I know... It's been a ridiculously long time since I did a home post on here! Granted, the last one was kind of a doozie. If I were thinking straight, I probably could've stretched that out in to at least three posts, but oh well.
Anyway, as you guys know, I've been a bit preoccupied lately with all things baby on the brain. I just haven't really done many new things to the house! Of course, we've cleaned out the nursery (LOVE being able to call it that now, by the way) and a few things have been added (gifts, random purchases, etc), but nothing is in place yet. Think of it as more of a "baby stuff storage" room as of right now. Of course we've got some big plans!
What's holding me back from really starting to begin to put things in place are the walls. You may remember in the whole post about us tearing out the built-in bunk bed in there, the walls were a bit sketchy afterwards. Think broken off bolts and uneven areas that need to be heavily spackled. Oh and the whole thing (ceiling included) needs a fresh coat of paint.
You guys know I love to paint. I've almost painted every room in this whole house (and our last one). I've gotten really good at it and can do it fairly quickly. It's therapeutic to me. But being pregnant, it hasn't really been something I've been comfortable doing, just because of the fumes. It's just something unnecessary that I don't have to do now. I know there are "safe" formulas out there, but Brad is really insisting that he do it. So he's promised me that sometime in August he's going to get it all done. I'm excited about starting to actually get things going in there! Of course, I'll share all the updates with you all here and on my pregnancy vlogs on my YouTube channel as it all comes together.
So I've really missed doing these home posts. When I started thinking about what the heck I could even post on, I realized that we've actually made a pretty big change in the basement. Is it super pretty or creative change? Not really. But it's probably one of the most functional changes we've made here.
Remember the big empty room in the basement (that stayed empty for a year)?
Well, almost empty. ;)
It's a massive room. With no windows. So it was kind of difficult to figure out what to do with it. We already have a media room down there, a living room-ish area, and a bar/table area. So we were originally thinking maybe a game room? We thought of getting a pool table. Because that's what typically ends up in a basement. But the basement is really Brad's domain. His games are more of the XBox/Playstation variety. Again, media room...he's got that already covered. Plus, there's still room in another room down there for a game table of some kind if we ever wanted it. So we just couldn't make a decision on anything because we didn't want to make a mistake in the biggest room down there and possibly turn it into a huge waste of space that we never used. We really wanted it to be functional.
Since we moved in, Brad had been using our big unfinished storage room (in the photo above, the little door on the right wall next to that white air return leads right into it) as his makeshift "gym". I never went in there because, well, bugs. Seriously where do all those tiny hair-like spiders come from in basements? Where do they come from????
So we had sort of a "well duh" moment and decided to make it into a full-on home gym about 4 or 5 months ago. It's something useful, good for us, and it'll actually save us money in gym memberships over time. Brad seriously uses it every single day. I'm not on such a strict schedule, and I don't use his big crazy weights, but I love my elliptical (and my lil row of tiny weights on the bottom of the rack).
It's nowhere near being finished, but it's functional for now!
This is definitely more of the "starting point" for this room. We need to get some mirrors on the walls professionally installed and figure out a different flooring solution because the current situation isn't cutting it. We knew we needed some sort of flooring for the equipment to protect the floors. So we majorly cheaped out with these puzzle piece gym mats that I would definitely never recommend to anyone... haha. For several reasons. First off, it looks really uneven. Second, each pack you buy are totally different colors and never fit together properly. They're also not as heavy-duty as we'd like (they're starting to dent and tear in places). So while these work for now, we're definitely going to get something better down the line. The little blue thing is my yoga mat.
Here's a shot of the whole room...
That photo is totally deceiving and makes the room look really small. Check out how much space we have below for even more equipment! It's a really long room.
Pay no attention to the chair and mirror. That has become a little storage corner. I think I'm going to move the chair to another room down there. I really like it, but I've never found the perfect spot for it. The mirror needs to finally go up somewhere too.
I want to get a little shelf for our shoes that we leave down there to go in the spot where the chair is maybe? We don't keep towels in there because there is a full bathroom around the corner that really comes in handy close by.
So like I said, the room is far from finished and not especially attractive at the moment. Brad has a list of things he wants for the room, but here are some of the things we eventually want to address...
- new, more sturdy weight bench
- some sort of leg machine and some other kind of machine...haha (I'm not as down with the gym equipment lingo as Brad is)
- partially mirror the walls
- replace the gym flooring mats with something more solid and heavy-duty
- maybe add some french doors to the opening to the room (beside the elliptical) to add some separation from the living/rec area
So basically, nothing super creative home-wise has been going on around here lately. But we feel like we really added a ton of function!
Right now, while that room is definitely a work in progress (like many spaces around here), I've got some plans for our bedroom, lots more to do in the basement, my office, and some furniture switch-a-roos. Plus, lots of long-term plans for the kitchen. There's still so much to do around here and share! Oh and the nursery! Can't forget that! ;) I'll keep you posted!
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