Our Basement

I was so excited to finish the den and show it to you that I completely forgot that I had not ever posted our new basement!  

Oops.

In March of 2008 a water main on our street burst and filled our basement with 30" of water.

It had never been a finished basement but the water didn't really help and two of the walls where the water had rushed in were damaged.

And so, in the summer of 2011 we had our house lifted and rebuilt the basement.

And finally, over a year later, it is, for the most part, done!

Join me for a tour!

These over-sized scrabble letters set the tone for a fun, family focussed rec room.
The shelf is from Ikea.  We laid it on its side and added castors.  In a pinch it can double as extra seating.

Here we have the games area.  Our dvd's and board games are stored on the shelves.  I stained and varnished this $15 table that I bought from Kijiji.  It's nice to have a spot to play games or to do puzzles.

We can't decide if air hockey or ping pong should live here.
Votes?

This is our entertainment area.
All the video games are in boxes and the controllers are tucked in the baskets.
I know I've already gushed about it but I'll tell ya again...I adore that my husband hid the cords so beautifully!!!

We all enjoy our little kitchen.

These are my World Market stools that we dragged home from Seattle.

The backsplash is chalkboard so we can write fun notes to each other.

I LOVE a checkerboard floor.  LOOOOOVE.
This is one of my most favourite things in our whole house.
See how my thrifted metal baskets have found a home?

We got a cozy new sectional that all 6 of us can fit on.
No more sqashing into our double bed for movies!
Now, I am dying to be laying out pretty blankets and pillows, but I've decided that in fairness to the kids, this should not become a space that belongs to me and has to look a certain way to please my tastes.  It's not fun for a kid to have to keep fluffing pillows and refolding blankets.  So instead we have one blanket for each family member stuffed into the ottoman.  Clean up takes seconds.

My dream was to have a tin ceiling.  However, my dream was crazy expensive.  I am thrilled with the second place and far less expensive bead board panels.

The curtains are from Target...cut apart and hemmed.  Two curtains covered four windows with some extra left over.  The curtain hangers are Ikea.

I chose these doors to tie in with the bead board on the cupboards and ceiling.  And the knobs are so much fun!  Love this shape.

I put some fun vinyl wall words on the way down the stairs,

along with the kids' school photos and their little hand tracings.

We are so thrilled to have this amazing new space to play and relax and hang out with family and friends.  It has been a looooong journey but the end results were worth it.
Thank-you Daddy (Dino) for your endless hard work!