Our Basement Renovation Plans

On to a new project! I'm so excited to tell you our plans for our basement renovation. By renovation, I actually mean we're finishing our basement! We bought the house with it partially unfinished, but it has a good start. It's a HUGE amount of space (about 1000 square feet including the storage / maintenance closet, bathroom, living area and laundry area) but about 750 of it will be open living space. This is a huge upgrade for us, since our main level is only 1400 square feet. While we're not adding any bedrooms down here (there are no windows, so adding a room wouldn't count as a bedroom), we ARE doing the following.

THE GAME PLAN
+ framing in the laundry area to create a laundry room with a barn door (though it won't look rustic)+ fixing some aspects to the bathroom (flooring, adding mirror, fixing light, etc.)+ carpeting the main living space+ adding a bar with a sink, mini fridge and possibly an additional actual bar area with 2 stools. + adding flooring under the kitchen / bar area. + changing the placement of the electrical in the ceiling. There are barely any lights down there now, so McCann is redoing it all and adding about 8 can lights so we make sure it's nice and bright, since there are no windows.+ fresh, light paint throughout and paint the ceilings black in order for the exposed beams to count as a ceiling (this is accepted by appraisers in our state). This will also make the ceiling stuff "disappear" to the eye and hopefully make the ceiling look taller. I know it won't be my favorite, but it'll be an improvement from what we have now ;)
All of this will be done on an extremely tight budget and almost all the labor will be done ourselves (I'll my hubby as much as I can!) The only thing we may have to call the pros in on is carpet installation and mudding the new dry wall for the laundry room.
LET'S WALK THROUGH THE SPACE
When you come down the stairs, this is the view you see. It's a super open, quite large space for us to envision! I'm thankful that there's really nothing down here so we can make it our own. 

The door on the left goes to the finished (yay!) bathroom. Other than fixing the floors and adding a couple can lights and accessories, it's done. To the right of that, the wall goes back a bit creating the perfect nook for the TV. A sofa will face that wall with the TV to sort of divide the basement into "zones". 

To the left of the bathroom door is where there is plumbing for a sink, so that means we will add a wall of cabinets (lowers only) right there and get a sink and mini drink fridge. In the other open area will be the office zone, because my husband will eventually move his office set up down here. Remember, this will all be carpeted so it'll feel a lot cozier.

This is where the most change is happening. We taped out our laundry area for you to see where we'll be framing the laundry room in. We're going to do a folding counter on the far right where the trash can is in this picture. A sliding door will be centered on the laundry room wall and I'm thinking we'll paint it a fun, bold color. 

INSPIRATION:

We can't wait to get started and take you along for the ride. McCann has already almost finished the ceiling electrical!

If you've redone or finished a basement, I'd love your input!

xoxo

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New Bathroom Art

This bathroom renovation and decoration process has been, as they say, slow and steady! That's sometimes how it has to go and that's totally fine-- sometimes even better than rushing! The bathroom is finally done with all we're going to do to it this year. We may retile the floor this winter in the new year (what a good project to leave to do in winter, in case everything shuts down again...) For now though, we updated our art with some beautiful charcoal line drawings by my friend Erinn Schultz and I had to show you them hanging up in their frames!

I always wanted art above the toilet, but we had this little wire basket before (see here), so I was overjoyed when Erinn kindly offered to create some pieces for our bathroom. I wanted something minimalistic and floral, since the shower curtain is striped. I thought it'd be a nice compliment!

We did two coordinating pieces above the towel bar and it fills up the space so much better than the old butterfly print I had in there. 

We went with these target frames! I really like them, they're affordable and they play off the other gold touches in the room. I would let you know though, they are more of a champagne gold than a GOLD gold, if that makes sense!

It's so delicate and simple-- just what I wanted!! Erinn is so talented and I love that she's local to Grand Rapids!

Couldn't resist showing you some zinnias from my cut flower garden :)

Rug / Hardware: knobs (1-1/4"), pulls  / Mirror frame / Shower Curtain / sconces / faucets / hand towel bar / towel bar / hook / toilet paper holder

It's so fun to get some art up on the walls that you feel reflects your style and finishes off the space! Erinn Schultz Art  is launching her new artwork series on August 19th and I'm so excited for her. It's all gorgeous!
xoxo



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Nordstrom Anniversary Sale (Early Access) Favorite Picks

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great week. Have any of you shopped the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale yet? I'm sharing my favorites from the sale below, just in case any of you have early access to the sale items. If you don't, but you WANT early access, you sign up for a Nordstrom Card and earn a $60 Note (basically like a gift card to Nordstrom!) to shop with at the sale. We don't have any store credit cards except Nordstrom, since we shop here quite often because of their free shipping and they carry a lot of my favorite brands.
I went through nearly every page of the sale and found my favorites for you! My game plan for the N Sale this year is to look for fall/winter shoes, cardigans and sweaters for colder months and perhaps a dress. I also love scooping up some intimates in this sale, like a new bra and panties. I got this bra last year and absolutely love it! I'm also DEFINITELY getting one of these blankets. I got one two years ago and it's my favorite blanket, so I'm excited to get another.

What's on your wishlist?

xoxo

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On Growing in Love with Your Home

We've owned our home now for about 16 months, but have lived here for 15 months, so I thought I'd share some photos my friend Ashley took of us in our house to celebrate our one year home-versary! 

If you remember, I actually was visiting my family in California when my husband came and saw and then made an offer on our house. I facetimed him during his walkthrough, but that's all I had to go off of. You can imagine my anxiety ;) You can read more about that experience here and get all our house hunting details. 

I first saw our new house on the day of the inspection. When I walked in from the side door, I immediately saw a couple things that I wasn't a huge fan of. I tried to remain calm. It didn't check a lot of my "must-haves". I was getting nervous. As I toured the house, I noticed it was a lot smaller than I expected and had some quirks, but I kept reminding myself of the potential. Lots of deep breaths! We can do this.

 We spent 6 weeks fixing up the house (read: painted every room, taking out a bulkhead from the bathroom, painting kitchen cabinets, adding built ins to the living room, etc.) until our apartment lease was up and we had to make the move. I've shared this before, but I found it so interesting how sad I was to leave our apartment. It was just a one bedroom little place, but it's where we moved in together after our wedding and all of that. It held a lot of memories. I get so attached to the places I live, even places I didn't love the look of, because I pour my heart into making it as much of a home as I can. Does anyone relate? I highly recommend this because although it makes leaving harder, it makes living there all the more enjoyable. It's amazing how much you can make a place feel like home with some little, sweet touches. 

So when we moved in, while I was grateful for our house, it didn't feel like us yet. It definitely didn't feel like home. Everyone kept asking me "don't you just love your new house?" and "I bet you're so glad to be in a larger space and out of your apartment!" The thing was, I didn't love our house (yet) and I actually really missed our apartment! I felt so guilty about this, especially because of how much work my husband was putting into the house. I felt like I should love it more right away.

But like a lot of things, love grows over time. Not only did we fix up some areas of the house that wasn't very pleasing, but also just living here and unpacking our stuff, getting a few new pieces, making memories, having friends over, meeting neighbors...it all helped me come to love this little house! 

 Lincoln sure is glad we have more space in our house than the apartment! I couldn't get over how he curled up in my lap for these pictures. 

This is definitely my favorite room in the house. It's SO bright, almost all day long!

Probably the most radical change in our house was our backyard renovation. It has brought us so much joy because it feels like we expanded our living space! We've had lots of friends over for dinner out here, hosted a little sip and see, and are hosting a baby shower in September out here. One of the things on my wish list when house hunting was I wanted space enough to entertain and host. It's one of my greatest joys! I was so thankful we could made a space for this in the backyard.

Seeing it transform from a pile of dirt and weeds to our little oasis has been so fun. I still can't believe my husband pulled it all off!

This little area with the shutters (my friend made them + our window box!) is a favorite of mine.

 Lincoln's face above kills me. He is not photogenic ;)

I'm so thankful for our home and to live here with handsome husband of mine. We've made a sweet little home together and along the way, McCann has found that he's extremely handy and loves projects! That's music to my ears ;) 

Ashley Slater Photography 

I can promise you this; one day when we leave our little three bedroom ranch, I will miss it. Lots.

xoxo


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