Basement Re-do

If you've been following us for awhile, you'll know that we sold our house in April and moved into my parents' home since they've gone to Florida. We're paying rent but while we're here we are paying down our debt and it has been an adjustment downsizing but now that we are a few months into it, we are really loving the smaller space. It isn't tiny home small, but it is about half of what we had and we ARE a family of six so you know, it was tight to start. I feel like we've adjusted well and everyone has their own little space.  

We also got rid of a lot of things and honestly? I don't hate it. It has been so great for my anxiety to be around less stuff. 

In the effort to make it homey, we had to build a bedroom for us and Matt built me an office/craft room/library and it is maybe the best room I have ever had. I love it so much. Both of these rooms are in the basement after we hauled things in, we realized the floor needs to be painted. 

So we started that. It was a BIG job and in hindsight, I wish we had thought to do this before you know, we moved our stuff in because it would have been easier but no- we have a tendency to make everything harder on ourselves. It's just how we roll. 

Instead, this project consisted of doing one section of floor at a time, then moving stuff to do another section of floor. Admittedly, those two shelves in the back are SO heavy and we didn't do under those. We basically gave up but it is in a dark corner and we'll do it eventually. Probably. 

The floor was in great shape, it just hadn't been painted in awhile and who thinks to really paint a basement floor? We did it in our old house as we were selling just so it looked fresher and we were so surprised at how great it looked so we thought it would do the same here. 

We looked into other flooring options too but it just didn't make sense right now and we're on a budget so paint it is because our Menards rebate covered it. *Bonus*

Because I know someone will ask, this is the paint we used. I really don't know if it is satin or semi-gloss finish, I just know it is that brand, porch & floor paint, and in battleship gray. Which honestly looks more like a blue/gray in person to me, but I think it looks really nice. So this is the after (and no, we didn't sand the floor down because I don't care, I just wanted it painted, don't come after me HGTV) and it already looks SO. MUCH. NICER. 

Seriously, look how much bigger it looks! This is the view if you're standing in my bedroom doorway. We also painted the walls white so it just looked cleaner/brighter in here. 

Matt's little desk area is a million times cleaner now that he organized his shelf (he has baskets, you guys!), computer parts aren't all over the floor in "organized piles", tools are out to the garage, and crap that we don't need is actually gone. 

This is the doorway from my office. Matt said he isn't going to finish those walls so I need to just be OK with half done walls. Which, I honestly don't care at this point. I have a dresser there that stores our kid things I'd like to save, and my new filing cabinet that opens all the way. I know, I'm 38 and I just now got an actual filing cabinet, I feel like a real grown up now. It is just so much nicer down here. We kept the floor swept and mopped regularly but now that it is all one color it just feels cleaner. Is that weird? 

We even have our treadmill and recumbent bike down here in one area. I'm trying to talk Matt into us getting a small home gym thing because we actually have room for a smaller one. Nothing huge, but something a little more compact than the big ones. Maybe in the new year when everyone and their brother is trying to buy one, right? 

So that has been one of the things taking up our time lately. I have a few things I'm working on and Matt is working on making a door (or changing a pre-made one to fit the weird space) for under the basement stairs. One of the things I miss from our old house is the closet in my office. I stored EVERYTHING in there but it was especially great for Christmas gifts. I threw most things in there and then when I had time to wrap, I'd wrap and stack everything nicely in there and Christmas Eve would be all easy peasy. 

We do not have that here and it makes me wonder where the hell my mom store Christmas presents when were kids in this house?!

Anyways. Matt is fixing something up for me. But it'll be nice and double as the place to store mops (is there a good way to store mops?!) and then my wrapping paper containers. I have all of my gift wrap in these two huge containers and they are awesome, but odd size and I'm forever moving them around, so they'll go in this area. I'll share pictures when it's all done, don't worries!