Renovations: Finished Shopping

Alright - I have put a restriction on myself. No more buying things for the new playroom.

Just joining us? Read about the Basement to Playroom Transition to catch up.  Also, you can catch up on all the related posts here: Renovations.

I have finished buying things for the basement; because, frankly, I need to be. Otherwise, we will be in the same crap-filled situation we were before. And, may I remind you of our borderline Hoarders situation? Yikes...but, on a good note, I finally found what I was looking for! Check it out! :)

All you Target lovers out there know the brand.

I am still not 100% in love with the open, backless shelves; nonetheless, I will make it work. How so? Of course, I'm going to fill this unit with cute totes! These were the ones I decided on...probably too many. But, I sure would hate to not have enough!

Our entryway light is very yellow....sorry! It made the colors look off.

These polka dots were just what I was looking for! I decided on some other, not-so-girly colored totes (the teal and lime ones). I'm really trying to make this room non-gender-specific. But, I will admit, the dark pink has gotten a little out of hand...

Who knew I had such a soft spot for dark pink, dark purple, lime green, and teal? Future Lucy big-girl-room colors? Hmmmm......

Heath is at home today finishing up on the painting. Then, this Friday they are finishing up the trim. To end the night, I get to fly in, scrub carpets, vacuum, and dust. Don't be jealous; your day will too come. haha. Right!

Perhaps on Saturday, I will get to start moving in furniture!

Alright, so here is what I left you with:

Yes - I know. It's a perfect diagram of the room. I should be an architect...but, enough talk about all of my talents. Let's move on.

I am thinking this layout for furniture:

Again, the furniture is perfectly to scale (ha!). These are my thoughts as of now; but, you how that goes. You get furniture in the room and quickly change your mind or realize that it won't work how you imagined. We'll see.

I sure hope I can give you all a final renovation update next Monday!!

Any fun ideas or suggestions for our playroom, before I make our final touches?

Renovations: More Wall Space!

We have one wall completed in our Basement to Playroom Transition!

I bet you thought you'd see photos too. Sorry! Not yet! I do, however, have some of my wonderful, very 'to-scale' diagrams (yeah right!). :)

We have the wall by the furnace, water heater, etc. done. So, again, this is what our basement looked like before:

The boxes on the left are stairs and the squares/circles are the furnace, water heater, etc.

And, we were planning on putting a wall up, to safely cover the items that we didn't want Lucy to have access to. Like this:

Once Heath and my father-in-law put up the wall, they realized the small door to the landing was unnecessary. Here, this will better explain. We ended up with this:

The red arrow denotes my easily accessible path to a small storage space! Yay! No extra cubby door!

    Wall
-   Cubby Door
=  More Wall Space

Again, the landing is just a drop in the ceiling, so I could leave the window exposed. I wanted Lucy to have a second exit for emergencies, and for the light to shine in. In addition, it is nice to open it up and let some fresh air in! :)

All of this will be much clearer with photos! I apologize for my awful diagrams! haha.

On a fun note, I have bought a few items for the room, for storage!

I bought two of these little stacking boxes.



I bought one of these, it's teal.



I bought one of these, thus far, in lime green.

Since I am not even sure what will go in these things, I stopped buying more, for now.  Once I start to fill the room, I will have a better idea of what we need.

I have been eyeing these:

I want something similar to these; but, I am just not sold on one yet. :{

I also want some canvas totes; but, remember, I have to somehow incorporate red into the decor. Since the carpet is bright red! Ugh!  So, I want something cute, perhaps polka dot, that ties all these colors in:




We'll see....I may just have to get some cute artwork or something, and use these solid colored totes. I'll figure it out.

If you have any suggestions for cute, white shelves, or fun decor, I would love to hear them! Let me know! I could use some help!

Guess what? Tomorrow is Friday!

Renovations: Entertainment Center Make-Over

We are continuing the basement renovation and I’m beginning to plan the placement of furniture. While, thinking about the layout and design, my favorite part, I decided to change our 10+ year old entertainment center.

This entertainment center is on its last life, as far as I’m concerned. It has come so close to being taken to the ‘dump’ on several occasions. I am trying to think back to why we saved it exactly and I really can’t think of a reason. However, in our basement it’s been…just holding my old, non-flat screened, college TV.

And, since it has been so resilient, of course we are keeping it again! It just needs a little ‘tuning’ up, if you will. It’s getting pretty rough.

So, at work last Friday I made an executive decision concerning our entertaining friend. I thought to myself, "I'm gonna paint it!" I immediately googled how to paint particle board. I knew that paint wouldn't stick to that shiny exterior. So, what could I do?

According to....hmmm, I think it was 'HowTo.com', I should sand it first. It would give the board some 'grit' and the paint would then stick.  I shared my idea with Heath and there you have - we had a plan!

According to the site, I should use a 220 grit sand paper, which I started with. It worked; but, I was going through it like crazy! And, I felt like it was taking fore..ev...er! So, I eventually used 150 grit and that worked great! It made it go a lot quicker too!

Thank goodness we have a sander; I was planning on doing the whole thing by hand. THAT would have been a nightmare!

After I removed the shelves and doors, and I sanded, Heath wiped it off for me.

It looks weird, huh?

Now, on the saw horses, it was ready for a coat of white paint. We decided to use a flat paint, since that is what the rest of the basement is.

Here I am painting. My father-in-law was helping by touching up the corners, where my roller couldn't reach.

It took two coats to really cover it; but, I went through a third time, just to be anal. We were very pleased with the results!

And for all of you who are scrolling up and down, here is the comparison. :)



The only part that looks bad, is the lower, right cubbies. That is because there will be doors that cover that area. So, I wasn't too concerned about being particular on sanding or painting. And, there was like a faux, cardboard back, which was brown. The brown kept coming through the paint; so, it is tinged yellow-ish. Again, not a big deal; because no one will see it.

After some more thought, I probably could have painted it a fun color; however, I think with all of the toys in the room, and red carpet,  it could get a little cluttered. Overall, I'm glad I stuck with white! :)

The total approximate cost of this project was about $15.

Basement to Playroom Transition

This last weekend it began....begun? had begun? Anyway, you know what I mean...we started thee transition.

 When we moved into our home, it was obvious that the basement had been a playroom.  There were still tiny, dirty hand prints lining the wall down the stairs.  And, who would ever choose bright red carpet for any room other than a playroom? Yes - the carpet is bright red!

Immediately, we envisioned it as our children's playroom too.  That was back in 2007 though...before we were even married...before we filled that room with more junk than you can imagine...before it became the room where items go to die be stored.

I was going to take a before picture, and I do mean before picture. A picture showing the worst state the 'Red Room', as I call it, had ever been in.  Imagine this: totes stacked 4 high and 2 wide over in the corner, extra blankets, sleeping bags, and an air mattress shoved on the shelf in the other corner, DVDs and my beloved, puffy-cased Disney VHSs packed on not one, but two shelves, in the third corner, and in the fourth? Holiday totes and open boxes with random decorations protruding out the top. Lucy's baby clothes had officially taken over 4+ totes and we couldn't even get the lid on one of them. Her baby bottles, bouncy chair, and swing, in which she completely outgrew, were stacked on a recliner. The recliner still somehow faced the TV, not that we could actually use it.

You see...it didn't start this way. Things didn't start all strewn about.

There was once a Lucy-less time when the 'Red Room' was a workout area, a place to sort the laundry, and storage place for all of our keepsakes, in nice, organized totes in the corner. We had an entertainment center, a TV (it was old; but, it worked), a DVD Player, a treadmill, and even a table next to a neatly organized 'arts and crafts' area. Recently though? Mayhem.

The before, before picture would have been so awful that I am sure you all would have reported me to 'Hoarders' on A & E. Luckily, I forgot to take a picture though; so, I'm not even tempted to show you the mess. You will just have to imagine.

After we spent our Saturday morning cleaning out said basement, Heath did take some photos of the empty room. I will share those with the big reveal! :)

We took all of the stuff out, except for the big items (entertainment center, a twin bed, the treadmill, and a desk). Wow - listing these things makes this room sound huge. It's not...or it's about to not be...one of the two. You see here is the current lay out, minus all the junk:

I did the artwork myself....haha. It is totally to scale too. Not really. I am hoping that you can recognize the stairs and the window (especially with the tag: "window"), without too much explanation. However, the random squares and circles may require some explanation. I am not sure what each is or does; but, I know that they include the Heater/A.C., water heater, and water softener. What is the fourth one? No idea....I just know that two are rectangular and two are circular....haha. I am a stereotypical woman when it comes to that stuff. I could point out the heating/cooling unit though! I know that is the one on the far left.

These were exposed! Yes - this room was used as a playroom, with carpet, and these were, just, out there!

Our first priority was to cover them, safely. Our second priority was to make more storage and cover up those totes.  This is what we came up with:

I don't want to cover the window, as small as it is; nonetheless, we will be making a sort of 'cubby' type area there (where it says 'landing'). It will have a door, so we can put totes inside, and will be about 6 foot tall; but, the teeny tiny window won't be blocked and that's all that I care.

The construction begins this weekend and it is a chance for me to get my organization/decor in order. I have told you before: I love organizing!  I love putting things away! :) I am pumped about the thought of putting all of our stuff back! I literally want to yell "yay" right now.

So, I will be sure to share all of the things that I am looking at to help organize the room for Lucy. All I know right now is that the entertainment center is staying, the treadmill is moving to the 'den', and her toy box will be moving in.  I am looking into buying some more shelves or canvas totes though....more on that later.

Wish us luck; we'll need it!