Basement Bedroom & Bath Almost Complete!!

Since I wrote last October, we moved into our basement! It's not entirely finished, but it's good enough for gov'ment woyk ;).  I will be detailing the progress finishing up the basement master bedroom and bath here.

Check out the floor plan to see which spaces we are now occupying:

The lower left hand corner is the master bedroom with the adjacent bathroom, that serves as a master bath, with access from a future multi-purpose space (a project for another space and time).  The mud room with the washer/dryer, basement entry and stairwell will be finished later as well as the articulating and partitioning out of a rec room, storage and utility room.

Did I mention how glad I am to be moved into the basement bedroom?  If I remember correctly, we moved in to the basement right after Thanksgiving.  But it was a big push to do so. There were a lot of long evenings we worked!

For a refresher, here and here are the two updates on basement progress. The last I wrote, we had just installed drywall and had some tile work hired out in the bathroom.

Gabe's next project was to suit up, mask the window and spray primer.  Here's the man himself--do you recognize him?

Next, Gabe installed the Pergo flooring in the bedroom, sourced from Lowes with the link here.  That was fun and caused the room to feel even more warm in a jiffy, hiding all that concrete underfoot!

Here's a few pics of the process:

After the floor was down, Gabe and Dad finished the closet and baseboard trim.  Then we hired out the painting, except for the bathroom, since it's a smaller space, and I would be able to do it easily (and I hadn't decided on paint color yet!!).  I landed on "Dover White" in eggshell for the bedroom, in keeping with most of the common spaces upstairs.  It really helps unify the downstairs with the upstairs.  The color is a warm neutral cream and I like it. Trim and ceiling are "High Reflective White" in semi-gloss and flat, respectively.

I was getting increasingly motivated to move in--the finish line was SOOO close!!!  The last few projects got finished in a flourish with our excitement as fuel--shoe moulding and closet system installation were getting accomplished in tandem with laying the new rug/pad I bought.

This is the rug I bought.  I was really excited about creating a "tribal"/African theme down there with all of the decor that was coming out of Judah's room.  We didn't know his gender before he was born, so the theme of his room was black/white/brown neutral African landscape, with photos and memorabilia from when I had been there.  All of these things will not accompany him to his new big boy room.  I am decorating his new room with items he is more interested in now and am transplanting the African decor to our new room.  (Is it bad that this was my plan from the beginning?!?!)

As far as moving our furniture in, we spent a Saturday moving--first the big California king bed.  Boy howdy was I excited to get out of that crowded little room we were using!  And the rest is history.  Heee hee, not really.  I just don't want to go into all those moving and decorating details.  I'll show pics instead!

Besides the rug, this tribal duvet cover (shown below) is the only thing I bought for the room, decor-wise.  This is a big deal for an interior designer at heart!!

I love how the duvet cover looks with the rug!  Although I'm not ready to use this white duvet cover just yet.  We have a little baby in our room still ;)  Anyone who is a parent will understand this!  So the bed is currently clad in the quilt I made a couple of years ago.

Now we have full his and hers closets (never had this before!)!!  Closet doors are apparently too high class for us :)  Jk, just not done yet.  We plan to buy closet doors later, when we buy replacement doors for the bedrooms upstairs.

On the opposite wall (north wall) from left to right:

The cutie patootie herself:

And just for the funsies, here is a side by side comparison (of the same corner) before/after:

from 2014...

 to 2016...because this.

Because who doesn't love a good transformation???!?  I'll keep a bright bedroom with a cute baby over a dark corner with a cool old wood stove any day of the week :)

Moving right along to the bathroom--we had a lot of work to do to get it up an running.  I spent a couple evenings painting:

Gabe and I decided we wanted a half wall of subway tile in the bathroom to act as a backsplash of sorts.  I didn't really get any pics of the process though.  Only of Gabe installing shower fixtures:

But you can see the tile (and toilet and vanity!) installed in the background.  That was a lot of work!  We didn't have that hired out because the guys that came to do the shower tile would have had to come an additional couple of times to complete it (costing more) since the area wasn't prepped yet (doorway trim needed to be installed first--process improvement--we'll need to get better at the "critical path".  Ooohhh that felt good to reach into my designer pocket for a sec and whip out a design term....hee hee)

I'll just jump ahead to what it looks like now, since I just don't have a whole lot of process pics from this time, starting from inside the bedroom:

Here is the source of this metal shelf/towel rack I bought.  I love how it brings together the oil rubbed bronze metals and the satin nickel we have going on in here.

The mirror I referenced in the last blog, but I'll detail it again here.

The towels are an ivory/gray color from Pottery Barn and a splurge (it was time for new towels! our old ones look grungy).

The shower curtain is from Home Goods and has all the colors in it to pull everything together.  I'm not in love with it, but it works.

Currently, we still need to caulk around the tub to make it usable.  Everything else is usable.  We need to do a few more finishing touches, such as caulk neatly around the tile wall surround/edges, add door stops, possibly paint the ceiling in semi-gloss, and finish the tile trim inside the closet.  Details, details.  They sure are pesky!!

Aaaannnnnd, here are a few pics I have to throw in of my wonderful family at Christmas time, since they are certainly part of this greater house project :)

Christmas morning at our house

Our sweet son was so excited about his toy (he actually got it for his birthday in November, and so I thought it would be a good idea to bring it out at this time--maybe to make up for our lack of awesome gifts---aren't we horrible??!?) tools, like his daddy's.  *heart melt*

And our little sweetie girl was under the weather (later to find out it was RSV she got from her brother) during our extended family gift exchange.  I love her little snuggles!

And one more, slightly scandalous:

Happy New Year folks!

<3

Continued landscaping...

Hello again!

First, I will detail the path I created from the driveway up to the front door.  There was no established path leading the way, so folks were having to trudge through the grass and be confused about where to enter.

There were two quite large, flat stones we had existing on the property that I used at the top and the bottom of the path to cut down on the need to buy stones.  I bought 16 flat stones that were 12" X 18" and started from the bottom.  This is as far as I got on the first day at it:

I did my best to dig out a leveled out spot on the ground where the stone was to be placed.  Grass and weeds were also removed.

The yard looks a little junky right now.  But it will get better :)

here's our little munchkin in on the action :)

A couple weeks later (maybe a month!) and it's all finished!

There is a bald spot needing grass right under the steps where we built up the soil so it wouldn't be such a big step up to climb so I took some "sod" from where the stones were put and placed it at the base of the steps.


The last I wrote, I was working on two different flower/herb garden beds.  Since then, they are both going strong and I would like to take some time to chronicle the transformation.

Starting out with the only "before" pic:

Looking at this picture of the east side of the house, the flower bed I'm going to start with is the one to the left of the house.  There are concrete block retaining walls on either side existing, in decent shape, so I used that as one side of my flower bed as it seemed like a natural starting point.

Here is a shot with the first few things planted:

Don't mind the disheveled pile of bricks in the foreground...

Early in the spring, Gabe helped me pull out the bush that was in the concrete tub and we replaced it with a lilac bush:

This is a fun contrast of just 6 days:

I planted blue and white hyacinth, blue grape hyacinth, mini daffodils, more tulips, sedum tile (more yellows than blues), hens and chicks, pot carnation, lilies, lithodora, and myrtle euphorbia in the lowest section next to the concrete tub.

Here are detail shots:

I also planted forget-me-not seeds around all of these things so we will see it later when it sprouts and flowers. :)

Can you tell I like BLUE and yellow flowers???

This next middle section shown is going to be a spot for herbs predominantly:

I had some mint in other places planted around the house, so I planted it in one place here in the middle.  I later found out some of it is not mint (after boiling it into tea, haha!) but catnip!!  Yuck! and HA!

At this time I also planted some more myrtle euphorbia, donkey tail spurge (euphorbia), more sedum tile (different variety from other section--more bluish and maroon), rosemary, basil and a small blueberry shrub.

There was a tulip bulb left from last fall in there and a rogue lily sprout cropping up in the midst of the rosemary, basil and parsley seeds I planted (in the lower right hand of the picture above).

And the third section looks like this:

In plant form, there is lithodora (blue in lower left corner), red lilies (3), and a couple red and yellow tulips.  At this time, there are two dahlia bulbs in the upper left and crocosmia in the front in-between the tulips.  In the upper right corner I planted a bunch of gladiolus bulbs.

This is later when my tulips bloomed:

Yay!

And now for the chronicles of my herb seedlings:

Above is a good shot of the basil and rosemary (a little behind the basil and parsley).

Parsley too:

Getting bigger!!

(parsley is behind the lily in the upper right)

You can see the lily sprout has really grown here.

And here (this is upside-down from the other shot).

Also, along the upper portion there are a few small poppy sprouts I am letting grow.  The catnip in the lower left is getting too big!  I need to trim it back so it doesn't crowd the blueberry and rosemary.

This was just a couple days ago!  So exciting.  :)

And then today (a little bit dusky in the evening, so a little blurry, sorry):

I have since planted (to the left of this shot) a tomato plant and a couple other herbs: thyme, dill and chives.  The tomato plant already has 4 fruits on it!

Meanwhile, in the upper portion of the garden, some of the bulbs I planted are growing nicely:

In the above shot (that needs to be weeded)-the tomato plant can be seen in the lower herb garden bed.  The lilies are already losing petals but the dahlias are growing!

Detail of dahlias here:

The crocosmia are nowhere in sight but the gladiolus are making me proud!  There must be 8 or 9 shoots, getting taller every day.  Waiting for some color in this bed!

Gladiolus shown in the back:

In the back left corner next to the gladiolus, I re-located some unlucky poppies (they were growing where the deck is being built!!) and only one of a couple I planted survived.

Original location:

They are fragile to move I discovered...when they are little they have barely any root system at all!  And I needed to really water the soil well before transplanting--so they had something to grab onto.  I have protected a couple other poppy sprouts in various locations not of my choosing, and I'm already seeing many buds, yay!

Like this one:

They were so pretty last year!

(relocated of course)

I have also planted some seeds in this area since the crocosmia has disappointed me--a wildflower mix and foxglove seeds.  I have seen a few little seedlings I don't recognize, so we will see.


One more improvement here--I stacked some cinderblocks in front of the retaining wall for a couple of planters along with planting in some other old tubs I had for under the (fake) spigots and pump we have:

The light gray green plant furthest to the left is a hosta (called "blueberry muffin" hosta to be exact).  In the larger lower tub is a larger canna with pink dahlias and sweet potato vine alternated around it.

To its right is this, detail shot:

The blue/purple clusters shown below, planted inside the cinder block cells on either side of this larger block arrangement are verbena (one is more specifically "royal chambray", but I don't remember which one).

Sadly, the next day, the more purple of the two verbena was eaten clean off and then the very next day after that, the more blue one was eaten down to the nubbins.  Might have been bunnies?  I really have no idea!  Casualties of planting...

The yellow flowers in the pot on the top is a dahlia and the round pot arrangement is a pre-planted one of succulents I got from Home Depot.


Moving on to the flower garden beds to the right of the back basement door, we can start where I left off on the last post, with this "before" from mid March:

Since then, I have identified the existing plants in this location that I worked around when I laid down weed block.  The farthest garden portion there are a couple different varieties of daffodils.  In the second middle section there are resurrection lily sprouts (my mom identified this for me) that will not produce flowering plants until later in the summer.  There is nothing in the lowest portion except a clay drainage pipe exit that I have to watch out for.

The first installment of plantings in early April consisted of planting bulbs and flowering plants.  In the portion closest to the house I planted more gladiolus bulbs in the open space next to the daffodils (where the small zinc label is) and the two blue ones are woodland phlox (which will spread quite a bit).  It is hard to see what I planted at the base of the trellis--it is a lonicera honeysuckle and will climb its way up.

Look how much the resurrection lily leaves have grown in such a short time!  In the middle section, at this time, the only other thing I planted was some "angelina" sedum in the lower right hand side.

A couple of days later, I re-planted some peony sprouts that were coming up in the same location (under the soon-to-come deck) as the poppies were, so I relocated these to the space above between the resurrection lilies and sedum.  They took rather well!

peonies in the old location just before moving them
(notice I watered them well right before this time!)

Here is how they are looking now:

They took, although, after reviewing recently, the buds have withered...so I'm not sure what happened!  I've been keeping my eye out for ants and haven't really seen them...so I don't know??!?

You can also see in the above picture the coleus (red fox and vino) I planted in the upper right hand corner to liven up the contrast with the yellow-ish sedum adjacent to it.  The daffodils have all withered and the greens are now laying down, looking pretty pitiful.

In the lower bed, I planted a couple different varieties of calla lilies and some calla lily bulbs too.

A little detail shot, graced with rain:

The only problem with the flowering plantings along the left side (as pictured here) is that the resurrection lily greens are heavy and have been falling over onto the callas and I'm hoping they aren't "killing" them!  You can see in the photo below that only one yellow one is left poking through!  The thing about the resurrection lilies (as told to me by my mom) is that the leaves become uninspiring and maybe even dead and the lilies shoot up tall "out of nowhere".  So we will see how all of this transpires.

 There are a couple of calla lily clusters from bulbs making an appearance now:

about a week ago

4 clusters I have notices so far.  Yay!  The first one is showing up to be white and then phases into a faint pink.

I love calla lilies!!!!

I have done a little bit of work to the middle section as well--adding a "June" hosta next to the resurrection lily and woodland phlox, which I actually moved into the bed on the left and replaced with a "gallery blue" lupine.

Detail shot of lupines and hosta:

Circling back around to the back portion of this garden bed, here is a shot of the gladiolus now that they have shot up (and the honeysuckle climbing the trellis):

I have counted about 27-28 gladiolus here, which is great.  I have also planted some delphinium seeds amongst them since they are also tall.  We will see if they take.  I haven't seen any seedlings yet.  A couple varieties of morning glory seeds were also planted right under the trellis so we will see about those too.


Moving around the house to the right, the hydrangea are doing great!  Here is a look at their progress:

back at the beginning of April

just this evening

detail shot:

Last I wrote, I ended with a note saying we had torn out a bunch of poison ivy from a bush in our backyard that was overrun with it.  And that Gabe had gotten some.  Well, since then, in the spirit of not getting it again, we left the piles there for quite some time thinking we could hire it out...but that didn't work out.  So, we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and took it on ourselves to clean it up.  I was tired of trying to keep Judah away from the piles and frankly, they just didn't look very nice.  So, Gabe suited up, bagged it up, and took it to the dump the next morning.  I was there, trying to occupy Judah all the while cleaning up around the bush, general pruning and removing stray poison ivy pieces we had missed.

First time we tackled it the first of April:

Bleck!!!!

The poison ivy was choking the rose of sharon bush (mom identified it again)!  But this is much better (taller bush in background):

I spent some time (carefully avoiding poison ivy roots, etc) digging around the bush, cleaning up and mulching the area.  I didn't want to get to close and mess with weed block--just wanted it to look decent with as little finagling as possible.  There are some kind of yucca plants growing around the back side of the bush that I was working around as well.

Here's hoping having the poison ivy gone will help it thrive more!

I also pruned the fruit tree next to it, since it was budding.  Here it is after I did some work to clean up the base with brick edging:

The fruit tree we think is a peach tree but it has a fungus growing on the trunk (hence the need to prune back so much!) so we don't know if it will make it!

On to the next landscaping project!

When we first bought the house, there was a lot of junk piled under and around this tree:

...like cinder blocks, rocks, and bricks, so Gabe cleaned it up this winter.  The plan was to transplant the little evergreen bush to the space where we removed the fallen tree, but so far it hasn't happened and I'm not sure it's going to yet this season.  But anyways, I took it upon myself to do a little beautifying of the space.

First I dug out the grass, laid down weed block, removed an old, dead bush around the back (with Gabe's help) added mulch and a brick edging:

And then in the middle of April, I added a hibiscus plant and azalea in the place where the dead bush was and a couple hostas along the one edge:

A month later this pic was taken--the hibiscus is still in bloom and now the azalea is also:

Yay!

Oh, and one more shot from early spring--I did some mulching around the mailbox and tree as well as spruced up the plantings in the planter:

Hopefully it's not too long before I get the next blog post up and running!!!

:)  'til next time.