The Basement Stairway
Our basement stairway is like most, utilitarian and boring. Now that we’re going to be putting the house on the market we’re trying to clean up some of those dreary areas of the house and the basement stairway was on the list. I pinned this idea a long time ago and decided it would be perfect for this area.
The best part is that it was FREE. A few extra bits of paints from various areas of the house and a few hours and I was in business. I used caulk to fill in all the cracks around the stairs to clean it up a bit. It’s not quite as bright green as it looks in the photos, it’s a lithe more muted in person.
This is what I started with:
And ended up with this. Isn’t it amazing how it makes the stairs look wider?
Basements are a wonderful thing, we use our for storage. My main pantry is down there and it’s filled with jars of home canned goodness, the deep freezer and my seed starting area. Since our basement is unheated it also works fairly well for storing potatoes and onions. A proper root cellar would be better, but since this is all I have I make it work. Growing up we had a proper root cellar in the basement and my bedroom was down there too.
I still need to give them a good sweep, wipe them down and put a coat of Polycrylic on them. This will make them so much easier to clean and they will stand up better to all the foot traffic they get. The moulding around the door and the hand railing need stained before going back up. With those two tasks the basement stairway went from drab to fab! I’ll definitely be keeping this in mind in the future.
Are you lucky enough to have a basement? What do you use it for?
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Ta-Da
I mentioned earlier this week that we were putting new shelves in our bedroom closet. The previous one wasn’t installed properly by the previous owners and was not very sturdy. We considered taking it out and putting back in with new hardware, but it was not set up for efficient use of space. After purchasing a system at the hardware store, we got home to realize that it was too deep for our small closet. We then settled on this wooden closet shelving system which was very similar and 12 inches deep and thankfully half the price of the other system.
Originally we were going to build our own system with wood but decided to purchase one to save time. I really wanted to use wood because I have a deep dislike for all things plastic, especially for those white closet organization systems for some reason.
We were a bit nervous about this system since sometimes these kinds of items are a nightmare to install. We had no problems, the system seems to be of great quality, the directions are easy, all the parts are included (and extras) and they provide you with a variety of layout options. If you’re looking for something like this I’d highly recommend it.
As usual here at Chiot’s Run, the project can’t be done right without the help and supervision of one or more of the furry residents. This day Samson kept a close eye on the hardware.
Our bedroom closet went from this:
To this:
Changing the layout to maximize the space doubled the storage capacity of the closet. Having everything off of the floor (except for the laundry basket that’s in the back corner) makes it so much easier to clean the floors. We removed the closet doors for this project and I’m thinking I may leave them off. It makes the room look so much bigger and then I can admire my handiwork.
I’m a neatnik when it comes to my closet, keeping my clothes in a very specific order and having all my hangers the same color. Nothing annoys me more than my shirts hanging with buttons facing opposite directions, different colored hangers and shirts mixed with other articles of clothing. This came in very handy when I was in college because I always knew when someone borrowed my clothes. I love that my closet is now even more tidy than it used to be!
When it comes to your closets do you keep them neat & tidy or are they a happy mess?
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Sprucing Things Up
With the possibility of putting the cottage on the market, we’ve been doing a few projects around the house. I mentioned a few weeks ago that we’re going to be installing butcher block countertops. Those are waiting in the garage for an open day or two in our schedule. In the meantime other smaller projects that can be worked on in the evening are being checked off the list.
The closet in our bedroom in one such area. It’s been in need of some love for quite a while with it’s teetering shelf, hundreds of holes and lack of paint. I’m not quite sure what the previous owners did to this poor closet, but clearly they once had a ton of shelves in it which they must have taken when they left. I can’t believe I haven’t done anything to this space in 9 years.
Early this week, the shelf came down, the holes were filled in and a fresh coat of paint covered the walls. Luckily we still had leftover paint from the bedroom so we could match the walls. We considered building shelves ourselves, but decided we lacked the time at the moment to do that so we settled on this Wooden Closet Shelving System to install. We’re very pleased with the system, it looks great, is very sturdy and adds tons of space. More of these will be purchased when we need to finish the closets in the upstairs. I was hoping to have photos of the finished product, but we worked into the night and I was too tired to take photos. They’ll come later with photos of the other project I’m working on….
Painting the stairs to our basement is also in progress, it was another neglected area that was in need of a spruce up. I’m planning something fun for these since they lead to the basement, no need for formality here. Can’t wait to see how they turn out.
Any small spruce up projects going on in your home?
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Lightening the Load
Every winter, I spend time going through all the rooms in the house getting rid of stuff. It all goes into a pile in the attic for a yard sale. It’s amazing how many things can accumulate even when you don’t shop or buy things. Most of these items were purchase long ago and have simply been gathering dust.
Six years ago, Mr Chiots and I decided to go one year without buying anything we didn’t need; that year was a turning point for us. We quit accumulating things we didn’t need, we saved a ton of money, and we set off down the path to a more simple existence. Ever since, we have done a pretty good job at not bringing extra clutter into the house and we’ve been able to simplify our lives even more by getting rid of lots of stuff we didn’t really need.
Every two years we have a yard sale with some friends. If you’ve never had a yard/garage sale I’d encourage you to have one. There’s nothing more eye opening than seeing a garage full of things you spent money on being sold for pennies on the dollar. I used to just have a goodwill pile in the basement that would be donated every few months. In my experience, saving it all up is a great incentive to buy less because you see it all in one HUGE pile. If you want, you can then give the money you earn at the yard sale to charity, put it in savings, or pay down your mortgage. Do something proactive with it.
The more we simplify our lives, the more stuff we realize we can live without. We have also learned to focus on buying items that will last for the rest of our lives and items that can be repaired. As a result of our efforts we were able to pay off our house a year and a half ago and achieve financial freedom. Being debt free is so much better than having a house full of stuff that doesn’t get used!
Have you ever had a garage sale? Is getting rid of stuff easy or difficult for you?
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The Basement Seed Starting Area
This past weekend I spent some time cleaning up the basement seed starting area. Last year, a few of you asked about seeing it, so here it is. My seed starting area always starts out neat and tidy in January, but slowly descends into chaos as more and more seeds get started and as the gardening season ramps up. Add to that all the plants that get hurriedly carried in when the weather turns cold in the fall and it can get to be quite a mess. It remains that way until January, when I head down with my mop to clean it all up for the new season. I’ve always got a furry helper by my side “helping” me with the chores so it’s not so bad (this time it was Dexter).
My seed starting area consists of a collection of random items that have been given to me throughout the years. The table I use is an old enameled top table that was left in the first house my parents purchased, it’s much older and I am (probably by 2 or maybe 3). It’s quirky and interesting, I’ve loved it since I was a kid. This table used to sit under our laundry shoot in our old house with a basket on top.
My light shelf was given to me a few years ago by my mom when she got a new one. One tray has been removed and replaced with a piece of plywood topped by a heating mat for those seeds that appreciate some warmth, like: peppers, tomatoes, onions, etc. Head on over to the Your Day Blog to read my post about how this seed table recently taught me a valuable lesson.
After sweeping, mopping, dusting and cleaning up, everything was back in order and ready for the coming season, which officially started on Tuesday (more on that tomorrow). It’s nice to have this little corner of the basement set up as a seed starting area, it’s quite cold down there since our basement in unheated, but with a heating mat for the warm loving crops everything does just fine!
Do you have a dedicated seed starting area?
A seedling heating mat seedling heating mat is money well spent if your seed starting area is in a cold area of the house. I have this 20-3/4-Inch by 48-Inch which accommodates 4 flats of seeds, you only need to keep the trays on the mat until the majority of the seeds germinate.
