90% Update

Remember when I lamented on how the last 10% of a project is the hardest back in November 2014? That was easily over a year ago now and I thought I’d strengthen my argument by sharing how few of those items we’ve completed. Basement: Black cabinet piece on top cabinets Basement: Decor Done, as of…

90%

Why is it that the last 10% of a project is the hardest? We’ve done a ton of work downstairs and yet there is still some work left that we just can’t manage to complete. Black cabinet piece on top cabinets Decor (I thought I had the space decorated before we took the wallpaper down! )…

Valences

Want some SUPER cheap and easy valences?? We followed these instructions from C.R.A.F.T. After contemplating several different fabrics I went with boring black. Nolan and I couldn’t agree on anything and the patterns that I liked seemed to clash with the white trim plus I was afraid of keeping the pattern straight. The hardest part of…

Happy feet & paws

Nolan and Sophie have happy feet and paws standing on the heated floors! We didn’t finish painting the trim in that corner because the bar cabinets will cover that up, as you can see we didn’t even bother removing the wallpaper that was discovered under the trim on the bar wall. As I mentioned before,…

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is not just a state of mind, its a paint color. Sherwin William’s Mindful Gray to be more specific. And since we’re such mindful people (ha!), that’s what we chose for the basement color. Along with urbane bronze for below the chair rail. I even used SW’s Paint Color Visualizer to come up with this scheme.…

Basement – During

I hate these blurred lines photos. Really, I’m not sure how that happened, but I admitted that I’m not good at taking pictures in my About page.  Nolan and I ripped up the carpet ourselves. The pad was actually in pretty good shape for being over 20 years old. We hauled it out into our…

Basement – During

Nolan estimated that we spent over 30 hours getting all the wallpaper down, see the before and during here and here. On the large areas a wallpaper steamer worked best and in the areas that the steamer couldn’t reach I used WP Chomp Wallpaper Stripper. I’d spray it on, sort of mop the liquid around…

Basement – During

The basement started as: We should take the wallpaper down and paint. That turned into: While we’re at it we should paint the trim. It ended with new carpet, replace the linoleum with heated tile (so we can remove the baseboard heaters), install a bar complete with kegerator and wine fridge, fireplace, new TV. Where…

Basement – Before

When we first moved in we lived with nol-dogs parents for awhile before they found a new home. During that time the basement was our home and this is what the living room looked like. We set up our couch, dining table and a couple of bookcases, everything else was shoved in “the hot tub…