Two years ago my husband and I were blessed to buy a semi-fixer-upper on the Mississippi River in a wonderful neighborhood. The house had been empty for six years, so we got an amazing deal, but it was in need of updating. We started with two upstairs rooms the first year and this year we decided to tackle the basement.
The house had two major additions in the 1970's and the 1990's so it's a large house full of character. The addition in the 1970's was a two story addition, on the back of the house. It was about ten feet wide by thirty feet long. The basement is a walk-out to the river, but the downstairs addition wasn't insulated, so it was unusable in the winter - plus, since the house was empty for six years, it was overrun with rodents. It needed to be gutted!
 |
| The original walkout to the backyard and the river. |
 |
| We opened up a wall separating two rooms to make one large room, plus we added the far wall, so we could have a foyer to enter the basement from outside. |
 |
| This is the other side of the original addition. It had a "pass-through" granite fireplace and four small windows |
 |
| Here's the same room. We took out the four small windows and put in three larger ones. |
 |
| This was the room on the other side of the "pass-through" fireplace - my future office! |
 |
| Same room! I still need to decorate and bring in my furniture. I have three large new windows to look out on the river while I'm writing. |
 |
| This was the window that separated the main heated family room and the addition. We took out the window and made a large archway. This is the only picture of the indoor room - it was pretty dark! Think wood paneling and checker board tiles. The room is about 12x30 feet. |
 |
| These are the two rooms, now one! We've since added a television where the cords are - and moved our living room furniture downstairs. One of my boys was helping vacuum and the other was running around in circles! |
 |
| Here's the other end of the same room, with a peek into my office. The only thing that remains from the original room are the cabinets. I wish we had more pictures! There were only two dim lights and so much paneling. It's an unbelievable transformation. |
 |
| Another view of the one large room now. |
 |
| I love the ceiling! We wallpapered the ceiling and painted it with a high gloss paint, so it looks like an old-fashioned tin ceiling - at about a tenth of the price. Around the fireplace my husband did some custom trim work - he's so talented! |
My husband and brother-in-law, Matt, did almost all the work on the basement. We started demolition just after the New Year and they were able to finish it in a little over two months. My dad also came in and helped a few times, and I did a lot of the painting. With a little imagination, and a lot of hard work, we have now added another 600 square feet of usable space to our home.
In the next two weeks we'll be hosting the third birthday party for our twins and a Final Four Game party! I love to entertain and I can't wait to use this space with family and friends. Not to mention how much fun we'll have here with our children.
As my husband and I were sitting together admiring the transformation in this space, he said to me: "Everything we own is not really ours. It's a gift from God, on loan to us for as long as He sees fit. He's calling us to use the gifts He's given us to minister to others. We need to use this space to bless as many people as possible." And that's exactly what we hope to do.
What about you? Have you ever remodeled a space in your home? If you could remodel a room, which would it be and what would you do?
