Wednesday, February 17, 2010

My Basement

This is not one of those, "Oh look at us! Look what we can do! Take a whiff of our cool & talentedness & then try & be like us!" posts. It's a "Yeah boi!!!! We finally finished our basement after working our fatty's off for 4 years & we want to share it with everyone because we're so freaking excited & we want you all to come stay in it!" posts.
Seriously, this started 4 years ago & has been worked on at least 3 hours every single week since then, although many, many weeks had more like 25+ hours on it. When we moved into our house the basement was just one big unfinished cement room with cement floors & cement walls. The kind that people get tortured in really. No reason to go down there. It could double our house size to finish it, so that was that. Whenever we got extra money, with the occasional help of some friends & me, Ben finished it all by himself (You know it!)... framing, drywall, mudding (although to be completely truthful we did hire out the last batch because it would have been death for some key players otherwise), electric, plumbing, tiling, EVERYTHING! We never thought the day would come, but life is so much more happy, pleasant, satisfying, enjoyable, free, relaxing now that we are done. Done. Really now, if the location were different we would be more than happy to live in this house forever. It's perfect for us in every way. Oh how I love it! Worth every stressful night, every fight, every overwhelmed weekend. Now come help make it all worth it by playing with us in it! St.Louis is a great place in the summer... very green, hilly with lots to do & if you are one of those Mormons, Nauvoo is only 2.5 hours away...

This is what the upstairs looked like with the last lady in it. On the other side of the yellow wall is the stair case down to the basement. There was a door at the top.
The process of us taking the wall down to open up to the stairs (thank you Emily & Matt for the hammer help)....
The finished product. Open to the basement
Midway through...
And DONE...
The storage room
Room #1 (Ben's Room)
Room #2 (Denae's Room)Quite possibly my favorite part... finally my own laundry room! No more dropping clean clothes in the middle of sawdust
Oh & did I mention sweet, little Lotus got 15 stitches in her head?? We'll talk about that another day....

18 comments:

Michael said...

This is seriously impressive! We'll have to come by and visit again, this time +2 more. :)

Spiresfam said...

Mark- Sure beats TVA
Traci- I know we've been saying this FOR-EVER, but we really want to come visit you guys. Maybe if Mark gets a job on your side of the continent like we are hoping!
Your basement looks great, I love your choice of colors!!

Emily said...

It looks incredible. Congratulations!

p.s. Poor Lotus!

JanaeGalindo said...

I am MEGA impressed, and my vote counts for 3 right now. I love the computer niche, that must be really helpful for you. I didn't realize that you opened the wall behind that bookshelf upstairs - that was very clever. Then again you are the interior designer.

Miss you all!

Aim said...

Oh my gosh, I LOVE it! I love the paint colors especially the red against the blue upstairs and the the laundry room color. And the wood floors! Where did you get the flooring at? We are dying to redo our kitchen floor. Poor little Lo, can't wait to hear this story. :)

kelly said...

that is unbelievable denae. wow you guys are awesome! bedrooms and all! that will really improve the value of your house!
and i must know about lotus!

Leslie said...

Oh my goodness! That looks awesome! All that time was so worth it! I cannot wait to see it... in May. I'll be coming out for 2 weeks, my niece Natalie is getting married. See you then!

by Kimberlee St. Clair said...

I love it! I love all the colors ad fabrics and all of it! So nice to be finished I'm sure! Maybe I'll have to talk my husband into visit hot, humid, sticky, wonderful St. Louis soon!

Samantha said...

The pictures really don't do it justice. It is even more awesome in person. Love that Snickers snuck into a picture.

emilymhjohnson said...

Go Team Zoff! You guys did an AMAZING job. I remember when you started you showed us the plans and Matt and I looked at each other and had a telepathic conversation - "Impossible," I thought-said. "This will take years," he thought-replied. "Looks great, you guys!," "You can do it!," we said out loud. And you really did do it! Yet again you succeed in making us feel like lazy losers. We could never have pulled this off. You are INSPIRING! Congratulations on finally being done!

Poe said...

It looks so good and I too can't believe that you did it!!! You do deserve lot's of admirations and what not! YOu guys worked like dogs there for awhile. I like your yellow room the best. Just think...you like doubled your living space. Crazy!

Molly Malia said...

wow! great job! love the turq in the laundry room! soooo would this be the wrong time to ask you guys to come finish my basement??

Anonymous said...

that is awesome! fine work!!

Ben, I'm glad you're now available to come insulate my pipes in my condo. Grrreeeaaattt.

really though, awesome work

heidi said...

good work!! that looks awesome!!

anna said...

wow. awesome.

lydia said...

Denae! I have never seen your house properly, I love it! It looks different over skype. You guys did such a great job!

Janet said...

SO EXCITING! I'm glad we got to see the in-progress version so we can appreciate these pics. Way to go!

Anonymous said...

Okay, we totally have to come visit - it looks fantastic! Chris hates St. Louis, but damnit, we're going!