House Tour Part 3 - Downstairs and Basement

Now that I have been through the main level and the bedroom level, the lower level and basement are all that is left. These are somewhat "bonus" rooms for us, as they include a large family room, a guest bedroom and an office/sewing room, plus a third full bathroom. This is space above and beyond what we have had for the past 7 years, so we are very excited! I will finish out this series with a post about the basement and back of the house soon.

The stairs from the main floor lead into the downstairs family room. It is a large room with lots of windows and views of our jungle of a backyard. This will become a play room for the kiddos and will eventually lead onto a much more finished back patio. All of the carpet has already been removed, as has the asbestos tile underneath it, so new carpet will be going into the entire downstairs except the bathroom. The ceiling fixture will be replaced, as the current one a) is not my style and b) has exposed light bulbs that will likely not survive their inevitable encounters with illegally thrown matchbox cars. All of the walls in this room need to be patched and painted, and the window hardware that is basically painted into the wall will be removed. Additionally, the Verizon FIOS box that someone decided should live on an exposed wall in the house will be relocated to the basement. I am certain that this task will take many phone calls and will eventually be done by a very grudging service person, but it should never have been allowed to go there in the first place.

Clockwise from left: door to basement; landing at bottom of stairs; door to guest bedroom; door to office; family room. You can also see the lovely Verizon wall box.

View from the bottom of the stairs.

View from the far end of the room. You can see the downstairs bath at the other end.

The smaller downstairs room was going to be M's office, but after reevaluating the space we have decided to use the small room as a guest bedroom and the larger room as our shared office. The shelving on the walls and the window treatments are leaving and the whole room will be patched, painted and re-carpeted. The closet is a decent size and will probably hold some of our stuff while leaving a space for guests to use. We were planning to put our queen-size sleigh bed in the guest bedroom, but we have doubts that we can fit it into this small space...this looks like a job for IKEA! This room also has a single, switched wall sconce that we will probably replace for the time being. We haven't decided how we feel about sconces yet.

View from door. The shelves were original to the house and can hopefully be sold.

View of closet. I may add a dresser to the bottom of one side for clothes storage.

The larger downstairs room is going to be a shared office for me and M. This room is much like the smaller room, so it too will get patched, painted and re-carpeted, have the shelves and window treatments removed, and the sconce replaced.

View from door

View from front windows.

The downstairs bathroom was nothing to write home about, but not that awful either. Our plan was to eventually redo the entire bathroom, but once we found out that the tile floor was asbestos, we decided that putting down a temporary floor didn't make much sense so we basically gutted the room. The existing shower was undersized given the amount of space and the stretch of wall to the right of the shower was literally useless. So this room will get new everything and hopefully be really nice, but that is a post for another day. For some reason, this room did not get photographed as well as most of the others, so the pics below aren't great. I will have to look for better ones.

View from doorway.

Shower and blank wall.

And that's the downstairs. We are so excited to have this extra space that will allow the Numa and our soon-to-arrive little person lots of space to play and also give us room to accommodate guests, as the Grandmas are both planning to be here for a while this summer.

Be well,

Me

And then it was May.

Where did April go? I am not sure, but I don't think I miss it. We finally moved out of our apartment and into our house (with a brief stay at a local hotel) at the beginning of April. The renovations were *mostly* completed but as of today, there are still things left to do, albeit small ones. Items left on the list are installing wall sconces in all bedrooms and capping any exposed connections that won't be getting sconces; installing vanity lights in the upstairs bathrooms; replacing the ceiling light in the family room; final touch-up painting in all rooms; installing the under-sink shelf and glass shower panel in the downstairs bathroom; and unpacking, unpacking, unpacking. Everyone looks so surprised when they find out that we aren't fully unpacked after a month, but with a toddler, full time jobs, a 2 week bought of upper respiratory infections and a very large baby belly inhibiting progress, I am amazed that we have accomplished anything at all. And, oh my, the belly. My abdomen has officially given up and admitted defeat to the apparent amusement of most people I meet. I am so uncomfortable already (and not due till early July...grrrr), with the huge belly, swollen feet, and a very active fetus that I just want to cry. Not to mention punch the next person who grins and asks "are you SURE it isn't twins?" Why does that give people such joy? Also, my patience and sense of humor seem diminished...

I promise myself that I will post the remaining level of rooms as a house tour and then will start to post progress pics very soon. Also, I have a new list of tips for moving your entire household, including pets, and pregnancy updates. But right now, it is time to get the Numa!

Be well,

Me