Flooring Flummox

And the basement planning continues. Last we left it, we were still tweaking the layout plan. Now we're stuck thinking about the floors. You see, HandyMan wants the basement to be warm and comfy, a place to escape to, maybe relax and watch a movie, and to him that means carpet underfoot. Normally, I'd agree with him... if I didn't also want the basement to be a place where Chloe and I can create and make crafts and do some sewing and draw and paint and throw glitter around, so to me that means laminate underfoot.

Which leaves us here:

We're at an impasse. We briefly considered doing a portion of the room in carpet and a portion in laminate, but the basement is not that big to begin with so different flooring would make it look too choppy and small. Part of the dilemma is the stairs leading to the basement. They are currently covered in vinyl and beneath that we know there is only construction grade plywood. There is no refinishing and painting those babies; they would either have to be completely covered in some material or refaced (and that seems an expensive option, but I admit we haven't really looked into the cost of refacing).

If we were to do it entirely in laminate (or vinyl flooring like the Traffic Allure product which I've heard great things about from my friends Arren and Lisa), what do we do on the stairs? We've read that laminate on stairs is super slippery (and how do you deal with the nosing?).

If we were to do it entirely in carpet, then lost sewing pins or paint spills would be a hazard. Decisions, decisions. Weigh in folks - carpet or laminate? What do you have in your basement??

The Basement Plan...For Now

We're getting ready to start on the basement soon. I know, its been a while since I first mentioned the basement reno... but these things take time... not to mention it takes a really long time for me and HandyMan to decide on a layout... and we're still tweaking it.


So here is where we're at. Its a bit different from the last layout options I showed you. The upper part of the plan hasn't changed much from what we have existing. The bathroom footprint stays the same but we will be redoing all the finishes - tile, flooring, fixtures, paint. The large laundry room will now essentially be made into two rooms - (1) an unfinished storage area, and (2) a smaller but more functional laundry room with wall to wall cabinetry and lots of counterspace.

The lower part of the plan is where all the fun stuff happens. We're taking out the wall that separates the craft area and the entertainment area to create one big space. In the craft area, I'm envisioning a few floor to ceiling pantries and a long countertop. One of the "tweaks" we still have to decide is where to put the workstation. We may put it in the bottom left corner, have the countertop drop to desk height, wrap the corner, and then drop again down to banquette height.

The banquette across the whole southern wall is my new favourite feature of the room. I really wanted a craft table, but with four chairs, plus the workstation plus Chloe's play area all in the same vicinity, space was getting really tight. So, we've incorporated a long banquette - the banquette adds storage, does double duty providing seating around the craft table, and gives Chloe a great place to lie down and read a book. The craft table will also be on casters so it can be moved out of the way as needed, further opening up the space.

I think space planning is the hardest thing to get right. The basement isn't a huge space so to fit in all of our "must haves" was a challenge. I wish Chloe's play area could be larger, but then that would leave no dedicated space for crafts. And I'm thinking as she gets older, we'll want more room for painting and craftmaking and sewing, right? Tell me the truth moms. More room for dress up and play kitchen and toys - or more room for drawing and creating?

So this is the "dream plan". We still have to price out all that cabinetry for the craft area... and it doesn't help that I fell in love all over again with the Martha Stewart cabinets when I saw them at my local Home Depot... so who knows, my plans for 10 long narrow stacked drawers to store fabrics and paint pots and wrapping paper and a 10' long banquette may turn to dust when we realize all we can afford is a 2' long bench and a pot drawer!

Faking It...

...the laundry room, that is. HandyMan and I are still pondering the basement design. We thought we were close to figuring out the layout weeks ago, but the pantry turned out to be too small and as some of you pointed out, we may want to have our food storage away from the furnace. Back to the drawing board we went.

We're close now and have pretty much narrowed it down to one layout option but we still had problems visualizing the space. So what can you do in that case except tape it out on the floor and use a bedsheet and duvet to simulate the walls.


That's the area for the washer, dryer, and bar-sized sink to the left there. Glamourous, no?

Its funny, we must have drawn up about 15 different options. After really thinking through the space and the merits of each plan, the one we're going to go with is the simplest of them all. We're basically dividing our existing laundry room/storage area into two rooms. And apart from taking out another wall to open up space, most everything else stays the same.



I know what you're thinking. I asked myself the same question - why bother renovating at all then? We could surely make the space more livable by making just some cosmetic decorating changes. Well, even with redecorating we'd have a lack of storage space and we wouldn't have a finished laundry room. The more I looked at photos of laundry rooms, the more I wanted a nice, clean space with a finished ceiling, new drywall, and plenty of counterspace. But I had to see it taped out first because even though logically the new plan gives us more usuable and functional laundry space, the current space is bigger; we're actually going to have a smaller laundry room. We needed to make sure small wasn't too small, you know?

And it isn't so all we've got to do is draw it all up, figure out furniture and built-in placement, and do the electrical plan. Then we can finally get this show on the road!

The Basement: Layout Options

HandyMan and I have been sketching out ideas for the basement layout for weeks now and we've come up with some interesting options. Here's what the space looks like currently:


When we first started thinking about the space, we focused on our top priorities: more counterspace in the laundry room, and creating a pantry. In this option below, we shifted things around in the laundry room (which is currently too big) and made room for more storage closets and a nice big u-shaped pantry room. HandyMan likes niches and alcoves so he placed the pantry in such a way that it created a little niche for a workstation on the other side of the wall of the furnace. Niches like this really maximize the use of the space and create nice clean lines in the layout. He made use of another small niche (to the left of the laundry room door) to put a storage closet for detergents and such.



Building on this first option, we thought - what if we move the hot water tank to the laundry room so that all the ugly but necessary mechanical stuff gets put in one room? And what about creating a separate, more contained work area in the rec room?



Hmm, its not really working is it. The pantry seems to be floating in space. Then we thought - what if we change the entry... make the work area more of a pass-through hallway type of layout?



Okay, that plan is a little better looking. But now the pantry room has completely disappeared! Time for some radical thinking... what if we moved the laundry to the current kitchenette area? This would leave room for a really big pantry/storage room. And we could have a small-ish work/crafting room with a lower kid-sized table beside it.



I'm liking where this is going... but still not quite there. More radical thinking required! What if we stripped the laundry room down to the bare bones and created a small but functional space? And moving the placement of the pantry room... does this help?



Not really. While the bottom half of the layout seems nice and open, the top is a jumble of rooms and doorways. At this point, we took a step back and had a few "lightbulb" moments which helped us create the more streamlined plan below:



First, we decided that the pantry could be an unfinished space, meaning it could just be a bunch of shelves and brackets. It didn't even need to be drywalled or have a finished ceiling. With that in mind, we then thought - well, why don't we put the ugly hot water tank and furnace in the pantry room them? Doing this then created the opportunity for a more streamlined, rectangular shaped laundry room. That meant we could have nice long runs of countertop along the walls!

Another lightbulb moment came when we thought - why don't we change the storage niche that was to the left of the laundry room door and instead move it outside of the laundry room and change it to display space? Then we could create a nice little circulation space - display shelves on the left, laundry door in front, pantry door on the right, and a nice potlight overhead? Having the doors all in one zone makes sense and having visible open shelves creates some interest and texture.

Sweet! Can you see how those few changes has led to a more pleasant, logical and efficient plan? Architects call those lightbulb moments "unlocking the plan". I call it just plain awesome :)



So here's the final plan (I think). I'll be sharing the 3D model HandyMan created in SketchUp so you'll get a better idea of what this plan really feels like.

The Basement: Design Tools

When HandyMan and I start planning a room, we start by drawing and drawing and drawing. On the backs of envelopes, restaurant napkins, notebooks, old telephone bills, whatever scrap piece of paper is nearby soon becomes filled with our doodles. At some point though, we put those sketches into some electronic form so we can get a sense of space and style. There's nothing that helps to visualize a room better than a plan drawn to scale or a 3D version that you can move and twist about to get perspective.

Usually, the first tool of choice in our design toolkit is AutoCAD, but that's only because HandyMan uses it every day in his day job and is very familiar with it. Its pretty nifty though for drawing up floor plans or elevations and adding in elements of a room like fixtures, furniture, and tile. It was really helpful when we were deciding on the tile pattern for the bathroom.


For getting perspectives though and 'walking' through a plan, we needed something with better 3D capabilities. Enter Google SketchUp. Free and easy to use, SketchUp helps you build 3D models and share them. There are tons of tutorials to help you and an online warehouse where you can search and use models others have created. Its also easy to populate your models with typical layouts (e.g L-shaped kitchen) or furniture (Ikea Expedit, anyone?) because somebody somewhere has already created the object in SketchUp. Here's a few perspectives of the basement that HandyMan created after using SketchUp for the very first time:



Pretty cool, eh? When you're planning a large space or multiple rooms, Google SketchUp is really useful. You can do things like add textures and colour, remove parts of the model (like exterior walls), and swoop in like a bird and see your plan up close.

Once we have the plan finalized, we then work on the finer details and decide on the look of room. I like to create mood or inspiration boards and put together images that help convey the style and feeling I want. You can use Photoshop if you have it (Making It Lovely does great inspiration boards) or use Polyvore, a free tool which even saves the online links to the items you put on your mood board. It worked great when I was trying out looks for the kitchen like this one:

and this one:


So that's what's in our DIY design toolkit. Can you tell we like to plan things out before we build? I'll be sharing some of our plans with you in future posts and illustrate how good planning really does help you design better.

The Basement: Making the Wish List

HandyMan and I have started to think a bit more seriously about the basement renovation. Similar houses in the neighbourhood have recently sold for 40% (gulp!) more than we paid 2.5 years ago and we know we need to have a finished basement in order to get top dollar if and when we sell. And with the little one taking her first steps now, she could definitely use the room to run about and play! I thought you guys might like to see the thought process we go through so I'll be posting about the basement, starting with the design through to demo, picking materials, and final finishing. I'll be honest, we're not moving as fast as we used to so this will be a loooooong process ;)

First up: the wish list.

The basement in its current state is livable (but ugly and inefficient and dark). Luckily, our ceilings are about 7' so we won't need to dig down. The walls are textured and accented in a splattered paint technique and the floors are covered in a rough carpet. We have a large laundry room, an adequate bathroom, a kitchenette that we have no use for, and a rec room that's on the small side. There is also a step up into the rec room and we have no idea why the floor is raised. I'm just hoping we don't find another mouse-house like we found in the kitchen!

You can see the original floor plan here.

So what do we want to do to this basement? Here's a few things on our wish list:

- countertops in the laundry room for folding
- additional storage for off-season clothing
- pantry for storing canned goods
- work space (we'll be moving the home office to the basement)
- an area for crafting/sewing
- play area
- space for Chloe to run about
- maximum use of natural light
- redecorated bathroom
- heated floor in the bathroom
- TV/entertainment area
- consistent flooring
- open plan

Hopefully we'll be able to transform the space into something we love and a place we love spending time in. Anything else you would add to the wish list?

Add It To The List

What's this? We want to renovate the basement?? Oh boy.

Kitchen Reno - Day 1

Just as I finally get settled into our new office space, another home project rears its ugly head. This one is so ugly, its a freakin' Medusa. Tomorrow is D-day... demolition day for our old, tired, small, dysfunctional kitchen. Seems pretty fast, no? That's how we roll... one project after another; HandyMan and I are not known for sitting still. The disposal bin is sitting in the driveway, ready and waiting for the kitchen cupboards, plaster walls, ceiling, and old flooring we'll be tearing up tomorrow. Hang onto your hats - its going to be a bumpy ride for the next three months.






Ok, maybe not so bumpy. We are luckier than most and have a usable temporary kitchen in our basement. As a matter of fact, the drawers are deeper and the cabinets are plentiful in the temp kitchen. Here's the temp - looks just as good (as bad?) as the main kitchen, don't you think? We've got a bit of overflow with the small appliances and have set up a secondary work station. And this being the basement... and the cupboards being a little scary (seriously, how often would you look in the empty cupboards in your basement?)...I needed to pretty them up a bit. Leftover dining room vinyl wallpaper does the trick.


So here's where we're at at the end of Day 1: temp kitchen set up, main kitchen bare, HandyMan and Wanderluster just a little bit scared about what they're gonna find in the sagging floor :o\