Thursday, November 1, 2012

Quad E's Playroom

So I mentioned in my toadstool post that my husband and I had worked on finishing our basement a few years ago. When we first bought our house, the basement was partially finished, the area right at the landing of the stairs was finished but then there was a huge part that was mostly unfinished. There was basic framing already up but nothing else.

See this panoramic picture of the basement area before we started work.

So after much dreaming and pouring through images of many basements and playrooms online, we decided on what we wanted for our basement and started the work. I'm blessed with a very handy husband, so he was able to spend his free time on weekends, finishing a little part of the basement. It took us a full year to get everything done but it was well worth it because we saved a lot of money! Spending around $4000 at the end of the day to get this project done.

Here is a panoramic view of the finished basement.
A picture of the much talked about playhouse.
 *Inside the playhouse.
The door and light switches are all child sized or level but the ceiling level is the same as it is outside so adults can go into the playhouse as well, just need to bend over quite a bit to get through the door.
My husband also built that corner bench with storage underneath, which is a super comfy space. We spend time reading there all the time and when I was pregnant with E4, I spent a lot of time laying down on that bench while the older kids played in the later months of my pregnancy.
And can you guess what those colored paint cans that line the top of the shelf on the right is made of? Used formula cans! I had the idea when we had E2 and E3 since we were going through so many of those formula cans, I vowed to find another use for some of them and voila, they turned into paint can decorations for our basement!

The round table that we use for crafts and the round side table that holds extra books were both found at various yard sales and refinished for our basement. There is so much I could share about this project but I'll just end it here. If you have anything you are curious about, feel free to ask in the comments.

So far it has standed up to the test of time and the kids. There were a few things we needed to update though after the kids actually spent time in it. We have rain gutter bookshelves attached to a sliding door and we had to reinforce those to stand the abuse from the kids. And the toadstool pots that originally decorated the "lower level" windows had to be moved to the "second level" windows because they were getting pulled at too much from the kids.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour, please leave some comments and show some love!

Zi

9 comments:

  1. How cute! You guys did a great job.

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  2. I love that shade of green! It is the same color as our bedroom!

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  3. What a beautiful play-basement! I don't think I've ever seen the finished product in-person! Love the color scheme and all the little details from the shutters, to the overhang, and child-level light switches. J loves light switches. Great use of the formula cans and cool bench/read/rest area! Question, did you have to move the white adult door next to the playhouse? I mean, is it flush with the playhouse door, or is there like a little corner there? Very cool project! Should definitely submit it to like Project Nursery or something.

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    1. We didn't have to move the white adult door, hubby built the playhouse flush with the door. The light switches are definitely a highlight for most of the kids that come over to play. Maybe when you guys are in the area next time you can come over and J can play with the Quad Es.

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  4. You are so creative. I wish I had ideas like you. And your husband is so awesome to help you make your dream in to reality. Your kids must love it! We hope to some day finish our basement too. But I know it will never be as cute as yours!

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