When I revealed the clues for our basement makeover, I had no idea that you were such a funny crowd. You guessed everything from a backyard redo (WHICH I WOULD DIE FOR! but then I wouldn’t be able to enjoy if I were dead.) to a dining room renovation (which actually did have a little change up happen and I can’t wait to share it!) to a full-on addition (to the Bower Power clan, that is!). And I thought it would be only fair to give you the explanation of why I picked the clues and how they play a part in our finished basement’s history.
Clue #1 was not part of an Ikea magazine (which was a very popular guess).
It was actually a photo of one of the many boxes that contained our recessed lighting kits. The electrical work was planned out and installed by my Mr. Calf Muscles boyfriend. We both wanted this lower level to be light and airy and after installing 19 lights – 17 of which are recessed – we have the effect we want achieved 100%. In fact, it is so bright down there, we are actually considering installing a dimmer!
Clue #2 was a picture of the newly installed hardwood flooring that we chose to incorporate in our space.
We read up on the pros and cons of different kinds of flooring in sub-ground spaces and decided that engineered hardwood would be the way to go. Since we had never installed flooring onto a concrete slab before it was definitely a learning experience. There were numerous times that we felt like Billy Madison.
Back to school.
Back to school.
To prove to dad that I’m not a fool. (name that funnyman!)
Anyhoo – in the end, we felt like our choice was perfect. And we would recommend engineered flooring to anyone that would listen.
Clue #3 was not an exploded tampon.
I don’t know about ya’ll, but my tampons do not look like this. ever.
In fact, if you are using a tampon like this – I highly suggest a visit to your local drug store for a new box.
They make them out of this new material now…it’s called cotton 🙂
Actually this was a photo of the tool that our mud man used. We installed the drywall but we left the joint compound up to a professional. Since we already knew the joys (and when I say joys, I mean the utter despair, the respitory infections, the cracked skin, the frustrations, and the mindset that you would rather swallow a whole porcupine than do it again) of mudding and sanding, we decided to hire out this job to the pro. And in the end, he gave us a fabulous deal. Plus he was able to take our previously drywalled basement into a space that was ready for painting in only four days!
Clue #4 was actually my favorite clue to in terms of reading your responses. And you guys came up with everything from yawning to only hiring hot guys! Well, we do look for that in hired help…the hottie-factor is a requirement. It is right there before the whole boring insured-factor or knowledgable-factor. I mean, being good looking can cover a multitude of sins. It says so in the Bible. I’m sure of it.
So who was that yawning man that is pulling a dumbfounded look? That’s Jeremy’s little brother Torrey…who was our right hand man when it came to finishing the basement. And new occupant of our basement while he goes back to school. I love the photo above. It’s the fact that he looks like Paris after getting asked a question like “Who is the secretary of state?” or “What are the three primary colors?” or “True/false – you are a homosapian.” But he doesn’t always look like that. No sirreebobcat. The Bower’s breed em lookin sharper than a ninja fighting star.
Finally we are at Clue #5. This hint revealed a photo that was indeed the close-up of a pair of kneepads. One hundred points to Ann for her very precise guess of “Nonskid buckle style kneepads for installing the hardwood floors in the basement”. I believe that Ann is my kinda girl 🙂
And just like Ann-girl said, we used these little pads to protect our poor patellas from the pain of concrete slabbings. Don’t I look like I am having a crazy awesome time with my new leg accessories?
So there you have it – a slew of clues that you get all the DL on.
low-down.
down-low.
no doubt. (name that movie for 547 points.)
Anyone out there wanna give a shoutout to hardwood flooring or recessed lighting? Here is your chance. Tell me – do you love it, hate it, wanna take long walks on the beach with it? Do you have it in your home? Did you install it yourself or are just purely lovahs of the planks and lights? Can’t wait to hear all about how these two must-haves are snazzifying your home!
Chlorophyll? More like borophyll! Adam Sandler was hilarious in that movie! How did you pick where the recessed lighting would go? I want to do some in my living room but im not sure where to put it. Do you have strategy?
Billy Madison – Adam Sandler. I’m now singing that line, over and over… out loud.
I had no stinkin’ clue what ANYTHING was. I’m a terrible clue guesser.
Hi Karen,
We chose 5″ lights which give off roughly a 5 foot circumference of light…dividing our space into sections allowed us to see that we needed 8 lights in our living space downstairs. We then went about deciding where the lights would go – which was really easy since our ceiling didn’t have drywall yet. We decided an equal layout was best (two rows of four) and then we could tweak it from there according to where studs were and where the spaces would be. It actually worked out that the four lights over the living space would be fine inbetween the closest studs to our divided room theory. The dining space we moved the lights over one additional rafter so that if we ever wanted a pendant over the dining table, it would be an option.
That’s it! I suggest you making a floor plan of your space and then finding out where the rafters are. The light placement will start with those two easy steps.
XO – Katie
Ok, I take back what I said about not wanting to look at Torrey’s face anymore. Seriously, what’s in the water down there? My manual laborers never looked that good.
Next project? Baby Bower!
oh crappers my husband and I are getting ready to continue the plaster/sanding job of finishing the mudroom this weekend. IS it really as bad as all that??
Meet the Fockers.
Your basement looks fantastic!
We are also thinking about finishing our “unfinished concrete floor” basement within a couple of month.
Since concrete floor could get moisture from ground, I didn’t know you could install wood floor! I would love to have wood floor if possible tho!
Did you have some floating subfloor under the wood floor? Or some kind of vapor barrier? I would love to have your tips for the installation!
Thanks, and looking forward to see your bedroom pix soon!
Did you glue down the floors? That’s what it looks like… It’s either glue or flat for a slab (well, unless you want to get crazy with attaching plywood to the slab with a Hilti gun, but I digress).
So, you did the glue down yourself? How did that go (thinking about if I want to do that myself or pay someone)? Was the slab level already or did you have to get it leveled beforehand?
love hardwood floors and love recessed lighting. love. em. our entire house (except for bathrooms) has hardwood floors, and we are about to (or fixin’ to) refinish them ourselves. also planning to replace the weird spaceship lights in our kitchen with recessed lighting. the husband is scared he will burn the house down, so he’s hiring an electrician to run the wires, but we will probably install the fixtures ourselves.
I’m picturing Ben Stiller now, meeting the parents. Good to know that other people in the world have random movie quotes stored in their brain. Can you imagine how much smarter we would be if we could delete all of that and store more useful info? Oh well…
Hi Charlotte – when we mudded our upstairs, it was just GOSH-AWFUL to have to go back and sand the many layers to get it smooth. Firstly we weren’t thinning out the joint compound correctly. Secondly we didn’t have the fancy sanders that the pros have that suck all the dust up and do a space in mere minutes *vs the hours that it took us to sand by hand. And C – we didn’t buy the variety of mud-products that we could have to save us time and our poor lungs.
This mud guy did our entire basement including ceiling and supplies, plus patch a hole next to an upstairs recessed light, and restipple our ceiling in the kitchen and living room for $650. We felt like it was WELL worth the time and money to hire this one out especially since we had a deadline. But you may have the time and energy to tackle this job yourself. Good Luck!
Hey there Chacha – actually we glued it down…and our slab was 99% level so we really lucked out. There was one wall that wasn’t quite square but it ended up being a quick fix to line everything else up and shim that little space. I recommend that you do it yourself – it really isn’t as hard as you would think. Just make sure you apply enough glue to get the wood to stick and keep a bucket of water nearby for quick cleanup. Stay tuned for a complete rundown in the coming weeks of the installation process!
XO – Katie
Meet the Parents!!!
I have nothing, but love for your transformation. Seriously, nothing but love.
Can you tell me what hardwoods you used? I would love to use them in my house.
Elizabeth – duuuude…please take before and after pictures – I would LOVE to see them! paaahlease!
And howdy Michele – we used the Thomasville engineered hardwood in 5″ wide walnut planks – available at Home Depot. They were actually quite easy to install (once we got the hang of it) and one of the cheapest on the market for that nice dark and delicious color.
XO – Katie
I maintain #4 is a stud.
Question: Did you put the engineered hardwood on he stairs as well? I love it, want it, but the thought of
doing stairs scares the crap out of me.
Hi Lindsay – nope, we actually just did the landing with the engineered hardwood. The stairs were pine so we ended up formulating a plan to polystain them to match instead.
XO – Katie
You two are simply amazing..!!! Looks great!
We have recessed lights in our house, and actually need to replace some ceiling lights with more recessed ones. The builder was on crack when he chose the lighting for our place – it’s awful and some of it is in the wrong spot – like two recessed lights over the kitchen island, but one is just barely over the island, so switching to pendant lights would look silly. My folks used engineered hardwood in their house and it looks great.
All I can say is WOW! Totally gorgeous. Looks very high end. Similar to that show Income Property with that hottie host. Only thing missing is the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom reveals. You Bowers do excellent work and it’s great to help out your BIL like that!!
Where did you get the ottoman from? LOVE the new space – gorgeous!