Basement update

I'm off to Toronto for work this week and I'll spend the weekend in Ottawa visiting a friend and her new baby girl. Adam tells me he'll have the basement painted by the time I get home, which I couldn't be more excited about. Every other project in our house is on hold until the basement is finished, so I can't wait for the painting to be done! As a reminder, our basement basically looks like this:

Unfortunately I didn't take any true 'before' photos, so picture a 70's man cave complete with half-stucco, half-wood paneled walls, a giant vinyl bar (maroon), lots of mirrors and no light. It was bad.

Now the paneling, stucco, mirrors and bar are gone, the exterior walls have been insulated, framed and drywalled, and we have more outlets and overhead lighting (don't let that one sentence fool you - it was A LOT of work). Because the 'den' is so small (and framing/insulating the walls cost us more space), we decided to lose the window and create a storage room. Here's a terribly-lit progress photo:

We're thinking about adding loads of shelving in here at some point, so getting rid of the window made sense. I convinced Adam to leave the ceiling unfinished and just paint it (we got rid of that fiberglass insulation though). I figure drywall is really heavy, I'm short and it's a storage room. In other words, the cost-benefit ratio isn't good. Painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls will help it blend in and adding some simple trim along the tops of the walls will help it look more 'finished' (we're thinking thin pine strips painted the same colour as the walls/ceiling). This beautiful artist's rendering of said trim gives you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Of course we're also going to paint the floors and add baseboard. Here's another terrible progress shot - this time of the 'rec room':

You can see there's one remaining section of gross stucco. Since this room will be Adam's teaching studio and rehearsal space, we're going to cover that section of wall with pegboard to create a storage area for headphones, microphones, cords, etc. (I've come across tons of great inspiration photos on Pinterest). We'll likely switch out those lights for something nicer too.


via

The ceiling in here is pretty low, but luckily much nicer looking than the storage room's, so the plan is to paint it the same colour as the walls. With everything the same colour, the wires and pipes will hopefully blend in and the whole room should feel more open and light than it would if we 'finished' the ceiling. We've chosen Behr's Premium Plus Ultra Interior Eggshell Enamel in Desert Springs (it's kind of a greeny-grey) for both rooms:

We like that it's a paint and primer in one, and that it's durable, scrubbable and mildew resistant. For the baseboard and trim, we're planning to use the same colour we've got upstairs (did I mention we already have the paint?) - Sico's Cotton Rag Paper:

Adam and his father have already added trim to the window (and created a nice ledge for a plant or two). We're planning to use similar trim around the doors and a wider version for the baseboard (we'll also fill those screw holes and paint the window for a seamless finish).

We're still researching floor paints, but we're thinking of a colour like Behr's Intellectual:

So that's the progress and the plan, and now we'll see how much Adam can get done while I'm away!