A Basement Renovation

  HI! How are you doing today? I wanted to do a little picture story about part of our basement because the suite is finally finished!
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  My husband and I purchased this house last Fall. When we buy a house we only buy if it can become an asset to us rather than a liability. So when we found this house we had been living in a lovely house that had  two bedroom basement suite. However the part we were living in had one bathroom for seven people and that small bathroom was also the laundry room. We were used to have no privacy and feeling somewhat cramped but I was starting to go a bit stir crazy. When I found this house I knew it was the answer to a lot of prayers I had been sending up to God. This house had so much potential for us to fit better AND it had room for a suite to be put in it! We didn't think much about it...which was a good thing...because the amount of work was ridiculous! We just bought it and moved in! This house has three bathrooms for our family to use and a separate laundry room and a little room for us to use for a homeschool/play room which is wonderful. It has been a blessing from day one.

 The transformation downstairs in the suite area though has been quite incredible so I wanted to show it to you.

Okay enjoy ~

These stairs go down into our basement. At the bottom is a door way you can just see and that goes into the laundry room and bathroom. To the left is a door that goes into a hallway where my sister's room and my oldest daughter's rooms are located. To the right is a doorway that goes into the suite. There is a door on the front of our house that the renters use to access their suite.

Please notice the ceiling and everything else about this room in the next picture. This room was a labor of love and one of my favorite parts of the house. I was heart broken it had to go but for us to live there it did.

Where you see the door way here in the far back corner that became the opening to a hall way. Behind the wall on the left is a laundry room you access from this door, and then through the door was two garages. We used all of one to make a bedroom and then part of the next one to make another bedroom. There was also a storage room we made into a bathroom. It was perfect!
This area and room you see was made into the kitchen and living room.

  In order to make this happen we had to gut this place, there was cement that had to be drilled through, we put in a separate electrical panel and hot water tank and new drywall and insulation. The place was stripped to the studs. It was a massive undertaking.

  After months of work and much drama....the suite is finished. What a huge weight off our shoulders and minds! Here is the finished product.


This is looking at the tiny front entry way and the coat closet. The front door is hidden to the right. You can see the edge of the living room window and the little electric fire place. When I design a suite the things I think of are closet space for storage, a full bathroom, and lots of light and warmth. I have lived in a couple suites in my life time and often they feel dark and cold and there is not enough storage. SO this place has storage, a view, it is also warm yet feels light and bright. I love it!

 Here is the kitchen. I love that my husband put that little bar in. The kitchen had quite a bit of cupboard space for such a small area.

You can see the door that leads into the hallway in this picture and this would be the dining room in my mind.

      A lot of this work was done by my husband but there were many helping hands along the way

                           I can imagine some comfy couches and some book shelves in this space.

In this hall way you can see the bedroom at the end, the door on the right leads to the master bedroom and then on the left is the bathroom and laundry room.

The bathroom is not large but it has a full bathtub/shower in it. The cabinet is quite large so there is ample room for towels and toiletry storage.

The laundry room is TINY but it has room for the washer dryer combo and brooms and cleaners.

                 Here is the front door :) There is a beautiful view of the corn field from this suite.

So kudos to my husband for envisioning and making this suite happen. It fits just perfectly in the space we had. My husband still has a garage area for tools and storage and our renters have moved in. I am so thankful! We are now in clean up the front and back yard mode as that has been sorely neglected.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this transformation ~

Love Tansy