Basement Tour

One of my BIG challenges last spring was cleaning out this guest bedroom in our basement--which tends to collect junk! But it was great having a place where I could stash Christmas presents--and wrap them in private--and put things until the next charity could pick them up.

Oh, and we occasionally cleared off the bed for a guest...or even cleaned up the room for a long-term occupant. (We've had students or others in transition live with us a number of times.)


But it's never looked this good before! And now Bantam17 is staying in here. He was out in the main room with his brothers before this, but we took down his bed and moved him in here.


He made the bed. The comforter's on the wrong way, and his stuff under the bed and dresser are showing. But it's okay.


See that desk against the right wall? Our realtor/friend bought it and I was so grateful--it's enormous and not something I want to worry about making room for in our new house.


I'm still trying to get around to clearing out the rest of the stuff against the far wall--I think it would look best with the treadmill down and turned sideways against that wall. But then where will I put the TV and DVD player that's on the table behind it?

It seems that every change I make is like that--each presents a new problem or requires another decision. And I'm totally running out of room in my garage, which presents another problem, the need for a storage space. Here? In Wisconsin? Another big project, either way.

And just for fun, let's take a virtual tour of the rest of the basement. I don't have "before" pictures, but with three boys in one room, you can imagine the Legos, the Playmobil, the cars and army men that have been packed up--and gotten out again--and recently repacked.


Bantam17's old bed was against that far wall over there.


Looking at this picture from last summer, I just realized we need to put the lower bunk back up in its "couch" position like it is in this picture. Bantam12 says he doesn't mind sleeping on it that way...


This is Father Rooster's office. I didn't take pictures from other angles, but if you can imagine every wall covered with bookshelves, you've got it. Imagine a recliner to the right of this door way, too.

The main thing I wanted to show with this picture is the desk. Father Rooster is a kinesthetic learner, and for years, he dreamed of having a stand-up desk like one he had seen. A master carpenter friend of ours drew up some plans, and during his six months of unemployment (18 months ago), Father Rooster finally had time to build it. Isn't it beautiful?



And the full bath. (See the shower in the mirror?) It used to be a coffee-with-cream color that I loved, but since we needed to repaint, we went with a pale cream--all together now--"to make the room look bigger."

By the way, when we moved in 12 years ago, this basement was nothing but cinder-block walls! Father Rooster and his brother did most of the work, hiring out some jobs like the plumbing and drywall finishing. It was a brand-new experience for Father Rooster, and he learned so much doing it. We finished it in the first year we were here, and we have done a lot of living in it since then.