The Basement Remodel

Today I am going to take you on a journey.  A visual journey.  The journey of our basement's life, from scary black walls and cement flooring, to happy, cheerful preschool.  It took us about 9 months total time (that included some serious cleaning out, and demolition), which was a lot longer than I thought it would.  And I've said more than once, if I would have realized what a huge project it was going to become, I probably would have said "forget it!"  But, I didn't know, and so we got ourselves in to a huge remodeling project, that we thought would be one room, and ended up being 3/4 of our basement!

Here are some of the before pictures.  This is the old shower in the black, scary bathroom.  It was so weird, we even knocked on the door of our future neighbor's house when we were looking to buy, and asked them if there was any chance the previous owners did drugs in the house.  Their color scheme was, to say it kindly, a little like a creepy Halloween house.

 Here is the walls coming down in the back room, revealing some beautiful wood paneling, which quickly got torn down as well.

This is looking from the laundry room into the bathroom and hall area.

 The hall leading to the back room.

 The back room, all cleared out.

Oh wait!  What is this, you say?  The project just got bigger.  We now have decided to demo the guest room and change the orientation of the future preschool.  Why?  Because our hallway was 4 inches to narrow for fire code.  And we were afraid the building inspector wouldn't grandfather it in.  

And here is that same area, with the new dry wall on it.

And this is looking at the back room now (at least one side of it).  The other side is now going to be a bedroom.  Someday.  That part of the project got put on hold when we realized we were in over our heads.

Then we painted.  With a lot of help from my sisters and their kids.  And then we decided that we needed to do something with our laundry room, as well, because the preschool kids will walk through it every day as they come in.

 So we took it all apart and painted it, too.

The carpet and linoleum came.

 The kids were so happy, they did back bends and head stands.

They watched a movie and slept down there one night, which was very exciting.

The laundry room is becoming white, instead of dark blue.

One day my dad came to help.  And suddenly my uncle Steve showed up too!  It was like two for the price of one.  And we were pretty desperate for help by then.

 How fun!  And soooo appreciated!!

And now we're done!!  Yay!!  Here is my little reading nook (with my "Read like you mean it!" sign, courtesy of my cute niece Eliza).

 One side of the room.

And the other.  Abi and Lili are in my class!

 I love my tree.  Only the trunk and branches are painted so that I can change the decorations each month for my theme.

My bright and cheery laundry room.

New bathroom.  Not black anymore! 

 The fence is where they hang their backpacks and coats.  Dustin made it.  I love it!

 A closet and the beam, that used to be in the wall of the guest room.  Now it is my growth chart.

 Another view of the reading nook.

And me in action on the first day of preschool. 

We are so incredibly grateful for everyone that helped out.  My dad and Dustin's dad both came a number of times.  All of my sisters took part in one way or another.  My mom helped me demo the guest room one day, which was no easy feat.  Uncle Steve, a few really kind neighbors, and many others played a big part in getting it done in time for preschool to start.  Dustin, especially, spent every night and Saturdays, for the last two months, working and stressing on this.  What an amazing hubby!!  My kids were awesome to help and be understanding (for the most part).  And now, preschool has started, and this is becoming our new normal.