New Playroom!!!!

I am so excited!!!  I've been wanting to redo our basement for some time and one day (a couple weeks ago) Dwayne decided to rip down a wall in the basement.  We had put the wall up when Erica's room was down there.  Now, 2 years later, we are ripping it down!  I didn't take a "before" picture from when the wall was up, but you can see in the floor where the wall used to be.  I made the room into a playroom when Erica left.  It was rather dark and uninviting, but the kids liked it anyway.  The room was cramped, cluttered and jam packed full of toys!  I had a few items in there that did not belong, but could not get rid of before we took the wall down.  There was a 6 1/2 foot wardrobe, a huge desk and entertainment unit that was all sold and taken away!  That gave me tons more space.

BEFORE

You can see in the picture below, the desk and part of the wardrobe.  And at the bottom of the picture, part of the caret that had been ripped up from when we had the flood.  :(  Oh yah, and Audrey...looking at ???

Below is the "hallway".  Well, it was a hallway when there was a wall on the side!

  All ready to go!  Erica and Cameron were here for the busy reno weekend.  Cam. was afraid that he got paint on his sweater.  Dwayne complained at least 250 brazilian times that his wrists and arms hurt from rolling primer.  Oh...poor baby.  After Dwayne primed, I continued.  Cam. kept me fed with omelettes, helped move toys etc and Erica kept me company so I wasn't all alone.

 Painting the floor boards.....which ended up being a big waste of time, as they got ruined when I ripped out the carpet and then again when we laid the new floor. :(

                                                                              LOL

                                  All primed and ready to go!  See that little bookcase above? 
                                                Pay attention to what happens to it!

1 coat of primer and 3 coats of paint later...the walls are done.  All in all, the walls actually had 11 coats of paint (from years ago) and you can STILL see marker through the paint from when Jacob and Cameron's room used to be down there.  I had allowed them all to color on the walls, thinking "Oh, I will just wash and paint and it will be fine!"  Nope!!  Years and 11 coats later...you can still see where there was red and blue marker.

                                                *******************************

I was up very early the next morning to get a start on the carpet.  It took me 2 hours, but I did it all by myself.  I cut, rolled, taped etc.  The underpad was soooooo heavy!  I removed the staple boards along the edges, stabbed my thumb and cursed a couple times.

        And now for the new underpad for the wood floor.  Gotta keep the moisture out!

And..........the process begins!  This flooring is the best I have ever put down.  The sides of each piece did not need to be clicked together before laying each row.  It was awesome!!!

DONE!!!!  We still have a tiny bit of floor trim to finish, but you get the idea!  What a freakin difference!!!

About 30 hours of hard work, blood, sweat and tears (actually....no tears!) the basement is    gorgeous!  The kids LOVE it, I love it and am very happy.  The bonus to doing this room is...I have my livingroom back!  No toys, no kids, no mess.  Ahhh.  I can sit back at the end of the day in my livingroom and not look at toys.  Soooooooooooooooo nice!