to the trees

we've been having some really crappy weather here lately.  a couple weeks ago it was super snowy and cold.  felt more like winter than the beginning of spring.  so we made the best of it by painting a forest in the playroom and playing "let's shovel the driveway".  we always knew that we wanted to have a dedicated space for the kids to play.  we don't have a bonus room and the basement is plenty big enough to house toy storage and allow the kids to run around. for the last year and a half it's been pretty meh.  we talked about wallpaper, but then remembered this was a play room.  paint seemed more conducive to flying toys and crayon.

i ordered this stencil and the stencil kit from cutting edge stencils.  the hanging level was totally worth the kit, the brush wasn't that great and the stencil was pretty easy to work with.  it took us a couple weekends to get it done, we're at the mercy of nap time and nicely playing together time (the latter isn't to frequent).  here's a look.

basement playroom before:

first we painted the wall white, pure white by sherwin williams. (also thinking this might be the paint for the dining room) having a white wall meant we'd have white trees.  the grey paint was used to fill the negative space on the stencil.  we did toss around the idea of having grey trees, but in the end very happy we took the time to put three coats of white on the wall.

once we had our final coat of white done we let the wall dry for a few days, well a week.  because we moved all the furniture around, we also had to empty out the toy cabinet.  this meant every toy we owned was everywhere.  the kids liam loved that he never had to clean up his toys.  he just tossed them into the giant pile by the window.  

the following weekend was snowy yet again. guess mother nature was trying to tell us something so, we put the kids down to nap and we started building our indoor forest.

it took us about two and a half/three hours to complete a very small section.  i think we were being very careful and uber conservative.  following the instructions to a 't'.  as we moved along the wall during our third painting weekend, we moved much faster.  not sure if we just wanted to get things done or we got better at stencilling.  at any rate it didn't take us as long to finish.

once we had the large wall sections done we had to bend the stencil to get the edges done.  much easier said.  rob took to free handing it down the wall and that worked well enough that he did the same thing for the top of the wall.  the stencil did come with a top part, but i'd say he did a pretty good job with his free hand.  i think also that this contributed to things moving along much faster.  

and ta-da.  here's the playroom all painted.  liam said that he didn't like the trees at first, but as soon as his cousins and gramma came over he was dragging them down the stairs to show them "our trees."  he's still our little lorax. 

up next for this space?  more storage.  we need another shelf or two for the cabinet.  maybe an expedit or whatever ikea replaced it with now that it's discontinued.  i'd also like to find a wooden table and chairs to get crafty with and paint for averie's birthday.  we also decided, as we were painting, to put a funky pendant light for above the train tables.  something like what we have above our kitchen table maybe.  we have all the electrical done there, just wasn't planning on putting a light there until we got a pool table.  and finally, i'd like to set up my work space.  the kids and i share the playroom and i'd like to have some more storage for craft and sewing supplies.  i do really like that we moved the desk to it's new location.  doesn't feel stuffed into a corner anymore.  

all in all, stencilled trees equals complete awesomeness.  love the low cost, big impact projects.   

the man, kid, family, everything cave

i'm going to start this post by sharing my past experience with basements.  i grew up with a basement that i was absolutely terrified of.  so much so that both my brother and i frequently left the lights on after we went upstairs because we refused to be in the basement with them off.  of course the switches had to be in the middle of the basement.  inevitably mom or dad would yell at us to go back down and turn off the lights and we'd end up running and stomping our way up the stairs.   it was quite obvious to us that something scary lurked somewhere and when the lights were off it was going to get us.  i also lived in a pretty questionable basement "suite" when i was in university.  my former roommates, and most people for that matter, would agree that a shower that on more than one occasion backed up with sewage is not the most pleasant thing to happen in a basement.  this happened when there wasn't even a rainstorm.  many.  many.  times.

so ... based on the basements of my past i was super stoked to develop our basement when we bought our first house.  it had to meet the two most important criteria:  not scary and sewage backup proof.  we had a friend of ours develop it, same friend who did our current basement, however rob and i were able to pitch in a lot more with the first basement.  that's what happens when you add two minions that wander around and grab your tools or attach themselves to one or more of your limbs.  our first home's basement was awesome.  and not one inch of it was remotely scary.  fast forward to our current home.  we chose a floor plan that didn't have a bonus room upstairs.  we decided that because the lot we were building on allowed for a walk-out basement there was no need for a bonus room.  our bonus room was our basement and we were going to have it developed right away.  it just made more sense for us.  we also chose to have it developed by someone other than the builder building our home.  the cost was completely ridiculous. and based on some of the shoddy workmanship found in the upper two floors, we were glad that we went with someone else.  i love love love our basement.  we've got giant windows that look out into the forest that's beyond our backyard so it doesn't feel like you're in the basement.  and just like the first house, it's not one bit scary.  unless you count the mess of boxes and stuff underneath the stairs.

here's what it looked like during the construction of the house.

unfortunately i have absolutely no photos of the basement as it was being developed.  i was completely preoccupied with a teeny tiny person that had made her debut into the world only a few weeks earlier, as well as the not so teeny person that was starved for attention because of his new baby sister.  good times.

here's where we're at with the basement presently.

the first thing that stands out to me is whoa that's a whole lot'a brown.  for some reason we didn't seem to mind brown or dark wood in our last home.  it seemed to go pretty well with the dark green walls and it was a more "moody" basement.  now?  not so much.  we need things to be a little brighter, more colourful, cheery.  and man o man do we have a list for the basement.  it includes and is not limited to:

~ finish the bathroom.  it's currently being used as a storage room.  only the plumbing and electrical is done.
~ finish and organise the storage room.  this includes hanging drywall or plywood on the walls as well as organise all the crap that's under the stairs.
~ spray the tv console table.  thinking something dark/navy blue.
~ add some bright pillow covers and a few comfy throws.
~ stencil the back wall in the playroom area.  going to do this.
~ add a single expedit on the left side of the toy cabinet.  i want to lay it horizontal and have it act as a bench with storage baskets/bins underneath.
~ add a couple photo ledges the portion of wall that will be above the expedit bench and spray them the same colour as the tv console.
~ figure out what i'm going to do with my craft/sewing/office space.  i have a desk and that's about it. this area will be on the back burner for quite a while i think.
~ make some poufs for the kids.  love these ones and i'm pretty sure that if i find the time i could sew them.
~ re-cover the foam backs in the two glass display cases.  currently these house an antique violin and a rifle that belonged to rob's great grandfather.  the artifacts don't standout against the fabric we used. it's just kinda blah.
~  find a giant world map to cover the entire wall at the bottom of the stairs.  we'll add pins on it to all the places we've travelled, as individuals, as a couple and as a family.
~ switch out the photos in the really big frames and make an art gallery wall above the kids play kitchen.  liam and i already made some fun art for the playroom.  i'll share it later on.
~  i'm also thinking about some sort of fun storage for all the play food, dishes, etc. to go next to the kitchen.
~ finish the guest bedroom.  i didn't take any photos because we recently pillaged the mattress for liam's room, so really we don't even have a place for guests to even sleep anymore.
~ finish the laundry room.  i'm going to post on this one later.  it's kind of my pet project.

wow, this list seems much bigger written down than it did in my head.  all in good time.

have a super weekend.