Basement Remodel

For those of you who didn't catch this in my last post, we've been having major flooding problems in our basement recently. Our home is 10 years old and the problem only started about a year ago. We've already removed the carpeting, which killed me, and we are in no position to get new flooring. Not to mention, we still haven't completely diagnosed the problem, so to put new floors in would be silly at this point.

Mr. Wonderful finished the basement himself about 5 years ago and our family has spent lots of time down there - especially the kids and their friends. And as of recently, it has also become home to Mr. W's office. Given that he will now have to spend alot of time down there (and the rest of us don't want to!), I tried to make it as nice as possible for him down there. We were lucky enough to score a free L-shaped desk for him through Craig's List. Also, the front half of the basement so far has been untouched by any water, so we put down some carpet tiles we scored at the auction last week for fifty bucks. The rest was just stuff I moved from around the house and things I picked up at yard sales. Here is what I have done so far:

The bombe chest I got at a yardsale for $25 and painted black with some gold rub'n buff accents. The chair was from Goodwill and I also painted it black and reupholstered in a leopard print fabric.


The fireplace Mr. Wonderful put in himself, we just had to have a plumber do the gas line. It makes winters alot easier to bear down in the cold basement. The shelves I got from Christmas Tree Shoppe and the accessories I shopped for around my house.


This sofa definitely needs to be replaced, but until we can afford it, I just dressed it up with some pretty pillows I got at an estate sale. The wrought iron piece over the sofa was $3 at a yardsale. May paint it black at some point, but for now I like it gold.


This is at the bottom of the stairs. It makes a nice statement when you open the door to the basement. I picked up the server from someone's curb. It was in need of a little TLC, so again, I painted it black with the gold to spiff it up. It now "serves" as my candle storage. I love it when I can repurpose something and actually use it to store something. The mirror I got from Ebay and the other accessories were from the auction. I love the lamp with the leopard glass shade.

And there you have it. So now even I don't mind spending time down there. Now mind you, I purposely DID NOT show you the rest of the basement - the actual office part where poor Mr. W has to work. There are now huge holes in the dry wall where we tried to find the source of the flooding and the floor is just the bare concrete. For now, I'll add it to the growing list of things that need a fixin' around here. Ah, the joys of homeownership. Ugh!