basement update (finally)

We're painting!  Actually Daddy Bird is doing most of the painting and he's pretty much finished at this point, but the point is, the beast that was the drywall has been conquered and there is now paint on the wall!

Of course we had different opinions on the color we should use.  Daddy Bird wanted yellow (say what?!?!?!) and I wanted some boring shade of neutral.  Although I love color (and I do like yellow sometimes) I just really thought with the busy pattern of the slate in the bathroom and everything else we have going on in there, yellow just wasn't my choice.

So we compromised and went with :

This shade - Antique White.  It's about the shade of a stick of butter, so it's a little bit yellow, and a little bit boring, so, perfect, right?  And it looks good with the tile and the flooring.

Not sure if I've shown y'all what we chose for the flooring.  I love, love, the look of the really wide plank floors, and someday, in our dream home I will have them, but we chose this for the basement and I've fine with it.  It should be durable, I like the look, and it was fairly easy on the pocketbook as well.

The flooring will be the next thing to go in.

So here's the wall color in the room:

Have I told y'all about this desk?  I'll save that for another time.

We're going to need to make some more decisions soon.  I've got to come up with some lighting options and figure out what my options are as far as window coverings.

We're getting close to being finished!  I'm so excited to use this space!

basement bathroom

I haven't done a basement update for ya'll in forever.  We took a bit of a break working on things after baby girl was born, but that was ages ago it seems.

The tile is finished, and the cabinet has been installed.

I'm really happy with how the cabinet turned out.  I don't have a great photo of just the cabinet, but you can kind of see it here:

If you think custom cabinets are way out of your price range, look into a local cabinet maker.  Chino Ross at Countryside Cabinets built this for us for less than what we had priced at Lowes.  Plus, we were able to get exactly what we wanted.

We went with hickory wood and kind of a pecan finish.  I really like simple, clean lines so the doors are a shaker style.



I must confess, I really wasn't crazy about the tile that we chose at first.  Daddy Bird really loved it though, so I compromised.  Now that it's in the room I really do like it.

The area to the left of the bathtub is going to be open shelving.  We just have to get the shelves in.

We used the large 12x12 tiles everywhere, but a little over half way up the tub wall, Daddy Bird put in this brick pattern for a few rows.  I like the interest it gives, and it breaks things up a bit, don't you think?

All that's left is painting, putting in the shelves, and installing the light fixture and mirror over the vanity. 
We're almost finished with the bathroom! 

I'm looking for a reasonably priced large mirror to hang over the vanity.  I've thought about checking at Garden Ridge.  Any other suggestions?

basement update

So, our basement is coming along nicely! 

The daddy bird, his dad, and my dad have had several good days of work and have managed to complete almost all the framing in the bedroom/office and the bathroom.

We now have some walls!

It's kind of hard to get your bearings with these pictures because I can't get the entire room in the picture at once, but, you can kind of tell where the bathroom is located.  This next shot shows where Josh has added some closets for the bedroom:

We've chosen a vanity for the bathroom too.  Actually we decided to go the custom cabinet route since daddy bird and mama bird couldn't seem to agree on ANYTHING already made (imagine that) and when we started pricing things, it really wasn't much more to just have something made for us.  Plus, the whole piece will be solid wood, instead of the fabricated stuff, and Chino (the cabinet guy) will come install the whole thing for us, and we wouldn't have gotten that with Lowes.  Sorry Lowes.

We chose hickory for our wood, and went with a plain, shaker style door:

We're still not sure of the stain color yet.  This photo is of a natural hickory with no stain at all, but you can see how much variation the wood has.  Ours will probably be stained a darker color, but we both like the rustic look that hickory provides.

Here's where I need your help.  We need to pick some tile!  We are going with a slate tile for the floor, and the tub surround, but we need to choose which color.  I have it narrowed down to 4 choices, so give me your opinion!  Here are the options:

autumn lilac

desert raja

golden sun

china apricot

So, what do you think?  I'm not even going to tell you which choice I'm leaning toward because I want your opinions.

More updates coming soon....

before and after

Happy 2011 everyone! 

I've been gone a long time!  The holidays kept us really busy and I just didn't make blogging a priority.  That will hopefully change with the addition of this little beauty to our nest:

WOOHOOO!!!  Josh and I are now the proud parents of a Canon Rebel T2i, and we are loving it.  I'm hoping it will encourage me to post more pics for you, my blog buddies, and also to take more photos of the baby bird.

Ok.  Down to business.  I have a terrible secret to share with you.  (Cue dramatic music here...)  My pantry and linen closet are a MESS!!!! 

By nature, I'm just not a very organized person, but I think I'm nesting.  Maybe it's just that it's January and I'm wanting to get our house organized for the new year, but I think it probably has more to do with the little bun I've got in my oven.

Whatever the reason, I had to get this:

and this (yes, that is nair, and gas ex you may notice):

under control.  It was driving me crazy.  I may not be organized by nature, but I cannot function for long in a mess where I don't even realize I have 3 exra deoderants, and I can't find my self-rising conrmeal.  So, I took a couple of days and those before pictures became this:

I realize this does not appear to be that much better on this blog, but let me tell you folks, it is a HUGE difference!  I purged a ton of stuff, found stuff I didn't know I had, and just feel so much better knowing my stuff has a place.

How have you been inspired to get organized lately?  Do you have any organizing tips to share?

Here's another before I want to share with you:

We have finally started the process of finishing our basement!!!  Yay!  I can't tell you how excited I am to see actual walls go up downstairs, and to be picking out things like tile for the bathroom, vanities, tubs, flooring, etc.  We're a LONG way from the "after" shots, but I wanted to get up the before.  We (I use the term "we" loosely here) are doing most of the work ourselves, so I'm going to be asking for lots of advice and help.  I can't wait to document this process!