Showing posts with label Basement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basement. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

New Slipcovers…

Our old sofa and loveseat found a home in the office/bonus room of our new house.  This old furniture had seen better days.  We purchased it many years ago and was one of the first big purchases my husband and I made together.  It was time to give the poor things an update. 

Here is what our old sofa and loveseat looked like…

Couch Before from www.simpleispretty.com

Loveseat Before www.simpleispretty.com

I cheated.  I did not make time to sew slipcovers.  I ordered some from Surefit.net. (I have not been compensated or paid for this post, I'm just sharing a home solution that has worked for my house).

Upstairs slipcovers www.simpleispretty.com

Tuck Once Grips www.simpleispretty.com

I also got some “tuck once grips”.  Which are basically 3-sided plastic chunks to stick at the back of the seat cushions and around the sides.  I dislike having to re-tuck and rearrange slipcovers.  Since the kids were going to be using this room, I didn’t want to spend time daily re-tucking or fixing slipcovers or worse... I didn't want the slipcovers to get a loose edge caught on a toy and rip.

Here is the After…

Couch After www.simpleispretty.com

Loveseat After www.simpleispretty.com

I also decided to try out their futon and lift chair covers.  We have a futon in the basement that is in the kid’s play area.  We also have a lift chair stored in the basement for a family member when they come to visit.

Downstairs slipcovers www.simpleispretty.com

Since the futon is located where the kids play, I wanted to protect it and make it easier to clean.

Futon Before www.simpleispretty.com

The lift chair is bright red and sticks out like a sore thumb among our other furniture downstairs.  So to make both the futon and chair fit in, I decided to choose a dark brown fabric for both.

Downstairs Chair Before www.simpleispretty.com

Here is the After…

Futon After www.simpleispretty.com

Downstairs Chair After www.simpleispretty.com

So much better!  I’m glad I found a solution that works for us.  I’ve had the slipcovers for a few months now, and they are in great shape and fit well.  I took these pictures right after I took the slipcovers out of their boxes.  The wrinkles in the fabric have fallen out and are no longer there today.

Tell me about your slipcovering stories (homemade or purchased).  I’d love to see pics!

As Always,
Sandra

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Basement Completed!

Don’t adjust your monitors… Yes, the carpets and walls were GREEN!… YUCK!

Fireplace area before from simpleispretty.com
Before

After we got the basement cleaned up from the sewage backup, we got to work repairing the damage.

After the clean up, the walls were repaired and rebuilt.  All the basement walls were painted with “Ballet White” from Benjamin Moore. 



The green carpet was torn up and replaced.  We were not sad to see it go!  The new carpet is much lighter and a neutral color.  I also like the new carpet because it does not leave vacuum cleaner or footprint marks!

Carpet after from simpleispretty.com

Stairs before from simpleispretty.com
Before

Stairs After from simpleispretty.com
After

Family room area before from simpleispretty.com
Before

Family room area after from simpleispretty.com
After

We decided to sell the pool table. With the pool table out of the space, we have so much more room!

Fireplace area before from simpleispretty.com
Before

Fireplace area after from simpleispretty.com
After

The rocking chair got moved from the living room upstairs, to its new home in the downstairs family room by the office door.

Chair and door to office after from simpleispretty.com
After

Beside the stairs, this area seems to catch junk that was in transition.  The tubs, boxes and bags are full of clothes and toys to get rid of in a garage sale.  Right now, we have a futon against the wall.  The futon works well as an extra bed when company comes over to stay the night.

Futon area before from simpleispretty.com
Before

Futon area after from simpleispretty.com
After

The kids’ toy area is in the same place, just brightened up by new paint and carpet.

Toy area before from simpleispretty.com
Before

Toy area after from simpleispretty.com
After

The downstairs bathroom got a makeover, click here to see the bathroom’s transformation.

Downstairs Bathroom After from simpleispretty.com
Bathroom After

Overall, our basement is more inviting and brighter.  Even the kids enjoy playing in the basement because it is not “DARK down there”!

Fireplace area after from simpleispretty.com
After
As Always,
Sandra


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Downstairs Bathroom Remodel…


We are FINALLY finished the downstairs bathroom.  Here is the before…

simpleispretty.com: Downstairs Bathroom Before

The room was painted a light blue with a blue lino floor.

simpleispretty.com: Downstairs Bathroom Shower Before

Ick.  Not Pretty.  We actually never had a working shower downstairs.  This room has been the same since we moved in.

Since it is only the two of us and 2 small kids in our family, we could get away with only one working shower in our house.  Although, it was always a pain for company who stayed over.  The guest bedroom is downstairs, but any guests who stayed over would have to have a shower upstairs.  We used the shower area downstairs to store our golf clubs and other miscellaneous things.

The shower walls were bare drywall.  At one time, the drywall had tiles on it but the tiles were removed by the previous owners.  (Isn't that sad, this poor bathroom has sat like this for over 5 years).  I wasn't even sure plumbing and drain worked when we decided to start this project a month ago.

My husband decided to tackle this project.  He really did all the work and I helped out where I could.  We worked with a small budget and came in under $500 for the project.

simpleispretty.com: Downstairs Bathroom After

We were able to reuse the sink, cabinet, medicine cabinet, lighting and toilet.  Nothing was wrong with them, and they weren’t terribly out-dated.

My husband replaced the blue and green counter top with a new brown neutral top.  This in itself made a huge difference to the room.

The light fixture was brass before.  We just removed the bulbs, took it down and spray painted it.

simpleispretty.com: Flat Grey Primer

First, I used the Flat Grey Primer above then followed by the Stainless Steel Paint below.

simpleispretty.com: Stainless Steel Paint

Here is how the light fixture turned out.  Not a great pic, but no natural lighting in the bathroom.  But it gives you an idea…

simpleispretty.com: Downstairs Bathroom Light Fixture

My husband laid the linoleum on the bathroom floor and did all the tiling in the shower.  Here’s a closer look at the lino, neutral and light…

simpleispretty.com: Downstairs Bathroom Lino

Here is how the shower looked before…

simpleispretty.com: Shower Downstairs Before


And here is the new finished shower…

simpleispretty.com: Shower Downstairs


Much better!  Quite large and spacious, my husband prefers using this shower over the upstairs one now.

We picked a neutral tile for the shower with light grout.  One thing I would recommend is using smaller tile spacers.  We used 1/4” which was alright, but you have to use way more grout.  I think 1/8” would have worked well in this space looking back on it.

We had to get new taps and a shower head because the old shower didn't have taps or anything.

simpleispretty.com: Tile Downstairs Bathroom


simpleispretty.com: Tile on Floor


The shower floor is not level so it can drain.  My husband cut each large tile into 4 smaller squares.  This way the tiles could conform to the unlevel floor easier.

We used the same paint color throughout the downstairs, including in the bathroom.  We wanted to keep it light and keep a continuity between all the rooms to enlarge the space downstairs.



simpleispretty.com: Downstairs Bathroom Shower After


Another addition to the room was a new drop ceiling.  Since the shower area did not have any ceiling, we had to remove all of the old ceiling in the rest of the bathroom.  This way the room would have a new continuous ceiling throughout.  Much better and brighter!

simpleispretty.com: Shower Curtain


A new shower curtain from Bed, Bath & Beyond, and we now have a fully functioning bathroom!  YAY!  (which also meant we could now redo the upstairs bathroom and shower. --- I’ll save that project for another post!)

This bathroom feels so much larger than it once did.  What are some of your tricks for renovating a bathroom on a budget?

As Always,
Sandra


TDC Before and After The Shabby Nest  

I'm closing comments for this post due to numerous spam comments.  If you would like to comment or ask a question, please contact me at sandrapaul@live.ca.  Thanks!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Downstairs Paint Color…

Here is our new paint color for downstairs….



We chose Benjamin Moore’s Ballet White.  Such a huge difference from the light green paint we had before.  So much brighter!  In the end, we decided to paint the bedrooms, living area and bathroom with this new color.

Our basement renovations are almost complete.  Early November the sewage backup happened and we have been working hard to get the basement completed so we can finally use the space again.

Right now we are cleaning up the mess and I hope to post pics of our new basement soon.

As Always,
Sandra

Sunday, November 4, 2012

OMG… Sewage Backup!

Yep, I said it… SEWAGE BACKUP!  One of my biggest fears and nightmares happened late last week.  Luckily, it happened in the afternoon when I was home so I could contain the disaster in the basement. 

We live on an acreage, so at first I thought the septic tank was full and backing up into the house.  When we discovered the septic tank wasn’t the issue, further investigation lead us to a clogged sewage line in between the house and the septic tank. 

After multiple calls to plumbers, we finally got someone out to the house late that night.  All day and evening we were without water because any amount of water down the line would cause a greater backup.  Being without water is really hard, especially when we have 2 kids and now-a-days we take the use of water for granted (eg. toilet flushing).

We are now in the clean up stage and have a crew coming out on Monday to start the demolition.  Let’s hope everything is completed before Christmas… Oh, I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath!

Has anyone gone through sewage or water damage clean up and rebuilding before?  What are some of your horror stories? 

As Always,
Sandra