Oh how I miss this place already! I know, I am pretty pathetic and ya.. no one has sympathy for us..😂. So.. back to reality it is. But real quick.. here are a few more pics of heaven!
Ok... so today I want to show you our basement transformation!!! Our contractor was able to finish it up while we were gone and boy oh boy I am friggin ecstatic about it! So to fill you in.. last June we bought a 1960's brick ranch rambler on 3.5 acres of property! Did I mention it had NEVER been remodeled.. ya.. we knew the house had mad potential but let's be honest.. we bought it for the land, the house could be redone. We started with the basement. Here she is in all her original glory! There is a kitchen, full bath, family room, 2 bedrooms and a storage/mechanical room. But, to access one of the bedrooms you had to go thru the scary dungeon😬. Like Home Alone scary! 
When we took these pics we had already ripped up the orange shag carpet because it was nasty!!! The paneling was everywhere and the fireplace wall.. it is AMAZING!!! I knew that we could paint the paneling, we did it in the last house and it looked great, soo, why not do it again? Plus there is a super cool door under the stairs that is integrated into the paneling. They were not messing around when they built this house folks!The bathroom and bedrooms were great, just dated, but the kitchen?! Oh my land! It was straight out of the 60's! Since the house is on the smaller side I knew I could get a sweet laundry room in this space that would double as a basement kitchen (plus, this is going to be our living space while we renovate the upstairs). The house has a daylight walkout basement so the light down here is pretty great. We also busted thru the paneled wall to get access to the other bedroom from the family room, now you can get there from the storage room and the family room. (After the upstairs renovation this will be the kids toy room) We opted for a a barn door here because they take up less space to open and they are pretty rad. So... ladies and gents... here it is now, in its undecorated glory!!!
Family room
Instead of doing carpet down here I went a different route and refinished the concrete floor. The previous owners had a flood back in the 80's when the irrigation water made it to the house, so we figured this would be easier to deal with in case it floods again and I am so glad we did!! All I had them do was grind the concrete down and seal it. The natural color and aggregate of the cement was really pretty and just what I wanted! Plus it's pretty low maintenance and I have a great rug I can throw down to warm it up. I had all the walls, ceiling and trim painted in "Simply White" by BM, the accent walls are "Agreeable Gray" by SW and the doors are "Carbonized" by SW. I love how bright it is down here and I love the black doors even more!The bedrooms were pretty simple, paint, trim, doors and carpet but.. we had some pesky acoustic ceiling tiles on the ceilings and ripping rhyme down was gonna be a pain. So I had my contractor get some inexpensive thin sheeting he could rip down into planks and boom! Shiplap look alike on the ceiling for crazy crazy cheap!!!
I love the imperfections of the ceiling because it adds character to the house. I went with a neutral color patterned carpet in these two rooms to warm them up a bit, I used this carpet in the last house only it was grey.. and it was too grey😬. But I love this combo🙌🏼 and the carpet is soo soft and super durable. 
Here is the "toy room" where we opened up the wall. Before there was a vanity with lights between the two closets. When the previous owners were building the house they used this as their master! The can lights in the ceiling are original and rad! So they had to stay. I kept the original doors in this room because they fit like a glove and let's be honest, it's the kids toy room.. I love designated toy rooms because it keeps the kids toys in one place, and you can let them destroy it. All you have to do is shut the door😘. 
Now to my favorite parts of the reno... the bath and laundry rooms! So the original bathroom layout was fine, just dated. We kept the original cast iron tub and that's about it! We took the grey subway tile up and on to the ceiling since this will be a kids bath and they seem to get water in the damnedest places... I didn't do a shampoo niche because the exterior wall framing was too shallow so we did the soap dishes in the corners.. no biggie. The original floor was vinyl, and since the hall was going to be concrete I decided to replace the vinyl with... new vinyl! It's an easy transition between the two and it's really durable and warm on the feet. Plus it's cheap as crap! Not even kidding... I kept the original mirror because its spectacular and it opens🙌🏼. Storage is everything and I like that it is original to the house. I did a grey wood grain look vanity with gray quartz. At first I thought the bathroom was too grey but I really love it now! Plus it's a boys bathroom so it's perfect!
DISCLAIMER it looks dark in the bathroom because there is a box leaning against the outside window... ya I could go out and move it but... we have 2 feet of snow out there and I was not gonna trudge thru the snow to move it.. sorry..
I really love this bathroom! Ok... on to my favorite room in the basement, the laundry/kitchen. The original kitchen was pink with turquoise firework linoleum counters, a sink, a stove from the 60's and more lively vinyl. What I loved about this room was the amount of light from the two large windows! I new I could make this a happy laundry room! I've always wanted a large laundry room, one with lots of storage,counter space and light. A place where I can let my OCD and addiction to glorious smelling cleaning supplies run wild! Where I can stockpile it all and have all the cleaning rags I want, even if I don't need 100 of them😬. This is me! When the world comes to an end, I may not have enough food for my family, but I shall have the cleanest house around!
So now that you know one of my dirty secrets, here she is!!
I friggin LOVE this room! Everything about it! I have always wanted to try this pattern on the floor and I want to marry it! It's amazeballs! And yes, it's vinyl! All the cabinet hardware came off the original cabinetry from this very room! Who knew it would come back in style! I added a few pendant lights above the sink, the ceiling lights and wall sconce are original to the house... although they may not make the final cut... I haven't decided if I like them yet😬 the wall sconce looks pink in person 😩 let's talk about this brick, shall we? I originally was going to just get a red brick and paint it white but when I went to pick it out I stumbled upon this glorious sight! It's a white and grey washed brick! It was only about $100 different in price and it had all the tones I was after.. so that was a no brained for me! I carried in the same grey quartz that is in the bathroom but did white cabinets in here to keep it bright. I love having a countertop over my washer and dryer, it makes laundry day soo much more enjoyable! (Although I still need a filler piece to fill in above the washer and dryer..). Across from the washer and dryer is another window and across from the sink is where the fridge and microwave and range will go from upstairs, so never mind the voids..
Right outside this room is the landing to the stairs with some built-ins.. I just had the doors painted black to tie them in with everything else...
And once again, I used the original hardware on the doors. I love the all the character and imperfections that pulled thru along with all the new! I can't wait to tackle the upstairs! Which is looking to be a lot sooner than I expected😬. As for Slipcovers... I'll be back to work in the next week with a bunch of pieces and am starting to fill up my schedule so let me know if you are wanting some fabulous Slipcovers!!!
