home sweet home - 2 of 2

So if you remember back to the not-so-charming pictures of our home when we first purchased it, you might recall that I was a little concerned that the kitchen was straight out of the 60's and our bathroom had a two-toned toilet - two-toned toilets are never a good idea!! A month after purchasing our home we were putting the finishing touches on the first level remodel. Completely exhausted from the work we decided the basement would be saved for another day. Just so happens that "another day" turned into a year! 

That's right, a year later Adam and I headed to the basement to begin ideating phase two of the Andrus Home Remodel. It wasn't until we were sitting on the floor of our basement living room that it hit me - yikes - our home officially had the ugliest basement ever!! Let's review: 

Very white walls, very stained carpet. Ugg!

You might be asking, "what is this?" So were we! Why the giant hole? 

This wall faced opposite the fireplace in the living room.

Guest room - complete with designer curtains!

I'd just like to say that these were NOT our boxes! This picture was pre-Andrus move in!

Awesome, right?! And yes, that's another two-toned toilet!

Armed with a pencil and paper, Adam began sketching as we discussed our vision for the basement. After a bit of time we had settled on three things:

1) We wanted a space that we could hang out with our friends. With limited seating upstairs, we hoped that the basement would serve as a place we could entertain!

2) We. Love. Movies. That's right, Adam and I absolutely love watching movies! We wanted our basement to include a mini-theater but we also didn't want the entire space to be focused on this. A challenge that Adam was happy to take on! 

3) And finally, we wanted the space to be warm and friendly. Big, empty, white walls and a hole under the stairs didn't exactly say, "welcome to our home!"

So we went to work. We painted, changed lighting fixtures, stained wood, built bookcases, filled a big 'ol hole in the wall, wired and installed in-ceiling speakers, laid flooring and plumbed a sink. A few months later, BAM! Our home was finally finished! 

Adam's beautiful craftsmanship can be seen in the bar he built where the big hole use to be under the stairs. We fondly refer to this as The Rothbury Arms - Adam's middle name is Roth!

In addition to the bar, Adam also built the entertainment unit against the wall and the box hanging from the ceiling. If you reach up into the box, a 92 inch screen can be pulled down for movie night! In the upper right corner of the picture you'll see the projector that Adam wired, making our mini-theater complete!

Movie night!

View from the fireplace.

Bookcase

Let's just say that Adam spent a lot of time with his table saw during our basement remodel! Yes, he built this entire bookcase along that once stark-white paneled wall - pictured above. It's beautiful, right?! He even inset lights to help create ambiance! 

Guest room

Remember that room with all the boxes? You know, the one with the paneling that made the room look like a hunting lodge? We turned it into a workout room! This room still needs a little work - still needs to be cut-in. Saving it for another day!

And finally, the bathroom! The first thing we replaced was the toilet! In order to lighten the room we painted the vanity and replaced the flooring. A few fixture updates and DONE! We had officially finished our home - upstairs and downstairs were complete!

So with that, we hope you know that our home is always open to you! Come visit us soon!!