All I Wanted Was Hooks! (Basement Remodel Part 1)

During the winter, we use the downstairs bedroom as our snow clothing walk-in closet. Whether skiing or snow blowing, we change in the bedroom and the base layers and gore-tex end up everywhere. We don't have hooks, so the wet gear hangs on the furniture and by the time it's dry, it's time to go out and play in the snow again.

We've been talking about storage hooks and cabinets in the entry for years, but never found anything worth getting excited about. In December, we were eating breakfast in town and Terry pulled a business card off the bulletin board for a local woodworker. We met with him one evening to show him the entry and clicked. He immediately understood our vision/frustration, provided several creative ideas, and after a couple hours, we had a game-plan and it included hooks!

The plan going into January was an entry bench and cabinet storage combo, an improved shoe storage system under the stairs, and a shelf with hooks! We went through a couple design reviews and then gave the go ahead.

In the meantime, I did a major minimalist house cleaning over xmas and ended up with over 300 items for donation. One pile dominated the basement gear room, while I stuffed all the clothing in the bedroom armoire and shelves. This made the bedroom even tighter, but my parents were on the way for Sundance and I wanted to have them a chance to scavenge the piles before I took them in. I also cleared our gear out of the bedroom and moved it upstairs for two weeks so it could monopolize a new set of furniture.

My parents went back home and I went into action. I loaded up the truck with the donations and got them out of the basement. Then, I moved our gear back downstairs into the bedroom closet. Finally, I called Habitat for Humanity and had them pick up the armoire and shelving units from the bedroom and the rolling bookshelf from the entry. We were ready for the custom cabinets and hooks!

Donations filled the entire shelving unit at the drop-off

Out with the rolling bookshelf, this space will house the new bench and cabinet

Two shelving units gone and hopefully have found a new home.

Armoire also gone, along with the ancient tv that used to call it home.

This is a very mild case of ski gear on the bed

We were downstairs one day and something clicked. If all the woodwork was coming in, we should really paint before it was installed. Painting the basement has been on the list since we moved in, but obviously not a priority. Suddenly the engineer/project managers in us went into overdrive. Within a week, we went from a couple pieces in the entry to an entire basement remodel. Just like the landscaping project, it was very difficult to imagine doing only bits-and-pieces so we jumped into the deep end!

The basement remodel now consists of the three entry pieces, textured and painted walls, new trim, new doors, metal wainscot in the "bike shop", new flooring, and all the extras that come along with remodeling an entry and four rooms. It is slightly intimidating, both financially and when it comes to decisions, but it's too late now.

We didn't get any applicants for our assistant position, so we hired a general contractor. Unfortunately, we still had to make tough choices on paint, flooring, and more. We spent the 1st weekend in April moving everything out and then removing all the old trim, fixtures, and shelving. Somehow, we snuck in a morning of skiing and a couple 30 Days of Biking rides on the trainer, but otherwise we were in demo mode.

Only the essentials are left behind to accomplish 30 Days of Biking & watch the Final Four games

After only a couple weeks in, we are really tired of the clutter which is spread across the garage, living room, guest bedroom, and office. The washer and dryer are the only items still in place so laundry is possible, yet challenging. This change in routine should be good for our brains and we've started another large donation pile.

Guest Bedroom Chaos & Furniture Hanging

Guest Bedroom meets Gear Room and Laundry Room

Office Catch-All

Garage Bike Shop & Furniture Storage

Riding in the Living Room

As for the basement, the texturing is complete and the painting starts tomorrow. Hopefully everything will flow smoothly over the next several weeks and I'll finally get my hooks!