The New Basement Master Plan

You gotta have an end goal. 

If I've learned one thing in the last decade of home improvement-ing, it's that having/holding that final vision is key to not giving up, not getting frustrated and moving forward. 

Will you stick to the exact end goal vision? No way. But you gotta start with some end goal in mind. 

For the basement, it took me a few weeks to finalize in my head how I'd want to use each area. What would be most useful for my family. How will we use it? What do we need? What do we have that we need to accommodate. 

There's a lot of weird angles, and small areas I needed to work around, too. And I have growing girls, so, "teen hangout" came up a lot. 

Well, here's the layout! 

At the bottom of the stairs, you've got the pool table to one side, and the kitchenette in the play space/hallway room where guests get beer. Originally, this was where the TV was, but the space was too tight to fit a sofa across from it. So, the room will be storage and toys.

The table will be set up there, too, for games, poker, teen games, etc. (NOT BEER PONG!) 

Then the hallway past the craft cabinet to a crafty desk, where I can sew or the girls can paint, on the way to the TV area. 

I went into detail of this space in this Basement Plans for TV Area post. 

Most of the setup for the area near the stairs can start now, as there was no damage from the hurricane. We moved some things around last weekend, so here's what it looks like currently. 

First the kitchenette area in the alcove: 

BTW - All that chair rail is GOING AWAY. I can't stand it in this basement. It chops up the wall and makes the ceiling feel shorter, amiright?! 

And we haven't moved the pool table over (we need more man power, it's hella heavy), so, for now, we set up the space to be a "teen hangout/movie watching spot" until the construction finishes in the back part of the basement. 

Leah was especially excited to see this space. It's not huge and won't accommodate a big party, but it will do for a few kids. 

Plus, we can use the treadmill and watch TV again, something we all enjoyed doing in the old house. 

One last thing to share ... 

The stairs leading down the the basement are just NASTY. 

I pulled up a section and found little worms living in the cushioning. GAH! Nasty! 

It was on the contractor's list of things to tackle while he's rebuilding the water damaged area but it put us over our budget, so I had to pull it off. I'm hoping to DIY it. Who knows. Anyway, this is how I want it to look: 

From Arrows & Bow InstaStory (website)

Such a better experience for anyone coming down to hang out in the basement or just picking up a beer from the fridge (WHICH WILL BE LOCKED DURING TEEN GATHERINGS!) 

OK. Planning done. Now to purchase all the supplies to get start. 

More later!