Underground family room

January 19, 2012

I LOVE basements. Something about them – they are just super cool spaces to me. I may have mentioned one or 800 times how excited I am about finishing ours…someday. It’s been eight years of saying “It’s going to happen this year!” and it never happens.

It’s certainly the biggest project we’ll ever do to this house. At first I thought it would be fairly straightforward – frame it up, add a few extra outlets, put up some walls and be done. Easy peasy – pushaw.

As we’ve used the space more over the years, we realize more and more that we’d like to do. (Read: stuff that costs more money.) Like is the key word. If they will happen or not, I have no idea.

Our basement is obviously still unfinished, but as I've mentioned before, we USE it. It’s just too much extra space not to! And although it’s not particularly pretty to look at, I love seeing seldom seen areas in other bloggers’ homes, so I like to share how we use this one. And how we see it working in the future.

I guess I’m saying, you probably won’t be pinning any of these photos. :) But I like to show how we use this typically unusable space.

The layout in our “family room” down there has changed more than any other rooms in our house put together. Because of our very open floor plan, I don’t move furniture around in our rooms…like, ever. They’re set up the way they work. And stay that way. Forever.

So the basement is my fix for when I want to change something up. ;)

Over Christmas break, we made a few changes to the basement family room space to make it even more usable:

This space used to be set up like this:

But we had a whole lotta shifting of furniture that happened when we got our new family room sectional. The old sofa went upstairs to the loft and the two recliners that were there came down here.

We got those recliners about six years ago, and I don’t care for the look of them anymore, but oh man, they are SO COMFY. Dang.

I’ve found three keys to making an unfinished space comfy – warmth (blankets and a space heater if needed), something soft for the tush (loveseat and recliners) and keeping the feet warm (lots and lots of rugs).

Oh, and no spiders. Spiders kind of ruin everything.

usuable unfinished basement

(Side note – I once had a serviceman tell me ours was the cleanest unfinished basement he’s ever seen. He couldn’t even find a spider web. I don’t know why we don’t get bugs down here, but we just don’t. Knock. on. wood.)

The TV cabinet is the old one from our family room, the side tables we’ve had for years and the Pottery Barn coffee table was a Craigslist find early last year. It was supposed to go upstairs but it didn’t work. 

The rugs are mostly the really cheapy utility rugs you can find at most hardware stores. We also have a huge one down there that was a remnant and I got it for a steal.

Now that it’s so warm and cozy down there, we find ourselves using this space ALL the time. We don’t really need an extra family room, but it’s there and we want to use it. Eventually it will be a movie room/family room space, and who says you need to have drywall to make it that way?

Not us!

I have a confession…every single night of Christmas break (two weeks people!), we sat our butts on these chairs and had movie nights:

cement walls unfinished basement

The dog and the Bub usually cuddle up with one of us, or lay on the couch.

It was/is SO FUN.

Nothing matches, nothing is prettied up, but it has been one of our very favorite spots over the past few weeks. Isn’t that crazy?

I like to call it industrial chic:

utilizing unfinished basement

Ha! That’s totally in, right? ;)

Although we like the way it’s set up now, it’s going to change, AGAIN.

I’ve been doing my workouts down here, (I put sliders on the bottom of the coffee table so I can move it easily – that thing is heavy!) and I keep banging into the chairs and table:

And when we DO finish the basement, we envision an electric fireplace in that alcove where the TV is. (I envision it built into that space so it looks like it’s always been there.)

So the room needs to be oriented the other way, facing the long wall.

That got my wheels turning. Because we are closer than we’ve ever been to actually moving forward with the framing, I want to set up the basement like we want it when it’s finished.

That means my craft space behind those chairs:basement craft space

Will need to be moved to the back corner by our storage space, where the Bub’s toys are:

DIY large train tables

And his toys will go into that corner where my stuff currently resides. Got it? :)

My craft area really houses more than just that – it’s all the wrapping supplies, home decor stuff I can’t let go of, extra pantry items and all the seasonal serving dishes and baking stuff.

It will be great because the kiddo has WAY less toys than I do. ;) So there will be a lot less STUFF as soon as you walk down the stairs. My craft room will eventually be part of the storage/work out/laundry room.

That room will have to serve a TON of functions so I want to move everything around to see if my ideas will even work.

I put a little digital layout a few months ago, while daydreaming. :) Even though we haven’t started the work yet, I bide my time by planning. And planning. It helps me hold my horses and it’s something that needs to be done anyway.

Here’s an idea of the way I hope to make it work:

Just as a side note, this is the only part of our home you’ll see a floor plan for. :) I don’t feel comfortable sharing the layout for the other parts of the house, just for security reasons. (Crazy maybe, but I’d rather be crazier than the crazies. You know what I’m sayin’?)

But I know you’ll all be coming along for this ride with us, so this part I will share, because it’s below ground level. :)

Anyhoo, in this layout I still have my craft table off to the side of the family room space, and I now know I don’t want it there. So that space where the blue rug is will get smaller, as that wall will need to come out even further. I was trying to avoid that, but I want to be able to shut the door on all that STUFF.

And you eagle eyes will see where I’m planning on putting the washer and dryer. That’s a whole other post. (Yes, I’ve already done a ton of planning and thinking about that and it’s going to happen if I have anything to do with it. And I do.) ;)

So…there’s our underground family room in all it’s glory. And the start of the beginning of the initial kind of maybe finishing our basement. It has to start somewhere, right?

Do you love moving furniture around? Does you house let you? ;) Do you use floor plans for spaces like me, or do you get a work out and shove everything around till it works? Do you love basements like I do? And most importantly, are you as PYSCHED as I am for it to (maybe?) start soon??

Wahooo!

(And do not hold me to this, I may be saying this exact same thing next year.)

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Comments

  1. I love moving furniture around! I even remember doing it as a child and teenager. Our current home doesn't lend itself to too many different arrangements, but I have managed a few. It's fun to change things up a bit...makes it feel like a new house! Love your underground space. Wish we had one. We don't have the luxury of basements in Texas. :( Can't wait to see what you come up with!

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  2. Rearranging my furniture was seriously one of my top 10 hobbies as a teenager. Maybe I needed more friends? ;)

    I like basements too, ours is "finished" (I use that term loosely) but I have biiig, big plans... one day ;) Your W/D are on the ground floor right now, aren't they? I actually like having mine in the basement because guests don't see my Everest-like piles of dirty clothes (I hate laundry, okay? Ha!) :)

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  3. I miss our unfinished basement. We only lived in our house a year before we started on it - but it wasn't the plan to finish it - I loved having a cement floor for the kids to ride their scooters and such in the winter, that if they were coloring and the crayon slipped off the book and made a streak on the floor it was ok... that I could spray paint in my designated craft area and not worry about over spray.... And I fondly remember pushing my infant in a (outdoor) baby swing hung from the floor joists above while I changed washloads.... But that said baby was a LIGHT sleeper and our house only had 2 bedrooms on the mainfloor. She woke up to EVERYthing, including her big sister yelling in her sleep - so we HAD to make a choice because I was never getting to get good sleep! I still miss that unfinished basement. It took us 5 years and only now are we finally putting the very last of the final woodwork and some cabinetry in. AAANNNDD.. we had to move our stuff around as we finished the basement, because really, our house was too small to store it somewhere else while we finished it, and that took a lot of time and stress working around that stuff, making sure it was covered with plastic, etc. So good luck when you finish yours! Hopefully you will be able to relocate your items to another part of the house during the process. Don't suffer like we had to! :) Thanks for sharing.

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  4. My sister loves rearranging furniture with an alarming regularity. I do share your love of basements though. They don't exist where I come from so I am enjoying having one while we are here.

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  5. Like you, I always say "this is the year to finish the basement!" but something always comes up. Anyway, I love that you use your basement even though it is unfinished. I may give that a try, at least create a good place for the kids to play while I run on the Treadmill down there. Also, I LOVE the planning phase. I use chalk to mark out on the concrete where I plan to put walls and furniture- kind of like drawing a full scale floorplan! The lines have changed many times over the last three years but I think I've finally got it just the way I want it. :) Good luck with yours!

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  6. YES to the electric fireplace! We have one in our finished basement and we love it! I even had my hubby frame in some fake windows for each side of it that I hung blinds and curtains on, you can't even tell they're fake, well unless you peek through the blinds. lol

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  7. I love everything about your basement and your ideas for finishing it.....with the exception of placing your washer & dryer in the basement. If I EVER have the opportunity, I want my washer and dryer next to the bedrooms. I've had enough of carrying laundry up and down stairs. Love your blog!!!

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  8. "Crazier than the crazies" haha! Funniest thing I've heard in a while....but I totally agree!

    I'm organizing my unfinished basement tomorrow. So not looking forward to that, I have 63 pairs of shoes to figure out how to organize (don't judge me...lol..it's my weakness).

    Love the layout!

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  9. I love it! I have never had a basement... I think they would freak me out. I am really in love with what you have been using it for.. and your plans with it. That is great!

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  10. I agree that basements are awesome!! I look forward to seeing you put your stamp on yours. By the way, I am a total rearrange FREAK and have been since I was young. I even tried to rearrange the bathroom once. I swapped the two pictures on the wall and moved the trashcan. My mom must have thought I was a weird kid. ;)

    Also, could you please recommend an online digital floor plan website...or direct me where I can make one like the one you showed?

    Thanks!

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  11. We're just in the process of doing out on sous-sol too! Now our daughter is a teenager, with lots of teenage friends, we/they need a space to escape to!

    Emma xx

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  12. I love basements too! I grew up in Colorado, where everyone had basements (and my bedroom was in the basement - nice and cool all the time!), and now I live in California, where no one has basements. I miss having a hangout that wasn't right in the middle of all the action. We'd spend hours in the basement as kids... and now I wish we had a basement to send our kids to in order to contain mess/noise. Sigh. One day, when we buy a house, I want a basement - unfinished, finished, whatever - they're just so dang useful!

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  13. Yes basement is the most favorite place in my house also. We use it like you do, playstation area, work-out area, princess area and my craft space. We only don't have the washing machine. I very recently moved absolutely every furniture in the place around and I love the new look! I completely agree that it should be comfy, cosy and warm. I need another rug for my craft area, soon I hope :) I love yours by the way, to me it's finished as long as it can be used! Regards, Ebru

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  14. I enjoy your posts about your basement because like someone else said we don't have basements here in Texas. I think I'm a little bit jealous of all that extra space. So excited about you moving your washer and dryer because I loved the pictures of your mudroom ideas. Can't wait to see what you actually do with it. So sorry about your kitty. Ours ran away almost 2 years ago and I still miss him.

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  15. First, Sarah, I missed your post about your kitty. I am so sorry!! Losing a pet is so hard because they truly do become part of the family. Hope you guys are doing okay...

    I am hoping that one day we'll have a house with a basement-finished or not. It looks like you all have such a nice area to relax in, and I love the plans!

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  16. I hope you get to refinish it, but for now, you are totally rockin' the industrial chic look!

    Where did you get Bub's toy table, or did you build it? Looks like the perfect lego-building surface.

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  17. I guess I have to love basements too since I live in a basement apartment :p

    I can't wait to see how this space evolves!

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  18. Wow, how I wish we had basements in Texas...the possibilities...the storage space! A place to send the kids when they're being too noisy!

    Well, good luck with whatever plans you get to fulfill down there...it is a neat room as is.

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  19. I love basements too! We have a huge one and I can't wait to renovate it. I'm not surprised you have been spending lots of time down there. It's very comfortable looking.
    -Diana

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  20. We started to finish our basement when I was pregnant with our second child. My office became the nursery, so we built a new one and a playroom (complete with built-in entertainment center). The baby took nine months. The basement was "done" six months later. (Tip: hire out the drywall.) of course, the built ins still aren't painted and the baby is now 13, but it's been a great space for our family. Good luck!

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  21. Have you ever shared your master bathroom??? I'd love to see it and haven't come across it anywhere on here and I've read most of the posts youve written.

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  22. I love your idea for extra living. I agree basements could/should be utilized more -- which is why I love your plan for reinventing your dining room too!

    We live in a 1400 sq foot ranch style - no basement, no upstair, no bonus room, so it makes moving things around a challenge.

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  23. Your basement looks very similar to ours (including the craft area behing the chairs...scary) Ours is also unfinished, but we don't care. We still love it. We just hung up some sheets along the walls around the tv area, and I think that helps a little with the cold. Glad to see that we aren't the only ones holding out on the finishing project. :-)

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  24. Smart thinking arranging the basement the way you see it configured once walls go up. Great way to find out if you can live with it that way. Oh, and I'm with you on being crazier than the crazies!

    ~Bliss~

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  25. I love it! Anywhere your fam feels cozy and loved is a space worth having! I'm just getting started with mine, so a whole lot of my rooms are like that--undecorated but comfy.

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  26. I like lots of light in a basement. The lights inl
    in the pictures remind me of the lights un a china cabinet. Including a cabinet in the wall with lights built in would add depth and also be a fun place to display, store (behind the lower doors like a chins cabinet has), and get ready for the next seasin. You could also use the scene of the play arrs as a "murel" room divider. Later it would be a fond memory if it were turned the other way. Grrat plans for your added space.

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  27. That will be great! Someday we'd like to do our basement, but I'd rather build a sunroom first.

    Oh and I totally agree about the floor plan thing. I'm always shocked when people posts floorplans of their house, including their child's room! Yikes!

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  28. I love your plans to make this space even more well-used! Each floor of my 2 story is ~640 s.f. so rearranging is "fun"! My basement is unfinished and without a workshop yet, so I don't go down often except to do laundry or spray paint something! I'm trying to figure out how to bring my W/D up to the first floor at least and give more room for the proposed workshop/craft space!

    Ciao!
    Guerrina in CT

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  29. I think you should set everything else aside and do the basement this year. It seems that you spend an awfully lot of time there, so why not make it as beautiful as the rest of your house.....ALMOST....just don't pretty it up so much that you make it where the Bub has too many restrictions. I have Flor carpet tiles, and I'll bet you would find that you would love them there. If Bub or Hubby spills anything, you just pick up that particular carpet tile and wash with dishwashing liquid and water under your faucet. EASY. I have had mine 4 years and had kids and grandkids now spill everything on them....even color on them....EVERYTHING comes out. Makes living easy. Check into it. You can design your own rug with them. I don't work for them, by the way....I just love mine.

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  30. Awwww, just read about your kitty :-( We lost our beloved cat (who was only 5) to a very sudden kidney issue last Fall...I was sitting at home in the middle of the night with my newborn while my husband took him in- never expected Tigger wouldn't return home :-( I was, and still am, absolutely devastated.
    On a side note, I'm super jealous of your basement! Lived in CA my whole life and I've always wished we had basements!! what a luxury!!!!

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  31. Well- I might be pinning your basement photos! Or, at least showing them to my husband later. We moved into our house a year and a half ago, and the basement looked like yours. We've made plans to put some extra furniture down there and actually USE the space, but for now it is a massive, and very unorganized, storage dump site. This has inspired me to move the boxes and clear out an area we can actually use! One day it will be finished in the traditional sense, but on my immediate horizon it will look like yours. Thanks!

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  32. I am a longtime Lurker, LOVE your site! I am currently renovating several large projects, one of them being a historic home from the 1880's. The only thing missing is a basement! so Jealous! Arkansas soil is too rocky for basements...

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  33. I love your basement...even if it isn't "finished" so to speak. We bought our home about 13 months ago. We have 3200sf of living space...+ an unfinished basement that is 1600sf. It is huge! However, to finish it would probably be in the 30k - 40k- price range....not something that is in our budget at all for some years to come. However, I would love to utilize it somewhat of how you have been doing. I just get creeped out since ours is a bit dirty...cement floors...how do you wash them? Exposed insulation...hang large plastics bags or sheets? sheets would be costly...any ideas or suggestions? and the lighting isn't so great. I would have to be down there for hours just to vaccume all the dead...ewww bugs and spider webs

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  34. You're so awesome to share your basement story. :) Our basement is "semi-finished". We have carpet, the ceilings are finished w/lighting...but the walls are painted cinder blocks. There's a wood stove in the center. Let me tell you...this basement was the cat's ass when our sons were growing up. Especially the high school years! They stayed home (to play pool, fooz ball, xbox & nintendo games, watch movies, have dates, etc.) and we knew where they were. I'd love for it to be a beautiful finished space one day...but honestly, it doesn't matter. Like you, it works for us! :)

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  35. Yes! I love to move furniture around and always have. My 8yo son has the eye for space planning (oddly enough), and the way our living room is set up now is his vision. He's good at it, and loves to do it as much as I do. We're currently finishing off our basement (well, we do have drywall, but not much else, no floor and no furniture) and I'm completely blanking on how to set the furniture up....it's a long narrow space. We'll see how it works out....but there will be tons of moving around before we are set.
    And yes, we've lived here 8 years, don't need the space really, and have just never known what to do with it.
    Laura

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  36. And some great ideas in these comments...chalk lines on the concrete and fake windows...I need some fake windows in our space. Need to think about that one!

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  37. I'm glad to see your basement post because we are in the middle of "finishing" ours. I just want it to be usable, not totally drywall finished or anything. We live in a 1933 bungalow so I need more family room space mostly. I just painted our floors with epoxy and it looks really great! Then I'll do some rugs and we have a finished bathroom. Thanks so much for sharing!! That encourages me to get back down in the "dungeon" and get working again. It's so easy to get side-tracked isn't it?? Thanks!!!! Jess

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  38. This post is so timely. We are actually just starting to finish our basement! We did the floorplan a few months ago and finally decided to start it. This whole week has been moving stuft out of it so my husband can start framing it. Exciting, nerve wracking and exhausting...all at the same time!
    Can't wait to read more on your possible plans to move forward.

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  39. This is coming from someone who has her washer and dryer in the basement.....really think that over!! I have to carry all my wash down 2 flights of stairs to get to the basement. I have fallen twice while carrying those baskets and it wasn't pretty!!

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  40. Our basement is unfinished.. Like another reader above, we have 1600+ sq feet of basement.. That is a HUGE space, but we have managed to fill it. one thing we did was put some Cheap Carpet down there on the floor ( we managed to find a deal on some cheap, thinner carpet... did all 1600 sqft for about $50!.. Look on Craigslist if you have one in your area) We also painted the walls. You would not believe the difference paint makes! I can not stand to look at cold grey walls.. they always look so ick... Painted walls just always feel warmer and cleaner to me. We used Dry wall mud to fill in any holes in the concrete... let that dry and painted. it looks GREAT! We did the same thing in our last house it had been painted for 6 years and never had any issues with the paint cracking or chipping off! This is working for us. We will probably never "finish" the basement, Maybe just put a bathroom down there.

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  41. Moving the W/D to the basement is a must!! Ours is upstairs where the builder found a hole in the wall and utilized it as a "Laundry Room" but it is merely a laundry hall. We finished our basement complete with a family room, playroom, gym, even a barber shop...but no laundry room and I am sorry!!!

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  42. I like your basement plans but as a 2 story homeowner with a first floor laundry, I'd re-think the basement laundry idea. I can't imagine trucking all of our laundry up and down two flights of stairs. Heck, I hate trucking it up and down just one!

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  43. Oh, I love re-arranging furniture! My husband travels frequently and he is never sure what the furniture arrangement will be like when he returns.

    I also want to chime in on the laundry situation. We've moved frequently and I've had every type of laundry configuration - basement, first floor, second floor. Our current house has a basement laundry room and I hate it! It seems like it makes it much harder to get into a routine and get it done. And, carrying up all the clean clothes is no fun either. Do you want to move the laundry so you can use your current space for other things? Can you get stackable washer/dryer instead? Obviously it's your space, but just adding my input as someone who's had all the different scenarios and would rank the basement as my least favorite.

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  44. Oh you are the best! I love it that you showed this perfectly imperfect space! It is an awesome basement! Thanks for sharing it with us~

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  45. I have to tell you how very excited I am for you to start this project. We've been in our bungalow (approx. 1200 sq ft.) and have one little boy who is making it feel like we're bursting at the seams with toys.... you know how that is, right? ;o) We have a full undeveloped basement and we're trying to decide on dri-core or barricade flooring or a reg. subfloor, the types of insulation, the non-fun stuff in other words, so I'll be looking out for your posts on your own basement! Good luck Sarah! I always enjoy your blog.

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  46. i am one of those jealous coastal kids who has never had a basement. it always amazes me when people have an entire floor of their house go unused. thank you for showing that "industrial chic" and comfy is worth a try.

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  47. I’d rather be crazier than the crazies-Love it!! :)

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  48. Recently my 7 year old said he wished we had a house like my sister's home. I agreed with him because she has an 8000 sq foot 1.5 million dollar home! When I asked him what he liked so much about his Aunt's home, he didn't miss a beat and said, "Her basement! It's the best basement EVER!" The funny thing is...it's an unfinished basement and the kids love it because they can run around and play! It was a good reminder to me that sometimes the best things about our homes are NOT the beautiful, "perfect" things, but the spaces where we actually have the most fun. :-) Love that you showed us your fun but not perfect space!

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  49. Okay so I'm new here but is that a pig in your basement? A real one?

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  50. I love moving furniture around! Even as a child, I used to rearrange my bedroom a few times a year. My mom thought I was crazy but let me have at it - since that also meant I was cleaning/organizing my room at the same time. I'm a little more set in my ways now, and our furniture doesn't quite allow for lots of movement. But it's fun when I find a new arrangement that really works well :)

    Love your basement!!

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  51. We have one of those rare Texas basements and hubby has been working on turning it into his man cave for several months now. The original plan was to keep it very rustic and put the kids TV/video game stuff down there. It would be SO nice to get to watch TV again!

    Somehow this is turning more into something for my husband to use for sports. I'm going to remember the rugs on the floor, but we're keeping it rather "unfinished" on purpose. I love all the hints you've given for making it more comfy!

    So sorry for about your kitty.

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  52. I hear ya about not posting too many detailed pics of your house especially floorplans... Not a good idea! We have a basement too... Very small though... And I would love to put carpet and frame it with insulation and drywall. It even has room for a closet and bathroom... I think it could add an extra room and bath onto the house plus just think of the value you will add to your home by finishing it. Cool post!

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  53. Oh gosh, what would we Midwest folks do w/o our bsmts? esp. when tornado sirens sound. We have finished our bsmt in every house we've lived in, 1st for a spot for our kids & friends to gather, now for our grandkids...We have the benefit of lots of big windows (walk-out bsmt) but still put in lots of recessed lighting, etc. We've learned a lot over many years & many houses. You can never have too much light! We have some carpet (family rm & office areas), slate tile (game room & bath, bar), wood (craft rm & "butler's pantry). All easy to clean. 1 of my favorite things is the dishwasher as we do a lot of entertaining/pool time in the summer - I pushed for an oven too but lost out on that idea:(. We do have AC/heat but floors still feel cold in the dead of winter. Mostly tho' it's the ultimate man cave. Have fun planning this great space. We couldn't live w/o ours finished.

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  54. I am so inspired by the fact that you use your unfinished basement! I have a new home with a basement, which are rare hear in the south. The basement is framed but unfinished so I thought it would be a while (long while) before we could use it. Your post changed my mind. Now I am so excited by the immediate possibilities of using our basement. Woo Hoo!

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  55. Thanks for showing us around..I love to hear your thoughts. :)

    The irony of you hangin out so much down there when upstairs is just GORG is funny to me. Not downin' in any way at all, just think it is ironic. One of the last spaces in the home you haven't totally "re-dood." :)

    I'm glad you think about safety & the crazies, Sarah. Too bad it is that way, but I'm glad you do what ya gotta do.
    Happy weekend. Chrissy

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  56. We use our unfinished basement too! My daughter actually moved her bedroom down there after Christmas. She has sheets for walls - but she loves it! And my craft room and our TV/toy room is also down there. But we DO have spiders!! I don't know what to do about that!

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  57. If you figure out how you don't get bugs please let me know! We have a finished basement and I find spiders at least once a week.
    Looks really good though for not being finished. If mine were unfinished it would be a mess of storage boxes.

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  58. That was us! For 23 years we lived in our basement just like that. Mismatched furniture, rugs carpet remments, play area. I always tried to talk our kids into NOT hanging out in the basement with their friends. But they loved it! We finally finished the basement off and our kids claimed that we ruined it...it just wasn't as comfortable. To end this long story, we moved 6 months later.

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  59. Had to leave a comment and tell you that I am obsessed with this blog. I just love it.

    Since discovering this blog on pinterest, I LOVE on this blog.


    Barbara from myhaitiankitchen.blogspot.com

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  60. Like others have said, I don't know if you will like having your laundry room downstairs. I had a basement laundry in our previous home for 17 years and it wore me out carrying baskets up and down the stairs. The house I'm in now has a main floor laundry and I love it. It looks like you are enjoying your basement with it's industrial look. I think a coat of paint on the walls is all you need to make it look good.

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  61. I LOVE this idea! We've had an unfinished basement for too long. :) We've had plans to finish it since we've lived here, but the funds never met up with the time we've had and vice-versa. Thank you for the creative ideas!

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  62. Our basement is semi-unfinished - paneling on the walls (right over the cinder block so no insulation), drop ceiling, and peel and stick tiles. Not exactly the most cozy look, but we use it as a playroom and the kids love it. I love that I can close the door and not have to see the mess :-)

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