ye olde basement

The hubs and I made a little goal.

Perhaps a New Year's resolution, but who really knows.

We are finishing the family room in our basement, in a month. And now we can't back down since the internet has been informed.

We've been working on finishing off our basement for awhile now. When we moved in it was all unfinished, rocking the cement floors and creepy insulation (did insulation scare anyone else as a child?). We've since put up walls and ceilings, laid carpet and laminate flooring, painted, put up shelves and doors, and even added an egress window. (And when I say "we" please know that I mostly mean the hubs and his dad, although I have done my fair share of painting and valuable opinion giving.) Our once barren basement now includes a laundry room, storage space, a family room, an art room for me and a bouldering cave for the hubs. And a room that is  someday meant to be a second bathroom but for now we just call it "place where we keep a bunch of crap."

Here's the family room now. First steps include painting the trim and the walls.



The hubs is making some built in shelves for this wall.



I'm getting excited to reorganize and decorate the room so that it becomes a more cohesive space, rather than a pile of mismatched stuff. I think one of the biggest challenges will be to find a way to inexpensively cover the couch and futon so they are at least somewhat matching each other and the rest of the room.



My job, you ask? Well I'm sure I'll get to do my fair share of painting again, but I also have curtain duty. We really want to get them up quickly since the window is at ground level. I've only ever made curtains with the help of my dear mother in the past, and have never come to the conclusion that I am talented in the sewing department. This will be the first time that I'm doing it all on my own. And while I'm not really looking forward to venturing into this uncharted territory, especially when the only time I have to do it is after 8pm when the little miss goes to bed and all I REALLY want to do at that time is....also go to bed, I am excited to have nice curtains.

First step of washing and ironing the fabric is done. I bought a TON of fabric (I had no idea how much I needed) and it took me an entire episode of Parenthood to iron it. That's an hour, in case you were wondering.

And I be like "WOAH. I hate ironing."

For real, I never iron. I have one of those mini ironing boards from Ikea.



Not the best for a very very large piece of fabric. I ended up spreading a towel under the fabric across the table.

Nonetheless. I am DETERMINED to succeed. Take that sewing.

I'll let you know if we make it! We really want to have everything finished by the time Brian's family comes out to visit in mid February. Go us!!!