Transformation Thursday Part 1

This is not creative, nor is it beautiful to the common viewer, however to me it is a wonderful beginning of it's transformation...We are still in the chrysalis stage, and in order to turn it into the butterfly I know that it there, it will take some more elbow grease, paint, etc..but I still wanted to share the progress because I am happy about it! :)

For this Transformation Thursday I started to transform our basement. We moved into our new home 2 months ago. When we first moved in I worked very hard to get the house looking nice upstairs. I was so motivated, but once the important things were unpacked, the less important sort of just sat in the basement scattered around, boxes and boxes of it. My home looked nice upstairs, but no one came into the basement anyhow! I had planned a small party, and most of the people coming had children while the forecast said the inevitable- rain. I need extra playing space..Yes we have bedrooms, however there were to be ALOT of children here for hours. I spent literally all day getting our basement whipped into shape to be turned into a playroom/gameroom. I moved regular boxes to the other side of the basement so now they are all located together instead of scattered. I left the plastic bins on this side so that until we can find cheap bench seating down there (I'd like to get a few bench seats like you see in restaurants for down there, I've seen them on craigslist before, and hopefully will see them again.) we can use the bins to sit on. I laid the carpet I kept that had been ripped out of our living room before we moved in. We had replaced the carpet because it looked very dirty, stained and shabby. You cannot believe the different vacuuming made! Our home was a HUD home, and the people who owned it had large dogs (we do too) but they never vacuumed! It took me forever to vacuum because I would only get a few feet done and then the canister would be full and I would have to empty it. I'm still glad we put new carpeting upstairs, ours is MUCH BETTER, but this carpet is AWESOME for our game room. I also tacked up a few curtains that I wasn't using at this house, and an old quilt comforter (the back of it) to cover up the bare spots..My hubby and my plan later on are to replace the actual walls down there with large sheets of plywood to correct the spots where the wood is gone, but till then we have some "fabric walls" :) Once this room is done, it will have new walls, new paint (I am planning on painting a mural on the far wall as well as regular fresh paint) The oak cupboards on the one side will be gone- they will be mounted in my kitchen as soon as my hubby gets to it. We have already added our dart board (after picture was taken) and a stair stepper machine as well as a stereo so I can listen to music while we work out. We may change out the stair stepper later to a new elliptical machine or treadmill, but for now, it is perfect! :) We also put the little kids big bin of blocks down there so they can build huge towers. The little glider rocker is a project of mine. I bought it for 3.00 at a yard sale and have big plans for it :) There are things for little kids, big kids and grown-ups to do down there- I love having a playroom/gameroom down there. It is perfect for anytime, but especially when I'm doing laundry down there! :)