Family Room

It's high time I post the before and after pics of our family room makeover.
When we came to tour our house I was frightened of the basement. The family room was awful! Old nasty carpet, long skinny room, old tile ceiling, weird built-in cabinets, and a BIG red wall. Icky! I couldn't imagine a warm cozy room for our family. It was a stretch. Cam had great vision. I trusted in his vision. Okay, actually I had my own ideas...which ebbed and flowed along the way. First I decided I'd never go down there. Problem solved. Fine, I do have to occasionally go down and check on the kids so it might as well be pleasing to my sight. Then I got on board and decided the room could be made over. Then I REALLY got going. I wanted one HUGE room....not the L-shaped room of Cam's vision. I was hard to budge from my vision (by budge I mean Cam just went ahead with his plan and ignored me standing in the corner with my hands on my hips). Then something magical happened. I "got" Cam's vision. Turns out he was right! The L-shaped room works really well. Plus, it leaves me a big room for sewing/crafts/laundry (I'll share that project soon).

I didn't take any photos before the demo began. Darn it! The door you can see in the wall wasn't a door. It was boarded up and behind the built in cabinets. You can see all the dismantled pieces of these. They ran the length of the wall and were where the white paint is on the red wall.

The room also had these funky interior windows. Not my favorite. Good bye.

The room does have nice big windows and a good view of the front garden.

This is the room on the other side of the red wall. The office. It had concrete floor and the same old tile ceiling.

Cam and our friend Vern took the wall down to the studs. They needed to see if we would need a support beam put in. The best news of the project was that the wall contained a big steel pole. No beam required. Savings in the bank form of carpet and paint!

Okay, now the after pics. The best part!

Here's the view standing in the doorway looking into the room. We took the door and door frame down and finished it. Much better. We don't need (or want) a door on our family room. 5 kids behind a closed door. NOT!

Now the view looking back at the entryway. The hutch is a very special piece of furniture. It was my mom's. I grew up with it and it reminds me of my childhood. I love it, thanks Mom!

From this pic you can see a good view of the fireplace. We are installing a new gas insert soon, ie: when we get our tax refund. :)

Here is the new office. It's a work in progress. Mostly it's unused. The computer is broken, and I haven't filed any paperwork since we moved. Yikes!

Standing in front of TV looking into office. The blue door leads to my sewing/craft/laundry area.

So what's next? Color!! I haven't decorated yet. Right now it's the Beige Palace. I'm going to add blue accents. The theme will be ocean. I'm framing a bunch of our favorite beach photos for the walls. But overall it's an amazing difference! Love our family room...which also doubles as a guest room....so come on over and spend the night! Seriously, we'd love to have you!