Casey Space

When you leave your house, you need to make it way nicer for someone else.

Basement Master Suite Before

One of the first tasks on our list of things to do before we left was to make the basement look finished.

We have been sleeping in the basement for many years, and making it look finished was low on the priority list. When we first moved in 14 years ago, the price to properly finish it was way out of our budget so we just kinda forgot about it.

Since we would now be renting our place to other people, it became a priority. The idea was to make the house more versatile, a family could move in, or two people who don’t sleep together could have a nice cohabitation situation.

Changes needed

Walls

The big project was firring out and finishing two exposed walls. When we moved in 14 years ago, they were “finished” with a thin wood veneer that was moldy. We tore out the walls, left it as exposed concrete, added some crown molding and called it good.

There was a weird wall jutting into the space that you can kind of see on the right in the photo that needed to go.

Ceiling

The “boob lights” needed to go. You may also notice exploratory holes in the ceiling from a plumbing job on our front hose bib. The plumber cut 3 exploratory holes to find the access to the components he needed to fix were a full 12 feet from the front of the house, situated in the stairwell down to the basement. Neat!

Floor

We etched the concrete when we moved in with the color “Caribbean” so it feels like descending into a pool from the stairs. We weren’t planning on doing anything with it….

Basement Master Suite After

Walls

The two walls were properly finished. We went with smooth mud on all walls and ceiling. This made the project take significantly longer, but looks so chic!

Ceiling

The contractors ripped out the boob lights and about 100 feet of unnecessary electrical wire. They put in recessed lighting, which gives a couple more inches of clearance on a low ceiling. Tall kings and queens still may have a hard time down there, but it worked for us.

Floor

After we took out the weird wall, I needed to just etch/stain where the wall was. It turned out to be one of those things where it was obviously a totally different color/opacity. So, we ended up spending our weekend doing the whole floor. I cried a little.