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The third room in the series of “Midsummer Projects” was formerly used by the previous owners as a guest bedroom, slash, more abundant and continued storage area! As in most of the rooms around the home, it was a lovely hue of bright lavender pink on the walls. The woman who used to live here loved the color of pink, most shades from hot bubblegum hues to deep pink/purple kitchen and bathroom countertops. With four sons and a husband who didn’t seem to mind, even her master bedroom was hot pink, and almost the entire house followed suit!
Most of the basement was already gyproced and painted some sort of wash color (mostly pink!) and even carpet was semi-installed. The ceiling had not been finished, proper lighting installed (two lightbulbs for ¾ of the basement only), baseboards, doors, doorframes, the stairwell and window wells were incomplete. We were informed a large extent of illegal electrical wiring had been installed within all the inner walls, all in need of full replacement to obtain a new electrical inspection for the final completion of our own personal upgrade renovation to the basement. This was a huge added expense we weren’t prepared for and shocked at what had been used if only for safety sake. Since we had requested the name of the original building contractor and were using him solely with all the original subtrade businesses, all were able to acknowledge what was changed over the course of the short five year span since final completion was granted from their own work inside/outside.
BEFORE!
The eletrical breaker box is now happily out of sight.
AFTER!
Resting out of sight behind the door!
The electrical circuit box was now boxed-in and formed with walls and a doorway to enter into for quick access. But it was now hidden out of sight, and the walls were gloriously beige in color. Thank goodness.
A new doorway was punched in at the top right corner of this photo for access into the three rooms mentioned in the last post, all entered into from the little hallway with ceramic tiles inserted in the flooring shown in the previous photos. Someday, for better traffic flow, hubby and I thought to have a better doorway straight across from the new one, so we can walk straight across the room, rather than diagonally as it stands now.
Same picture - BEFORE!
Along the same wall - AFTER!
I painted an old Ikea coat hanger white,
just perfect for placing our various rubber bands here.
So, back to this third room. When the moving truck arrived, the subtrades weren’t yet finished with final touches of the basement renovations. Therefore many pieces of furniture and an abundance of fully loaded moving boxes were initially assigned to this room, loaded onto tabletops and other furniture for a resting/holding place. The room was full indeed but all items were in the center of the room for the painter who had yet to complete the baseboards freshly installed by the finishing carpenters.
Slowly but surely all the boxes were moved out eventually, furniture too. This room was to become the “exercise room” or “family gym”. Our former home had a special little room for our treadmill and other assorted equipment, and last summer a “Bowflex Extreme” was ordered for the room, along with an upright exercise bike as our former one had bit the dust. All was ready to use, to workout, if only we could get access to all within it! I suppose this exposed bit of information wouldn’t be complete unless I also add the fact that my hubby and son took an entire afternoon to assemble the bowflex, and then a sudden change in health occurred for my hubby and he’s not even been able to use the equipment since. Therefore it became a non-priority on the long list of goals to complete, until now. The rest of the family wants in there, if only to use a the devices to our benefit now.
Due to the diagonal traffic flow as mentioned above, all items remaining within this space had to be ordered in a special way. But it’s literally taken me one year to figure out how to do just that, take stock of what would need to be organized, beginning with the removal of the wooden table, stacked high with schooling/learning materials, and other assorted items not required to be stored here.
But where?
Ah-Ha! I finally knew….
It was fun containerizing and labeling baskets for exercise room smaller items. I have walkmans and music ready, bottled water, videos and dvd exercise movies, free weights and pilates balls in the baskets. Magazines I haven't had time to read are also here for bike riding sessions. Everything is ready, now to get the time to get in here for my regular routines posted on the walls!
Therefore, here are a few before and after photos for you to see how the room has progressed. I wish I had a few “middle” photos to show you the difference on our decluttering beforehand as well, but you will have to use your imagination on that one. If anything, just imagine moving a few hundred pound bowflex piece of equipment with not only its weight, but also carefully ensuring the ceiling wasn't damaged in the process! It was a huge job!
2x2 feet ceiling panels and daylight lighting.
I want to make mention here on how wonderful it is to have excellent lighting in a basement without many windows. It’s very important to me to have this in place, so my hubby designed the ceiling with 2x2 foot ceiling tiles in a suspended ceiling, matching it with custom fitted 2x2 foot lighting. It becomes daylight at any time of day now, super for all areas of living on this lower floor.
AFTER
The new doorway is located where the boxes
were on the shelves in the photo above.
