The Basement Bar

The basement has been our long work in progress... and we always planned to eventually put in a bar/kitchenette once it was finished to make the main living room a true "entertainment room". Well, we were finally at a place where we could get started on the bar (basement was painted, carpeted, most of the molding done, and other projects).... so it was time to look at cabinets.

Since it is our basement and not our main kitchen, we didn't want to spend a ton of money (goal for the whole Kitchenette was to keep it under about $1,200 - $1,500). After looking at quite a few options we ended up back at our good old Ikea and picked out base cabinets, a counter-top and sink. All the cabinets are white which we knew we from the beginning (they should "pop" nicely against the dark grey wall). Once the bottom cabinets & counter-top are done we'll go back in the next month or two and get the upper cabinets... we couldn't decide which size we wanted and thought this could just wait until the main part was done.

The whole process was pretty easy to get everything at Ikea (they had friendly folks on hand to help us get a list of all the pieces needed - and since we had everything measured ahead of time it went much quicker). Then we just had to go to the warehouse and pick everything up.

We can't wait for it to finally be finished and invite friends over to hang out, watch football games, have some drinks, and have plenty of space!

Here are the first pictures of it in progress....

Lots of boxes (this is actually less than half of them)

In progress, making sure things are level. 

The Ikea cabinets come with black legs that are adjustable to help level things... which was super nice for this do-it-yourself project since our basement floor can be a "bit" uneven in places. 

Cabinets put together, and the white back & side panels on. Oak counter-top on. 

 A view from the other side. We still need to install the metal handles on the drawers and cabinet doors. 

The sink. We still need to hook up the plumbing and caulk it. (you can see it is currently a storage space for all our extra cabinet hardware). 

Mirror Mirror

I knew I wanted to put a mirror up on one of the walls in the nursery, so it was just a matter of finding the right one to go with our grey/white/yellow decor. It couldn't be too huge since the largest wall has all the decals on it, and the second largest wall has the crib ( I didn't want the mirror hanging above the crib), so it would hang on a small area by the french doors and the entrance to the room.

Not finding any mirrors that were just perfect (or that weren't over $100), I thought I could instead find an old unique looking mirror and refinish it instead.

For a fantastic $30, I found this beauty at a antique store in West Seattle, and I knew with a little paint it could look really cool for the babies room. Well after taping off the glass and using a $2 can a glossy yellow spray paint from Home Depot... I think the finished product turned out pretty good!

Before



and After...

32 weeks

Already 32 weeks pregnant and can't believe it! Just 8 weeks to go...

29 weeks

And the baby bump keeps growing. While we've been busy around our house these days, trying to get lots of little house projects done before the holidays and before the baby gets here, I've definitely noticed I'm slowing down a bit lately. This bump just doesn't make it quite as easy to do projects... or even just to bend over, haha.

Wall decals

The decals I ordered from Etsy are up on the walls of the nursery! It went easier than I thought it would... they came pre-cut and all numbered so it was easy to see where they should go. Our walls have a slight texture to them which made it slightly harder to get them to stick on really well... but it seems to have all worked out in the end.

Our wall also isn't quite as large as a full wall (since there is a closet on the right side) - so we didn't end up using all of the pieces otherwise it seemed like it would get way to crowded with branches and birds.... but who knows maybe we'll use the extra pieces later on or put up an extra yellow bird somewhere else in the room for fun as well.

And here are some pictures of the project throughout the process....

Getting the decals set up and figured out

The finished product! 

More bump pictures

I took these pictures myself with my iPhone (I keep forgetting to take pictures when Matt is around, and didn't want to leave these weeks undocumented), so they are not the best photos with the bathroom in the but oh well.

26 weeks 

27 weeks



New lights

We have some new light fixtures in the house, a new light over our dining room table and a new light fixture in the baby's room. It is amazing how much new lighting changes the feel of a room.

The light over our dining room table we actually found about 4-5 months ago (at Crate & Barrel online) and ordered it. It seemed huge when it finally came in the mail, but I was hopeful it would look great and so we stored it for about 4 months in the basement... and when the wiring was finally done in our attic last weekend we were able to install it! I really like how it turned out and think it fits perfectly in our upstairs.

The baby's room light fixture we got at Ikea (for about $40), and Matt installed this in last weekend as well since all the new wiring was done and we were anxious to see how it would look. We love how modern it looks, yet "fun" for a kids room, and it will go great with our white & grey theme.

Dining Room light

Baby's room light