Stairs: before and after

Sadly, we don't have any pictures of the stairs prior to demoing.. this is all I could find. yep that's some sort of home made baby gate.  I know my Mom will appreciate the pic of the dreadful green paint. eeek

After patching some holes, it started to look like this

AFTERS

As for the sweet new lights in the after pix... We bought them at the Re-store for $6 total.  I love them.

We just updated them by painting the white pendants a semi gloss black.  Easy-peasy!

ONE STEP AT A TIME

The latest basement project to tackle was the stair case.  I wanted to do something differnt but still keep within our tight buget.  Our stairs were in realllly rough shape and needed to be rebuilt, completley.  So the majority of our budget went to new stairs and treads(is that the right termanoligy?idk)  
I am absolutely in love with the new sanded plywood flooring trend.  Brady wasn't about to take on a project that time consuming, and I don't blaim him.  It would have saved us a bit of money, but with our home being 50+ years old, it would take a lot of measuring and cutting.  In a new home that is 100% perfectly square, this would be a good idea. 

As a comprimise, we decided to pull the plywood trend into our stair case.  We bought MDF stairs and plywood treads.  Brady took 8 hours to cut, paint and install everything.  I love coming home from work to a finished project!  Here's a pic I took on my iphone when he was working on it.

I'll post more pix later, but the whole meaning of this post was to give ya some fun and inexpensive stair case remodel ideas...

Brady hates this.. only because our home is not at all nautical.  But it'd be really cool in the right house.

contemporary staircase design by new york media and blogs Sue De Chiara

I am in love with this idea!  If we had painted the plywood white, I would have eventually tackled a painted runner.

eclectic staircase design

Another nautical staircase.. This one is neat b/c they made the wood stairs look like a runner.. This would be less maintence than a painted runner.  And how cool are the numbered steps?!

traditional staircase design by new orleans architect Bockman Forbes + Glasgow, Architecture + Design

classic black and white

traditional staircase design by minneapolis interior designer Kerry Ciardelli

too kiddie for me, but it'd look pretty rad in the right home

modern staircase design by other metros interior designer gogo gulgun selcuk

I would love this with wine crates

eclectic staircase design by vancouver interior designer Funky Junk Interiors

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rather than boring white, add a light shade of grey

contemporary staircase design by other metros interior designer Joel Snayd

brightly colored stairs

contemporary staircase design by other metros interior designer Praktyczne i Piękne

this is too cool for words.  I would also LOVE ombre painted stairs.. but it would be A LOT of work!

A lil dust won't kill ya!

Over the weekend, we painted 95% of the basement and installed 95% percent of the flooring(all but the staircase and laundry room).  Can I get a hallelujah?! Our entire house has a thick layer of dust from the remodel, so excuse my quickie picture.

And a look back... Good BYE FLAMES, drop ceiling, paneling, vinyl tiled floors!!

We decided on Allure flooring.

In pine..

So far, we are extremely happy with it. It is very easy to install.  Initially, it wasn't the cheapest option out there.  When you look at all the laminates and tiles and other flooring options, you usually need to factor in the cost of underlayment and a vapor barrier... This floors warranty is void if you use either.. so when you add it all up, this was actually pretty affordable and has 2 less steps for installation.  We were also sold on it being a floating floor.  Our concrete has about two layers of very old vinyl flooring that we did not want to remove. 

I hope to have some better pictures veryyyyy soon, so stay tuned :D

FANTASTIC!!!! basement progress

Last week, Brady finished all the framing and sheet rocking.  Who ever "remodeled" this basement in the past was not a carpenter.  Brady had to work his butt off for a very long time to fix all the STRANGE issues and make it what it is today. 

Rather than waiting for him to find the time to perf-a-tape, we hired it out.  In 5 days, we had a fully taped basement... so worth the $ because it is hard to make perf-a-taping look good. 

In a few days we will be painting.  Since I didn't think our basement would ever get to this point, I have been frantically picking paint colors.  I'm not sure if I've just been staring at sheet rock for too long, but I am really digging that light grey color... Brady on the other hand never wants to see "sheet rock grey" ever again in this house. 

I'll keep ya updated as we progress even further.  For now, enjoy some before and progress shots.

SCURRRRRY!

A LITTLE BETTER.. THAT BLACK WALL IS GOING TO TAKE A LOT OF PRIMER

LOOKING INTO THE BATHROOM IS NOW....

A CLOSET!

DON'T YOU WANT TO LIVE HERE?  I SURE DON'T

SO MUCH BETTER

CREEPY

:)

WHOA.. BAD CARPENTRY

MUCH BETTER!

new blog to follow

I just discovered a blog that makes me re-think my decorating style.  47 Park Avenue.  Check it out.
I want to complelely remodel my house, or just pack up and move into an older home.  I want to paint all my walls and floors black and white and go on a chandelier shopping spree, a very expensive chandelier shopping spree. 

I have to have this chair.  Good DIY project.

LOVE this vintage light.. and oh the black ceiling and ceiling medallion. mmmMm

Why don't I have a fancy dressing room like this?

Or like this?