Ode to the Basement - Before and After

One year ago this week, we began the biggest home project of our lives.

We dug out our basement.

For 8 years we dreamed of doing it.  But never ever did we think it was going to impact our lives as much as it did.

For many reasons...
Good (a whole other floor of useable space in our house)
Bad (dirt everywhere for months)
or Otherwise (an incredible amount of learning)

To fully appreciate the undertaking, my ode will be split into a few posts.  This one is solely before and afters.  Because those are the best.

Entryway to the basement...the staircase:

Staircase Before

Oak loveliness After

Upon descending the narrow black staircase, you used to see this:

Green "bedroom, back storage corner (?), Blue gross bathroom

Now it's this:

TV Area

Hang a hard left after coming down the staircase and you used to see this:

Wall of yellow to the Furnace

Now you see this:

Playroom Area, Bar Nook, Laundry in Bathroom

From here, walk to your 5:00, in the corner of the TV Area at the front of the house.  In that spot, you'd have seen the view of this staircase:

Old Staircase

And be standing in this green "bedroom":

(We used this as a playroom)

From that spot, now you see this:

Staircase with Landing

Last but not least, walk into the picture above and stand next to where that bar is now.  Turn around...here's what you would have seen in that spot:

Green "bedroom" behind Yellow wall, Blue Bathroom, Staircase

And now:

Play Area, TV Area

It took so much blood, sweat and tears.  Some of which were mine.  I'll get into the details of what we planned to do, what we actually did and how it was done in the next few posts this week.

And I'll dedicate a special post to the crown jewel - the basement bathroom.

That lady gets one all her own ;)