Nerdy Excitement

I scored this little cutey at Ikea last night:

It's a big deal because:

1. Our basement bathroom is anything but big.

2. This sink is nowhere to be found online or even when you call Ikea's automated stock check phone number (you'll note that link only shows you the big sink, but ours is a mere 15"x16")

3. It was there, live, in the flesh, which is the most shocking thing of all. A trip to Ikea where everything you want is actually on the shelves is major news. I had to share. Okay, brag.

p.s. It's okay if at first you think it looks a tad like a urinal. I had the same thoughts too. However, I'll argue that that just adds to the whole "men's club" feel, doesn't it?

Basement Part 6: Covering stuff up

First, thanks for the helpful comments regarding the potential slip-cover project. More on that below.

Next, drywall is in and we're just waiting for all the mud to dry before painting. In the interim, I should be running around with Pledge, dust cloths, and a vacuum but it almost feels pointless. The dust always returns! Our house currently looks haunted the dust is so plentiful.

Bathroom walls are in (and that purple color is a sight to behold).

New family room with utility room beyond. That vacuum got a work-out!

New sewing nook/office area. The desk will go to the right, just beyond the closet door edge you see.

And speaking of that closet door, it is covering up the gas and water meters that we would not move, no matter how annoying it is to have a closet in the middle of an otherwise usable wall. Instead, Matt had the genius idea to put all the media stuff inside and get it out of view. Words cannot describe how happy I am to not see piles of boys' toys all over our spiffy new space. And just so you know, when I took this picture only half of the electronics were inside!

Boys' toys provides a nice segue to that men's hunt club theme from the last post. To cover up the purple and gray sheetrock we're going with an accent wall of Benj. Moore Anchor Gray and an overall color of Dune Grass. I'd show you the swatches but the online versions look nothing like the real deal, so you'll have to wait for next week when we've finished painting.

We're working with our existing couch and the style is just like this one below but the fabric is parchment-colored microfiber. Its pale, neutral shade will definitely help in keeping things from feeling too dark and heavy.

Then we've got the chair and ottoman I was talking about. It's a dead-ringer for this one, color and all:

chair and couch images from jcpenney.com

Lastly, as promised, here's a shot of the loot I picked up Sunday afternoon. The paisley is a low pile velour-type deal, the green/gray striated velvet has an awesome sheen that you can see if you look at the strip next to the selvage, and the plaid/houndstooth fabric is a drapery-weight woven. I realize they probably look really dark, but we all know there are two black labs who will call this room home and their fur is not to be messed with.

Here's where I bring up the chair slip-cover again. Style-wise, I'm not in love with that green chair but it is damn comfy. More to the point, though, it's so cushy and rounded, with all kinds of extra curves that you can hardly see in the picture, that I'm now questioning the value of re-covering it when I know its life expectancy is probably short. The nagging issue? I have 4 yards of the paisley that I really want to use on a piece of furniture.

Today's question: paisley on a more squarish chair (craigslist can probably help me out again here) or on a large ottoman? Plaid on pelmet boxes over our little windows (to give them some oomph) or as throw pillows? I've got ideas as to where to use the fabric but it's fun to hear your thoughts, too!

Basement Part 5: Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

Drywall update: our awesome craigslist find Wes is finishing up the drywalling today. This is day 4 of what was first thought to be a 2-day deal. Am I worried? No. This guy is meticulous and if he wants to come back for more sanding in order to achieve smooth-as-a-baby's-bottom walls then have at it. He's already been paid so it's not like the meter's running, either. I'm hoping to snap some pictures tonight.

But let's shift gears for a minute and return to the original topic of this blog: sewing. We've decided we're going for a men's hunt club kind of look so plaids, paisleys, velvets, and leathers are in order. If this basement is destined to be a man cave (and really, what basement isn't) then I'm calling for a certain level of sophistication. Ironically, Matt received a credit card offer - complete with bonus tool belt! - in the mail yesterday from the NRA. It's like the whole world knows my bowtie-wearing, labrador-walking, fly-fishing, banker-by-day husband fits a certain category:

(pic from Google image search "preppy conservative" - ha! And for the record there are no guns or decorative gun racks in our house.)

I did a quick trip to Joann's this weekend looking for some fabrics to gussy up the new room but no luck. Not discouraged, I jetted south to LZ Fabric Outlet. Friends, if you're ever in Chicago and need ungodly amounts of upholstery or home dec fabric, 9/10 times this is your place. Just look at at! And this is one of 15+ rooms!

(image from yelp.com - not all rooms are this frightening)

$34 later I came home with 1 yard of houndstooth, 1.75 yards of an icy mint velvet for some panache, and 4 yards of some velvety microfiber paisley. I'm not sure where everything will eventually land but it's a good start on the journey to stylish man cave.

So here's the sewing question du jour: has anyone had any luck in making a tailored slipcover? And, as a follow-up to that, have any readers out there tried McCall 3278? We have a chair just like the one pictured below and until it can be replaced with something more chic/manly, I'd like to give it a new, washable slip-cover. It's currently an olive green chenile that will not work with the proposed color scheme.

Share some thoughts with me and I'll be back with pictures of fabric swatches, paint, and other decor delights.

Basement Part 4b: Framing Photos

Drumroll, please:

That's a ceiling, with recessed lights and speaker wire for surround sound

Here's the new family room. Note the carpet line cut? That's where the old wall was. Little difference but big impact.

Plumbing and electrical are in. Sewer lines properly vented. Power and HDMI line for tv hardwired into the wall for a pretty wall-mounted tv viewing experience.

Shower basin and walls back in. Toilet flange ready and waiting.

Foam beneath the shower basin for support. It's still expanding...

Boxed-out sewer stack AND bookshelf niche to the side, above the old toilet hole. Yippee! We got to deal with one of those trouble spots in a good way.

Newly expanded utility/storage room. The break in the tile shows where the old bathroom wall was. Finally, room to walk around and store stuff. Gasp!

And last but not least, for my sewing-fan loyalists, the new home of my sewing desk, with the closet beyond that will hold all the fabrics, notions, patterns, etc. Despite the toilet in picture, here's hoping my sewing skills haven't gone down the drain from lack of use (sorry, couldn't help it).

Drywall is coming....

Basement Part 4a: What We Framed Out

Bad news: I don't seem to know how to operate my camera. See, the framing's been done for a week and I took a lot of good detail shots to show all that went into it. Or at least I thought; my memory card was still in the USB converter when I snapped lots of shots of nothing.

Even though I don't have pretty images to support my claim (I'll take real ones tonight!) there are some interesting annecdotes to share relative to all the wood now in the basement.

1) I got a call out of the blue from my old project manager. Her voicemail was cryptic but said she was having some thoughts about the plan and wanted to review. HA! Total blast from my intern past. This is the woman who drilled into me the importance of alignment, centering things, etc. It later played into the wedding dress project. We haven't connected yet (because of working on said basement) but I'm hoping that whatever she was about to suggest I intuitively did on my own, thanks to her good training. The floor plan isn't exactly as pictured - minor changes - but here's hoping...

2) The amount of framing that now needs to be covered has intimidated us, I admit. Late Sunday night we were doing a big clean-up to make room for laying out plumbing lines and both of us sheepishly raised the white flag on impending drywall. Should we try and get someone to do it for us? And would it be worth it or would we be throwing money out the door?

3) My mom has gotten great pleasure out of the fact that I finally seem to be putting my architecture degree to work. Well, the business degree got some utilization too, in the form of a nerdy - but convincing! - cost/benefit analysis. Behold our solidly estimated cost to drywall the basement ourselves:

Not bad, right? Now here's the kicker. Another Craigslist posting gave us around 60+ responses of guys willing to do the work. Other responses involved asking if I could revise a woman's tattoo, our plumber Pete obviously spamming whatever odd job gets listed, some dudes offering furnaces at 40% off, you get the picture. But we had a few of the more legit guys come by and I am thrilled to annouce we're lined up to have the walls and ceilings covered, taped, sanded, and cleaned-up over the weekend for the bargain-basement (haha) price of $350! SWEET SWEET SHEETROCKING FREEDOM!

The one bad side to this is we have GOT to finish everything that goes in the walls and ceiling by Friday. To my studio friends, charrette has followed me home.

P.S. I love the shout-out to my alma mater in the wikipedia entry from above! So appropriate.