What Ana Does

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 an...

Now that demo is underway, here's the BIG plan for the room ... I've tried to keep most of the plumbing in the same place, which saves on cost and time. There are two pipes that need to move: the right sink and the bathtub. This doesn't show the closet, which is getting new paint, consistent flooring and LED lights. I created a budget, with price estimates on all the items that we need to purchase and a total. And I'm also keeping track of actual costs, and trying to keep under that estimate total. So far, I'm sticking to it. I splurged on a few things, like the sink faucets, but most things I got on sale or for a good price. The vanities were 50% off and the light fixtures were under $30/each! Fingers crossed we stay on time AND on budget.  Related links: Follow the whole Master Bathroom transformation

A few months ago, the girls became roommates and Leah's room got turned into a crazy-messy play room. It's pretty much been that way ever since. But lately, the girls have talked about NOT sharing a room anymore. Alice might want to sleep in a little later on a school day. And I don't blame her. But we've always had a challenge with arranging the furniture in Leah's room ... the bed specifically. There's really only ONE way to do it and that's with the bed running down the middle of the room. I made a quick drawing of the layout ... And here's a photo of the bed and the niche from when we moved in and decorated back in 2012 ... While the bed looks good in the middle of the room, it takes up a lot of valuable floorspace. And Leah has requested an alternative location for the bed when she moves back in. Where oh WHERE can I put it? Related Links: The 2012 post of Leah's room complete An idea of how to get rid of that nook that did...

Just recording some BEFORE pictures of the basement, as it's going to get quite a transformation! These two images are from the wall looking back at the staircase in both directions. This view is going to be finished as one long room. The ping-pong table will move to the middle and the farthest wall will be the media area. Still trying to decide about flooring ... carpet? Laminate? This angle (below) shows the future location of the unfinished storage room (around that aqua-blue shelf), and the bedroom (far right area). So when the project is finished, this view will be walls and two doors. As you can tell, a lot of clean-up is still in progress. We're filling up a big dumpster bag in the garage and have recycled a LOT of cardboard boxes. And there's more to be trashed. Though, I can leave some stuff in the unfinished area, but I'm being careful to vet it before I decide to hang on to it. Related Posts:  The basement floor plans .

While I was away I was also emailing with our chosen contractor on the last few details of the basement project. We're finishing the unfinished basement! To catch you up, we weeded out the contractors we didn't like or had a HUGE price tag and decided to go with the guy who built our deck. His proposal was good and he was willing to work with us on price. I met with him yesterday, approved the proposal and hit the GREEN LIGHT to get this puppy started! He's going to redraw up the plans based on some changes we made and get to the city permits office to get that ball rolling. So exciting! Here's the second, but not final, version of the floor plan: Highlights:  We're adding a bathroom with a shower. This was a deal-breaker for my hubby since we are also adding a bedroom. There was NO rough-in for a bathroom so a large part of the budget is being spent on a plumber to add the necessary utilities. The bathroom is in this location because it's close ...