After a fun 4th of July Week, we headed home for a bit. Adelaide had speech therapy resume. Our volleyball and softball teams were missing us. And our basement renovation needed to resume.
It began with priming all of the walls. Our drywaller recommended using flat ceiling paint instead of primer – he said it covers better. One coat instead of two. We’re not 100% sure it’s the “best” choice, but it does save time to do one coat instead of two. So the entire basement got primed. It took a good two full days of time because of all of the walls, soffits, and corners.
The next step was choosing a paint color. We’re huge fans of grey. Obviously, our tiles are various shades of grey and white with a bit of gray mixed in. So there was no question we needed some shade of grey. Karissa’s choice was the same grey we have throughout most of our main floor. I thought we should go darker or lighter, just for a bit of contrast. So we brought home all of the color strips from Menard’s and lined them up on the white wall. We chose one that seemed neutral and a touch darker, so bought a gallon. It turned out to be a bit too blue for our taste, though it doesn’t really photograph as too blue.
Trust me, it’s blue-ish.
Rather than figure out a less blue grey, we moved on to a lighter grey for the bedroom. It had some blue in in too, but we were willing to live with it there.
After some back and forth, we wound up using the same grey as our upstairs for the main living areas downstairs. Karissa won, as usual!
After seeing the new tile floor and grey walls, we knew painting our fireplace was a must. It’s brown-hued stones just didn’t fit our more clean/modern aesthetic. The stones had already been painted various shades of brown and tan, so it wasn’t like we were the first to touch it. It definitely fits better now.
While I painted away, Karissa took the kids for a few playdates with friends they hadn’t seen since before we left for Florida at the start of June. They went to a playground and a splash pad.
Also, road construction continues outside of our house. They started at the end of March or early April. They removed the asphalt before replacing all of the water mains and fire hydrants. Then, sidewalk repair. They’re currently making all of the crossings ADA compliant. One of our friends is the concrete inspector and has said hi a few times. Emerson LOVES watching the trucks!
We’ll be heading back up the lake house shortly for Country Thunder, an annual country music festival we’ve been attending for a long time. We’re excited to continue the progress on our basement and hope the time away doesn’t derail us.
“We’re huge fans of grey.”
So, we’re redoing a house that we just bought. Because it has a pool, we’re thinking of a “beachy” theme; whites, blues and yes, gray!
That fireplace room looks great. What is the flooring?
Thanks! The flooring is 12″x24″ ceramic tile. It’s got a mix of whites, greys, and small bits of tan. With grey walls, white trim, and a newly painted white fireplace it looks really great!
We hired a guy to install nearly 1,300 square feet of it. 1,269 Square Feet of Tile (YouTube)
Finding the “right” grey is a tough job. It almost always winds up being blue or green or brown. We found a mix that seems to be pretty neutral – but it’s at Menards – which doesn’t exist out in Colorado…
We’re excited to see how you renovate your new house. It’s definitely got a lot of promise!