Basement Redux

Forgive the blogstraveganza, but our goal for the weekend was to get the basement finished...or at least to a point where we can post pictures to respond to Shaanti and Jenny's requests for updates. If you remember from way back in 2007, when we moved in, our basement looked like this:

Seriously, check out the exterior brick, the sweet paneling, and the creative insulation hanging down from the "ceiling" (cuz, yeah, there is no ceiling). You can't see it in these pictures, but my favorite is the clip-on desk lamp hung from the "ceiling" to provide extra light. Awesome.

Today, our basement looks like this:

Please excuse the ridiculous placement of the pictures, which are NOT cooperating at ALL.


We have (with lots of help) sheetrocked, moved doors, put in light fixtures, shifted plumbing, installed a new sink and lots of cabinets, painted, and built a laah-haah-haht of Ikea bookshelves. We now have a utility room that is not only functional but quite pretty and a library that puts to good use the space that we have, until recently, been referring to as "that little in-between room where we have the futon."

Since it's still a small space and hard to capture in photos for those who haven't actually been here, I've made a little video of the "tour." If it's not here now, check back later--I still need to post it. I will not be watching it, as my voice on video is scary.

There is still a little finishing work to do, including building the real workbench at the end of the room, finding a rug and wall hangings for the library (I'm totally open to ideas!), putting knobs on the cabinets, etc. But overall I consider this project officially complete. Perfect timing, too--this weekend the weather was very grumpy, but gardening season is right around the corner, we already have seed packets and hedger in hand!

When I can get the computer working properly, I will post more pics of the new space on flickr on the sidebar.