Basement Renovation - The Final Reveal

Can it be? Can we really be done with the basement? Well, yes and we have been for a little while, minus a few tweaks that we just finished...but it has definitely been livable and playable for some time. This evening with Miss Bailey asleep, we got to clean it up enough to take some pictures without our little tornado running around.

It seemed to take forever for our carpet to come in so we took the time to work on a few other projects while we had the open space. But as soon as we got the call that the carpet was in and they were coming to install, we got to work cleaning out all the dust and debris. It was a full family affair as my family helped move some of the big stuff out, Brian did most of the heavy cleaning and lifting, Bailey threw on one of her favorite princess dresses and played Cinderella and Tequila helped eat chunks of the drywall dust.

Our little Cinderella

Clean enough to do a little yoga

The carpet guys came early in the morning and got to work right away. Bailey tried entertaining them a few times but they never slowed and got all the carpet in by mid afternoon. Carpet was our major splurge for this renovation...we wanted something super durable and very cushy so this prego and the kiddos could sit and play for hours. It was totally worth the extra money spent! Bailey pretty much summed up my feelings for the carpet in this clip:

She spent most of the afternoon doing this...

Didn't take her long to figure out the stairs

Let's just say we eventually wore ourselves out. Here are a few pics of the carpet around the entire basement:

With the carpet in, the real work could be started (ha ha honey...I mean the fun, pretty work). The first was a play kitchen for Miss Bailey and her sister. We wanted to get this in first so that we could work on the basement while keeping her occupied at the same time. This was a total surprise for Bailey so she didn't have a hand in the building and it was a lot harder to sneak around than you would think. I'll have another post with more information on how we created the play kitchen, but for now here is the finished product and Miss Bailey's reaction:

We like to get fancy for our reveals...if you haven't noticed...

Bailey was really excited to see a photo of herself in the window

The second major project was the built ins for our TV. When we opened up the back room and took out the wall, we lost quite a bit of storage and we wanted to make up for it with built ins. After a lot of research and pinning, I found a design I wanted to aim for with a lot of extra tweaks. I'll do another post about how we built everything later on but I can tell you we saved a ton of money doing it ourselves, with a few bones from IKEA and matching materials from Menards. I think I'm most proud of the doors that we built ourselves because we saved about $275 on that alone. Of course Miss Bailey helped Daddy whenever she could (and was allowed to).

The bones we started with

Bailey helping with the hinges

Custom built doors

A look at the finished project (and of course JoJo is on)

One last view

We are really excited with the way they've turned out and the best news is that Bailey can't open the doors just yet so we can keep things in there without child safety locks for a few more months!

Now to one of my favorite parts of the basement...the playroom. I don't know who is more excited with the playroom...Bailey or us. We love that she has a place to roam free and make as much of a mess that she wants while we can relax and not have to worry about her getting into things she shouldn't...or leaving our kitchen a disaster. Here are a few pics of the (momentarily) cleaned up playroom:

Check out the free rocking horse we stumbled upon!

 

We will probably add a few more pictures to the wall, but the main focal point are these awesome Disney Princesses images that xNoxyArt created and enlarged so I could create a gallery wall. She is so responsive and does fantastic work, I definitely recommend her and plan on going to her for more work in the future! And Bailey totally squealed when she saw her favorite princesses on the wall.

Seriously, how fun are these?

Did I mention that we are definitely glad to be having another girl? Not sure how boy stuff would fit in with all the princesses.

Now, on to the rest of the basement. We added baseboards and crown moulding, doors to the HVAC closet, a railing for the stairs and the elliptical and treadmill to the workout area.

Tequila's a fan of the carpet (and the couches)

View from the stairs

Stairway

To show how much work we did, I have a few before and after photos with some before and after comparisons...enjoy!

It may have seemed we drug our feet on some of the finishing touches but we've been just a bit busy...with growing a new human, raising a tornado (Bailey), a few injuries and of course creating a new nursery all at the same time. It has definitely been a labor of love, but we are really proud of our work and can't wait to make plenty more memories in our new basement.

Our next update will be the nursery, which is almost finished...and we have just about 4-1/2 weeks to go until we meet the new Schorr princess so it's crunch time! I'll also do a few breakout posts about the play kitchen and built ins because we've had a few requests.

Before I go I want to give a special thanks to everyone that helped us out with this project. To my husband who tirelessly busted his tail getting everything done during his free nights and weekends, I love you so much and thank you for putting up with all my requests and crazy ideas. To my Dad who guided us through many challenges and spent a lot of time and energy helping us create the space and showing us how to do it right, even when we had to make a couple calls to China to reach you. To my Mom who helped clean up so many times, helped with the lifting and the building, and mainly helped wrangle the monkey so we could get some work done. To my brother who also helped wrangle the monkey but also did a lot of the heavy lifting. To Zac Besse for helping us get the couches back to the house and moving them in for us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts...we appreciate you all and couldn't have done it without you!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian, Bailey, Tequila and Baby Girl Schorr #2

Sending our love and prayers to all those that were affected by the storms and tornadoes yesterday, we were fortunate not to have any damage but know a lot of people that were not as lucky.