Renovation Reality: Basement Storage

Welcome to our basement... but use caution!!

Trent and I LOVE the show "Renovation Realities" on the DIY channel.  It always cracks us up how... 1. people go WAY over budget. 2. they always want to finish these huge projects in like a weekend. 3. the couple always starts after they engulf a huge breakfast which then prevents them from starting first thing that morning. 4. the couple always fights and you're guaranteed to see somebody cry- usually the woman which always annoys Trent and makes me mad.

The first week that I didn't have homework we decided we needed a new project.  One that could be completed fairly cheaply and quickly.  Enter- the basement.  We have grand plans on how we're going to finish 1/2 of it soon for an office/scrapbook room so the upstairs bedrooms can be used as guest bedrooms and future nurseries, yikes.  But before starting work on finishing our basement we needed to get the storage side in order.  We decided that our November project would be to overhaul 1/2 of the basement to be our "Storage Room."  And to make the process even more fun we were going to keep track of the budget, set a deadline, and count the number of fights and tears shed- Renovation Reality style.

Budget: $350 or under
Deadline: By Thanksgiving- since we host both of our families at our house
Fights and Tears: Hopefully 0

To Do List:
-install 4 new fluorescent lights
-paint the walls white
-etch and wash the floor
-paint the floor gray
-build custom shelving
-purge and sort thru our crap
-organize and label everything into Rubbermaid totes

 Before: West wall as you walk down the stairs

 Before: South wall

 Before: North wall

 Before: East wall

 Before: Rest of East wall/stairs

 Phase 1: Lights installed and everything moved over

 Where the rest of our crap went

 And the fun begins!  Painting on Monday night 11-7-11

 The first coat!

 We ended up needing 2 quick coats of the white.  We picked white so the storage room will be nice and bright.

Tuesday night was Phase 2- sweeping, etching, and washing the floors.  I didn't take any pics cause it didn't look that different.

 Phase 3: Painting the floor gray on Wednesday night.

Phase 4: Building the shelves!  Trent took Friday off and Bob and Lora came up so that Bob and Trent could have all day Friday for shelf building fun. I wanted my shelves nice and long... as Trent is demonstrating.

1 down 1 to go.

 And both the shelves were done by the time I got home from work on Friday evening- NICE!  I figured I'd have to bust out my work gloves Friday night to pitch in but they definitely got 'er done without me ;)

Jeryn tested them out and she approves as well!

 Saturday was taken off for fun stuff with family so Sunday was moving-our-crap-back-over-day!

 And the afters!  South wall view.  Most of the storage bins have been reorganized and labeled- but the Christmas ones won't get redone until after the holidays since I'll be getting them out in a few weeks anyway.

 Not totally perfect yet- we have to go buy a few more red/green bins for some more of our Christmas stuff.

East wall

 North wall- not as much crap!  Still have a pile of stuff for Trent to sell on Craigslist, some of Trent's truck stuff that will be headed to the garage soon, and the Christmas tree which is waiting on it's storage bag to arrive in the next week.

 West wall- up next we'll move the deep-freeze to put next to the fridge.

 Sunday night- all done!!!  And the renovation reality rundown is...

Deadline: Done weeks before Thanksgiving- woo hoo!  Thanks for the help this weekend, Bob!

Budget: Lumber $180
Lighting $45
Paint(walls and floor) $55
Misc. (screws, couple new bins, etc) $45
Total= 325
But Trent didn't use all the lumber...we have lots left over for the next time. $325-50=275
Then some friends bought our old metal shelves.  $275-25=250
Grand total: $250!!!!  Below budget :)
AND we had ZERO fights or tears.  All in all... a success!

Now up next:
-Re-wiring to move the deep-freeze and to add more outlets
-Frame in the new wall that will split the storage side from the office side
-Install door to separate the rooms
-Build identical shelving on the new wall for the storage room
-Tap into existing plumbing to install a work sink in the storage room
-Then start on the office/scrapbook room.  Lots of fun!