Yes I know, cliche but SO true! What a difference paint can make!

The basement of our house is multifunctional. Part of it is Chef Kev’s media room (or “man cave” as some may say… but not me, because that term kind of annoys me) and the other part is a one bedroom (currently vacant) income suite. And ALL of it was UGLY.

For reals. Industrial blue/grey carpet, painted brown trim and doors (nope, not wood but deliberately painted milk chocolate brown trim and doors). And yes, it was oil based. And the cherry on top? Well, not a cherry but rather mustard. Yes, mustard yellow walls to go with the blue carpet and milk chocolate trim and doors.

Yum.

It was all kinds of special. The top two floors of our house had been nicely updated by past owners but heading down the basement was like entering a different dimension. We are going to renovate the basement down the road and will update the carpet at that time so for now it stays. However, milk chocolate had to become white chocolate and mustard had to become grey. It was an order (by me).

But enough about that… you want before and afters right? I’ll share the space leading down to Chef Kev’s non-man-cave but save the suite paint for another post.

Oh, and due to the MONSTROSITY of this job (four coats on all the trim and doors anyone?), we hired it out. Thank goodness for Uncles who paint #unclechrisforthewin! #andhisfriendmike

Opening the door to head to the basement used to look like this (not too ugly yet but just you wait)…

(See, the real ugly is starting).

But now it looks like this:

And now…

We still have a ton to do in here (details in this post) but it’s starting to take shape!

Before:

Oh, notice the brown venetian shades too? Evvverywherrrre down here…. But gone now… We have some white ones that are going to be installed this weekend.

The other side of the room before:

And now:

And one more thing to note, looking towards the hall before you will see we had three doors in about 6 square feet (the one you can’t see is the one I showed earlier which leads to the hall between our side and the suite). THREE. Weird.

So, now we have one (the one you can’t see from this angle but I promise it’s there). Because, ain’t nobody got time for three doors!

So, here we are! Still a lot to do but SO much fresher and brighter. And the carpet doesn’t even look half bad now since it’s paired with colours that MAKE SENSE!  Sorry, to yell, just passionate that milk chocolate and mustard never ever need to meet again.

Progress!

Chef Kev’s recreation room (or “man cave” as some may say) needs help. We haven’t done anything to the room since we moved in this past summer and it’s time to show it some love. Manly love of course. So, we’re going to be a dude and bromance this space.

Eventually we are going to take over our whole lower level and make a large media/recreation room (part of the basement is currently a suite). The future reno will be a big one, so won’t happen for awhile. Until then, we definitely want to infuse a little character into Chef Kev’s space and make it look better then it does currently.

The room does not have much natural light since it’s in the basement which isn’t a big problem really, as the room is mostly used for TV watching. However, it still feels drab and dull.

Here are a few photos that I shared in my “settling in” post back in the Fall.

Well, this just can’t work the way it is. Sure, it’s moderately functional but… Oh but. The mustard walls and brown painted doors and trim sneer at me each time I walk downstairs. I sneer back mind you, but they are still #winning. SO, I did what any person who claims a wall is sneering does… I made a plan to change it!

Here is a mood board of where we are going…

1) artwork – I have some AMAZING vintage London Underground posters that my mother-in-law gave me. I plan to frame those and get them up. I also have some awesome English pub trays too which will definitely find a home here (Did I mention Chef Kev’s family is British)?

2) industrial shelves – will add a masculine touch plus provide room for storage. Something like these ones (shown above).

3) a manly clock or something along those lines. The one in the mood board is from here.

4) bookshelves to go in the weird ‘nooks’.

5) our existing sectional

6) our existing TV – we’d like to update our TV stand too (not shown)

7) farmhouse style coffee table – I’d like to redo a Craigslist find with a rustic treatment (reference photo)

8) paint! – a light grey on the walls and a dark charcoal in the media alcoves. And the trim, all getting a fresh coat of white paint.

So this is the vision for where we are heading. As you can probably tell, I’m going for a rustic, masculine space. Everything Chef Kev needs to drink his beer in peace. I mean watch hockey. No, I mean drink his beer. Actually, I mean drink his beer and watch hockey in peace.

Until I come down. Bwwaaa haa haa.

AND, the best part? The painting has started! I will post an update soon!

We’ve been at our new house for almost two months now! Where does the time go? We are pretty much unpacked and have a game plan for most areas of the house. This post is picture heavy so I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, but I wanted to offer you a glimpse of what it looks like ‘today’, along with our ‘to do’ list for each area. I thought it would be handy so that when I start to roll out the projects for you (I have some FUN things planned – coming soon) they have context.

Backing up a bit, we really enjoyed our townhome but it was time for a change. More space, more privacy and NO strata. We wanted to move before Chace got older as we didn’t want to change his little world mid-grade three (he just finished Kindergarten). So, we made the leap and listed our townhome.

The good news is that it sold in a day – with three offers which created a bidding war. The bad news, we didn’t have anywhere to move to! The market in our area dictated this plan of attack as places for sale were going into multiplle offers and if you had “subject to sale of our place” in your offer, you might as well not even bother.

Long story short after a few panic attacks from me and some serious market stalking, we purchased the above home which met most things on our wish list. We did have to compromise on a few things but we ended up with a few bonus things that more than made up for it.

We take possession this Saturday! I couldn’t wait to share with you all though so here are the photos from the listing (as we saw it). I also put together a little floor plan of each level. They won’t be completely accurate as I was going off memory and the specs on the listing sheet, but you will get the idea I’m sure!

Main level:

entry

living room

dining/living room

dining room

kitchen – what will Chef Kev dream up here?

kitchen/family room

family room

(future) playroom!

powder room

laundry

Here is the main floor layout to give you an idea of where these spaces are in relation to one another…

top level:

looking down towards the front entry

master bedroom

master bathroom

the other two bedrooms (Chace’s and a spare – TBD which is which!). We’re going to let Chace choose on moving day.

“Bonus room” – future craft room/office area

top floor bathroom

top floor floorplan…

basement/lower level

Down here is where we encountered one of the ‘compromises’ as mentioned above. Part of the basement is a suite which we were not looking for. However, we decided since we have more than enough space at the moment, we will leave it ‘as is’ for now and renovate in the future to make it our dream recreation room space – complete with wet bar and a bedroom/bathroom on that level. The income from the suite will allow us to do some of the updates a little sooner than we otherwise would have been able to.

First up, the current recreation room (on our side)…

And here is the suite which consists of a living space, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom (I don’t have a photo of the kitchen though).

So, there you have it! If you need me you can find me unpacking, orgnanizing or skipping down our new street. There’s a new girl in town…

Stay in touch and follow along…

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