house tour: basement before

Let's move along on the house tour, down the steps to our basement! While we were house hunting, I really wanted a "walk out" basement. If you're like how I was, and unfamiliar with walk-out basements, that means that it is not under ground but you can walk outside from the lower level. It is partially underground, but not by more than a few feet. That allows us to have a basement that is not dark or dungeon-like, which is nice for not-so-sunny Seattle. It has also been incredibly useful for us this summer because it's a good 10 degrees cooler down there. Anyway, it's in pretty rough shape, but here's the "before" pictures as well as my plan.

I haven't done much in here yet, except for try to keep the kids' toys contained along with my computer desk. It is always a mess and pretty sad, so I decided to hang up some pictures in this random corner by my desk just so I'd have something cheerful to look at temporarily.

The room is quite large. It has the same footprint as our upstairs living room, dining room and most of the kitchen. We aren't going to replace or cover the brick for the fireplace, but I'd like to paint it and do something with the fireplace insert. Then, we'll put up a mantle and mount a TV for movie nights! David has already removed the popcorn ceiling but we will need to prime and paint that. Then, he'll skim coat the walls so they'll be the same nice, smooth texture that we have in the rest of the house. Let me just tell you - that is no easy task and I think he is dreading it a little. It has made such a difference though and I am so grateful that he is willing to do it!

On this wall, we are going to do some built-in shelves. Well, to a certain extent... more like "hacked" built-ins but I need to figure that out as time goes by. The situation down here with all the kids' toys is pretty chaotic and is always a disaster. I will be happy to have some organization and also some drawers to house my fabric, craft supplies and cupboard for my sewing machine. William loves to draw and craft things so I think it will be nice to have a table for the kids downstairs.

The floors are currently this really awful 80's linoleum tile. In the winter, it's very cold and I can't wait to replace it with carpet. It'll make play time so much nicer! For now, I just put down a hodge podge of all the leftover rugs we had to create some places for the kids to play with their toys.

Bonus! We also have a little "Harry Potter" cupboard under the stairs. Right now, it has a concrete floor and a family of spiders living in there, but I can't wait to get my hands on it!