playroom remodel {in progress}

okay, so remember how i said that we started work on our basement project?  we have been busy, busy.

what started out as a simple resurfacing project has evolved into something much, much more.  

don't all home improvement projects?

they do for us. 

i should have known this by now.

*sigh*

so anyways, our original plan was to rip out all the paneling (relatively easy), replace it with drywall (not terribly expensive though somewhat time consuming) and lay down some carpet to make the cold hard tile floor seem much more appealing.

once we got started with the tearout however, it was kind of hard to know where to stop.  

i never really was a big fan of those ugly ceiling tiles, and we damaged a few of them while we were tearing out the walls.  so we decided to take them down too.  

oh and if you are going to redo the ceiling, why wouldn't you just redo the lighting too?!?!  the two lights in there didn't let off enough light for the whole room, besides i just didn't like them.

this water meter and shut off valve need to be easily accessible, but we also want them to be hidden, so we have created some gorgeous built-in ideas for this wall (which may or may not include a window seat with cool custom bookshelves).

oh my what a mess.  

did i mention that i have to walk through this part of the basement to get to the other part of my basement (where my washer and dryer are located) with my not so clean anymore laundry? 

oh and we decided to just rip the stairs out too.  we don't really like that awkward landing, and the asbestos-backed flooring stuck to it seemed like more of a hassle than it was worth.  

hubs already has the new stair structure partially completed, and the naturally finished birch wood is going to look fabulous in there.  

we are still designing the railing as we want to leave it more open than it was before (to let in all that gorgeous sunlight from the window that is there and the window that will be there when we tear out that door).

can you see the vision?

or does it just look like a dirty, dingy basement project?

more to come....