Welcome to week 2 of the One Room Challenge! As a little refresher. we are renovating our unfinished basement and turning it into a hangout area for the boys, adding a guest room and bathroom. Lots and lots of moving parts come with that and because of that we had to call in the professionals. We chose a great, local company, Greenpoint Services, to work with to help us transform this basement. First things first, they had to tackle the water problem.
Yeah, this is definitely not the pretty part of renovation.
I never thought I’d say a French drain was pretty but damn, sometimes it is!
All buried and cement is poured! Ready to get this show on the road!
As most of you know, any time there are foundation issues, it’s gonna cost money, usually a lot of money. We lucked out and only needed to put in french drains and new sump pumps. When they dug up everything it was crazy that we could see the water seeping in through the foundation. So relieved we tackled this now versus in a couple of years where it would have meant a lot more money and mess.
With the French drains buried and the cement poured, its time to move on to the good parts! Let the planning commence!
We wanted to carry the same flooring throughout the basement, with the exception of the bathroom, so we decided to choose the flooring first. We have two black labs and did I mention crazy boys? The poor wood floors on our main floor have taken a severe beating so because of that, coupled with typical basement issues, we decided to go with luxury vinyl planks for flooring. I really wanted a herringbone pattern for the flooring like the pictures below.
This beautiful basement designed by Kathryn McAdams of Meriwether Design Group was exactly what I envisioned for our basement.
The variation of this vinyl herringbone option made me happy just looking at it!
Both Paul and I agreed that the herringbone pattern would look great and folks, when your husband agrees with you, you run to the flooring store and you don’t look back or ask questions. But alas, this is where the story turns. Apparently options to do herringbone patterns with vinyl are pretty limited. We wanted the lock in vinyl planks so if, God forbid, we ever have water in our basement they can easily be taken apart, dried off and locked back together. If we had chosen stick on vinyl we could easily have done the herringbone pattern but with the locking system it makes it nearly impossible to do the herringbone pattern. I was heart broken and really really disappointed. This was supposed to be the show stopper but I also wasn’t willing to splurge and go with porcelain tile, so I had to move on. In the end, here’s what we decided to go with:
Paul and I bought the flooring from Floor & Décor. The vinyl flooring is 100% waterproof, has a foam backing for better insulation and more give underfoot, and is easy to install. We both loved the color and texture variation in the planks too. Since we couldn’t do herringbone anymore I decided staggering the planks would add enough interest to the floor or at least that’s my hope!
While we were there we took a little detour through the tile section and I found some good contenders for the new bathroom.
What is your favorite combo? I’d love to hear your feedback! Check back in next week to see what we pick for the bathroom.
Don’t forget to go to the One Room Challenge Blog to check out all the progress the other participants are making on their projects. Over 300 bloggers are tackling projects over this six week period. Talk about major inspiration!
Talk to you all soon!
Sara
