ourselves. Flooring, underlayment, and related supplies: $700

>> The area rug is from West Elm and because we weren't able to buy it in-store, we ended up paying for shipping and a delivery surcharge. So that made it $240 instead of $183, which is kind of lame but not the end of the world.

>> We splurged on patching the giant drywall holes (from the foundation repair) and had a local handyman do it for $350.

>> Wall paint hasn't been purchased yet, but Olympic is $25 per gallon. The new baseboards will be around $70. I would also like to do something about that black hole of a coffee table, but that's still TBD.

That's a hair under $1,500 for the whole remodel! Can I call it that? I think I'm going to. We clocked a lot of hours down here.

Oh yeah, remember that blue kitchen table I was working on? It didn't stay in the kitchen. It was up there for about 24 hours and I decided I needed a larger tabletop for the 9,000 things I have near me when I work in the mornings. So now it's down here and it solves our extra seating problem. Plus, a spot for snacks! Boom!

Okay, two more. Aaaah!

I took this one before the new drywall was up. Ssssh!

I'm so proud of us. I can't wait to start something else.

Anybody else doing some summer redecorating? Or painting trim? Have you done a big overhaul like this?

Linking up to My Repurposed Life.