I put the second “done” in quotes because I am not sure the basement will ever be considered fully completed, but oh well.

Remember three years ago when I was all “I’m writing in this blog post that I’m going to finish painting the basement so that you all hold me accountable!”??

Well THAT plan failed miserably. Eventually wonderful Brenda was like “Hey, let’s paint your basement on Thursday.” So we did.

And then the ugly wood paneling was painted a nice grey color, but I never did the trim.

And then I got pregnant and was making a baby so I was like EFF PAINTING THE BASEMENT, I’M MAKING AN EYEBALL RIGHT NOW.

SO! After we had Daniel, I told Peter that now was the time to actually FINISH THE BASEMENT. Like. Hire someone to come in, knock down ugly wood-paneled walls and build a wonderful space where if we have company coming over short-notice I can yell, “THROW EVERYTHING DOWNSTAIRS NOW!!!!”

A space that will make all of my Pinterest dreams come true that will be a nice play area and rec room and just a place to put all our random crap that doesn’t have a space upstairs.

After months of mumbo jumbo blah blah blah, we had to move everything to either one side of the basement or the other and get READY! And just like that, magic happened and the basement is now like, a live-able space where I like spending time. Two things need to happen before we throw Daniel down there to have the time of his life: entertainment center needs to be anchored to the wall and we need a GATE because out of all of the potentially fun things in that basement, the only thing he likes are the STAIRS 🙄

ANYWAYS here are the before, during and after pics! Nothing has been hung on the walls, but oh boy, do I have big plans! Ugh. I can’t wait.

The painted wood-paneled room BEFORE. We had already moved all of our shit out of there. Amazing how quickly things accumulate when you have the “Eh, I don’t know what to do with it… Put it in the basement” attitude.

And these four photos go together to make the massive storage area that we split in two right down the middle for the remodel.

The day after the lumber was delivered, our awesome contractor (let me know if you want a beaming recommendation) came and framed the entire basement. Amazing how quickly things move when they actually get started.

I was going to show the progress pictures, but seriously, who wants to see those? Not me!

Ok, except for these TWO almost-completed-progress pictures because, well… Danielllllllllllllllll.

AND NOW! THE UNVEILING OF THE BASEMENT! (It’s actually not THAT exciting, but I am excited, so. There.)

First, you open the door and walk down the stairs.

But before you walk down the stairs, you stop to admire this new light fixture. Prior to remodel, there was no light in the stairwell which drove me bonkers.

Ok, then when you get to the bottom of the stairs, you turn, and then, the angels start singing.

The tv will go up onto the wall soon, and we are SO EXCITED to have all of those shelves to put our knick-knacks that we’ve collected from around the world on all of our travels.

You may recognize the furniture down there as the furniture that USED to be in the upstairs. I forgot how hideous it is. But seriously, it’s so comfortable. And all of the seats recline. It’s actually perfect basement furniture, though it fit in much better with the wood-paneled walls than it does with our nice walls and carpeting.

You’ll notice the line of things that will so somewhere on the walls.

You can’t really see it, but above the desk near the ceiling is an outlet and cable hook-up. Someday we dream of putting a bar area in the basement, and that’s where it will go. I think for now we’ll cover up the high outlet with Chewbacca.

That door back there by the desk is the bathroom. I’m really excited that we now have three full bathrooms. I am not excited that I now have three full bathrooms to clean.

I LOVE the vanity we picked out. Menards. Still looking for a mirror. Actually, I haven’t even started looking for one yet, but I’ve been thinking about starting to look. So there’s that.

The bathroom is small, but perfect for the basement. Also, Only the one wall is that coral/orangey color. The rest of the walls are the same tannish/grey of the rest of the basement walls.

Ok, if we back up now and get another view of the basement, the door that you can kind of see on the right is a storage area, the middle door is a maintenance door, and the door you can kind of see to the left is the guest room.

(I just had this great idea that someday I’m going to be like “DANIEL! FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY, YOUR PRESENT IS BEHIND ONE OF THESE DOORS! CHOOSE WISELY! IF YOU DON’T GET IT ON THE FIRST TRY, NO PRESENT FOR YOU!” Ha!

Lovely guest room that is actually really big.

(That lamp isn’t plugged into anything, but I thought it looked nice there.) I have tons of Pinterest visions of how to decorate this room.

And this is our Harry Potter-esque closet under the stairs. This is where we will send Daniel when he’s bad.

So, when you leave the bedroom and look left, you see the first storage area, which looks so much better when it’s behind a closed door.

Yikes.

And then, directly across from that storage area is the other storage area. (Also looks better when the door is closed.)

There it is! We love it! More pictures to come when it comes together decoration-wise.

Don’t hold your breath for that, though. Based on my track record, it’ll be in the next five years or so.

And lastly, here is another picture of Daniel that I found on my camera when I took the basement pics last night.