Basement Pics

We got our basement finished before Christmas. Well, at least the walls and carpet. We still haven't decorated much, but since then, we've completed all plugs and lights, which is so nice.


Here are a few before pictures.


Believe it or not, we actually had oak strips on our walls. Real oak. Ugly oak, but real. As you can see, it was supposed to be some sort of cool pattern......but we think it was really somebody's way of recycling the wood. "Hey, let's put these oak strips on the WALL.....just for fun." Very strange! But it was a great conversation piece. (Notice the cable strip; it was a nice touch and added quite a bit more for conversation's sake).

This is what it looked like after we started to remove the oak. They were glued and nailed to the wall underneath.

And here is what we discovered in one section. Yes, those are mirror strips. Another recycling project, do you think?

This is all the wood in our backyard, which will be recycled once again.....for firewood. It has sat all winter, unfortunately, so it's lost its pretty shine.... :) But once it gets chopped up, it will make for some warm fires.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of our back stairway. I don't know why I didn't take one. This is an old picture from a couple of years ago, when Jacob had fallen asleep on the bottom step. It's the only one I could find to show what it looked like. Sadly, it was actually worse than this. The bottom half was very ugly, brown paneling.....and the top half was a 70's style, swirled paint design. This picture just doesn't do justice, but hopefully you'll get an idea of it's grossness!

This is the brown paneling now stacked in our garage. Still very disgusting. It literally had scratches from top to bottom from some large-clawed creature that must have inhabited this house before us......

And here is our NEW back stairway. The hand railing isn't painted yet, but for now, I'm just glad it's up. Do you see our little Ziggy at the bottom peering up?

One corner is sort-of like the office part.....

There aren't any oak strips now.....Yipee!

So, like I said, it's not all decorated, but we love, love, love the coziness of this room now. It is perfect for our family and it was worth every penny! :)