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<\/a><\/p>\nI love, love, love this space. \u00a0It’s one of those places that you kind of visualize in your mind and then when you’re finished it’s even better than you thought it would be. \u00a0I especially love that for a basement, it is so open to the outside. \u00a0I love the storage (Can a house ever have too many closets? I thought not.). I love that I don’t have to run nearly so far and not through a freezing cold basement to do laundry. \u00a0I love that we can create a separate space for guests. \u00a0I love that we have a separate space to do school.<\/p>\n
So, here it is. \u00a0The basement was roughly framed already when we moved in. \u00a0Well, really, there was just a bedroom \/ closet framed. \u00a0Thanks to a suggestion from Chief Brian, David re-worked the existing openings so that you could enter the bedroom immediately when you go\u00a0down the steps instead of circling the entire basement. \u00a0Best improvement of the plan by a long shot. \u00a0David also added a second doorway which cuts into the wall space a lot, but makes for direct access to the bathroom. \u00a0And he added a bathroom, a storage room with lots of finished shelves, a closet in the hallway, and a laundry closet right by the table where we do school.<\/p>\n The owner of the house preferred drop ceiling for easy access to ductwork and pipes, so David did drop ceiling everywhere it covered lines and drywalled the rest. \u00a0I love that it gives us higher ceilings than the typical drop ceiling everywhere and also that it defines the main room as two separate areas.<\/p>\n The boys love their room more than they’ve ever loved any of their bedrooms. \u00a0I’d been dreaming of creating this canvas canopy for them ever since I saw it in a Pottery Barn magazine as a prop about three years ago. \u00a0I brainstormed about ways to do it with PVC pipe and David, of course, came up with a far more brilliant idea. \u00a0He created what we called a hood because it looked so much like a stove hood. \u00a0Then I begged my friend, Nola, to come help me. \u00a0She’s a genius with a \u00a0sewing machine. \u00a0I knew I could do it alone, but I also knew I’d probably do a lot of picking and figuring out. \u00a0Nola whipped out her tape measure and a pencil, cut out some pieces and told me exactly which piece to sew next so that it would all go together seamlessly. \u00a0She’s a genius I tell you. \u00a0When she left it was close to supper time and I had the top together and was just starting to do the windows. \u00a0I wasn’t about to stop when I was on a roll and by eleven o’clock that night I emailed her a picture of the canopy hanging from the top of my frig. \u00a0I still think of her every time I see it. \u00a0I wonder if she even owns a seam ripper.<\/p>\n The boys absolutely loved the canopy. \u00a0When they moved into their room, they spent the entire first hour just sitting on their bed reading books! It’s so cozy in there. \u00a0Odd thing to say about a basement, but it’s true! \u00a0I love the navy color of their room, too. \u00a0I was afraid to use so much color in a smallish room, especially without a lot of window light. \u00a0But when my sisters-in -law came to paint we hemmed and hawed about which wall to paint navy and finally concluded it could handle lots. The boys love it! They wish all four walls were dark, but I think one wall of greige helps to bring a little light to a room that is still darker than main level living. I wish it were possible to take an accurate color picture in a basement, because it really is a pretty navy.<\/p>\n Because the room doesn’t have much wall space, David built in shelving in the boys’ closet. \u00a0Now there is plenty of space to organize their clothes and all their fun boy gear. \u00a0Ski gear. Snorkeling gear. Hunting gear. Backpacks. Binoculars. \u00a0And all the other fun boy stuff that happens.<\/p>\n The entire basement is still mostly minus art; but I think about it most in the bathroom. Probably because I know what I want to do in that room most definitively. \u00a0It was basement, baby, kitchen remodel, school so art can wait. But next summer, I’m hoping to have some fun adding the fun artsy part to these rooms and Zara’s nursery. \u00a0For now, I think it’s pretty cool that Adam can display some of his own oil paintings.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n