Basement project

Woohoo! We're mostly done with our basement project to close out 2020. A month or so ago we decided to go ahead and just do it--clear extra things out and make the space more suitable for what we're actually using it for (exercise and office). With Nathan having a week off between Christmas and New Year's and with no houseguests this year, it seemed that that would be the ideal time. We ordered the power rack and flooring and very much appreciate our delivery people who had to deal with the many boxes that filled up our front room for awhile...

(Yeah, some of those were pretty heavy. Sorry, delivery guys!)

Then, the weekend before Christmas, we started looking at paint colors. It took six different greys and a couple of potential accent colors and some new lightbulbs but we finally settled on a single grey (and eventually a mix of two different lightbulb types). (We'd not actually tried samples with paint before...had always just picked a color at the store and used it. But. This particular room was the one time we'd been unhappy with our color choice; we'd just lived with the blue for years. Given that, we decided to try to be smarter about it this time. Incidentally, the lighting in the basement made this very tricky.)

On the 23rd, we started moving things around to empty out the room. (Fun fact: when you sell a gazillion legos, you suddenly have empty closet space in boys' rooms where you can nicely fit a bunch of tubs from the basement.) After Nathan finished work for the day, we finished emptying out the space and Nathan and Micah pulled up the carpet. 

The next day, we primed that wall we'd painted with the samples, took all the carpet and such to the landfill and a load to Goodwill and then painted that whole dang room (two coats and all the trim). Yup, that's how we spent Christmas Eve. :) 

When we pulled up the carpet, by the way, we discovered a fun drawing of a dwarf...no idea why or how long it's been there. So, we added some art of our own before we eventually covered everything back up. 

The other pictures above are showing the pile of pieces for the power rack before Nathan and Micah put that together and the new flooring we put down. The larger area has 3/4" high density EVA foam tiles, and the smaller area has coordinating carpet tiles from the same company. (We looked into rubber tiles or rolls and various other choices but eventually opted for the foam since they don't off-gas nearly as much. Since Nathan spends most of his workday down there, that was important.)

Anyhow. We took Christmas day off to enjoy time together then spent the weekend assembling the power rack and getting that installed, finishing a few last painting things (outlet covers, doors), and getting the flooring mostly down (in addition to playing games and binge watching shows, lol). Since then, Nathan finished the rest of the flooring and reinstalled all his office stuff. This morning, I took the "after" photos to add to the "before" pictures...(you can click on them to make them larger)

From the stairs (which we're leaving alone for the time being because redoing stairs is expensive)...yes, those are mirrors over by the window. We put those up years ago when the boys started karate to create a little area for them to practice. (They've been too big to do karate in the basement for years now.)

From the guest room...Note, I was hesitant at first about painting the trim and walls the same color but am so glad we did. It makes everything look more open (fewer visual breaks) and definitely shortened our painting time.

From the mirror wall...you can see Nathan's office area in the back. In the after photo, you can see a large white board leaning against the wall. We'll be adding some small shelves to the wall on the left (the one with the door to the closet) and putting that there. Nathan also sold his old desk (the one against that same wall I just mentioned), which cleared up a good bit of room. He's trying out a chair from the family room for when he wants to get off his feet. 

And, finally, from Nathan's desk area...

I reserve the right to possibly paint an accent wall or mural still, and Nathan's wanting to paint the walls next to the stairs, but we're mostly done. So far, I've enjoyed the more open space for boot camp (and not having to constantly shift the cheaper loose tiles we'd set there), and Micah's enjoying his set up with the power rack and barbell and all. Nathan says the new flooring is more comfortable to stand on at his desk, too. 

So. It still has a bunch of stuff but looks so much cleaner, don't you think? Whew.

ETA: Now that I've finished this post and all, of course, we're having mysterious electrical issues down there...which won't do since Nathan's office is there and requires the outlets to work. He's trying different things. Wish us luck.