We began the work on the Monday after UEA break (don't ask me why), and have been chipping away at it nonstop since then.
It took me a week and a half to paint the basement by myself, mostly because I needed multiple coats to cover the dark brown that was there. Then I started to doubt my color choice once I got about halfway into the project, which wasn't helping my confidence. When I finally finished painting the walls, I had to touch up the floor boards and put the outlet covers back on. We removed a large vent cover so I could paint the last wall in the office area, and found that it was jerry-rigged in a way that made me feel like it was a potential fire hazard, so we replaced it.
Our new energy-efficient basement windows were also installed during this time, and they go really well with the new roller blonds that we bought over the summer. Once these tasks were all complete, we finished cleaning the carpets. We did about half the house during UEA, and did the rest when painting was done. It took awhile for the carpets to dry because it's getting colder outside, but as soon as they did we moved the furniture back to where we wanted it. It gave me the opportunity to rearrange the office layout a bit, and now the basement feels even bigger!
Our new basement windows, courtesy of Champion. This company really did a good job. Our old windows were just the worst, and I can already see the huge difference between them and the beautiful new energy-efficient windows. I'm psyched that I have screens, but I really love how you can tell we took the time to get the good stuff to make our house more modern.
Funny story, I talked to one of our neighbors about the windows and they told me that they'd replaced all their windows except the basement not to long ago. The reasoning was, why? But our first winter in our house showed us that the heat escapes out of crappy windows, and the furnace works that much harder and the utility bill will keep going up. I'm eager to see how our utilities will differ this winter from last year.
Here are some shots of the basement. Keep in mind that I'm 35 weeks pregnant, and not everything is perfectly put away. But you can see the walls and the pop of yellow!
The new vent register!
Our couch that we bought after we moved in compliments the color perfectly, and my pink lamp and matching footstool from college actually goes well with the color too.
The bannister that started it all.
Sam thinks our basement is like the beach now, without the water. Our carpet looks very sandy, and the walls are very sunny. I joked that we could move the blue curtains from the kitchen to the basement and then it really would be like the beach.
So far the basement has a cheery effect when we're down there, a very different atmosphere from beforehand. But hey, old windows circa 1970 and dark brown walls are not exactly inviting. We still need to texturize the ceiling in the office section of the basement, but that's a project that can wait for awhile longer.
We were tired after organizing the basement. I'm feeling on the larger side as of late, and Princess has been super cuddly. I can't tell if she is just not feeling well, or if the weather change is getting her down, or if she can just sense that everything is about to change. I know each of those three things is weighing on me right now, and I'm the one that has to deliver the baby.
At least we can cross this major project off of our list of baby-prepping tasks.
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