A Very Merry Basement Project (comes to an End)

Merry Christmas everyone!!! This past saturday we brought back our dirty santa christmas party in our brand spankin new finished basement.  Ashamed to admit our last xmas party was back in 2010 but pretty cool can read about Here and Here on the blog.

Honestly, one of the main reasons I LOVE throwing parties is because it forces us with a deadline on house projects and overall just makes us get shiz done!!!  Perfect example...I've had about 6 frames sitting on my dining room table...oh for about...6 months! All I needed to do to finish our gallery wall was to hang these frames. It took me all of about 30 minutes to do it last week and I sit here wondering why it took me inviting 40 people over to actually kick my bum into gear to do it.  I'm sure this sounds familiar to others....but...it also forced us with a deadline to FINALLY finish the basement!!!

So the party was an absolute blast.  (Thank you to all of wonderful friends that came!) I managed to snag a few pics from friends to prove we had a good time ;) but kept the hard core discriminating pictures and videos to snap chat!!

Are you on snap chat?? If so, follow me... lunsfordkm is my snap chat ID. All the dirty santa party videos have fallen off the 24 hour story (thank gah!) ;) but maybe you'll catch some Lunsford Christmas Eve party shenanigans.

And without further ado....  The finish basement reveal!!  It's been tested, it's party proof, and totally worth the 10 month process and 1,000,000 fights over light fixtures, hardware, furniture, and window treatments.   Hope you love it as much as we do!! xoxo

This pic was pre-xmas party...we don't typically keep that much liquor on the counter ;)

Hunter's pride and joy!

Hand-made by Big daddy himself!! (my father-in-law)

This outdoor space went untouched for our first two years in this home. Looking forward to giving it some good use this summer!

Added little lanterns from Ikea to the white posts - its the little things that make such a big difference!

My favorite corner nook in the whole basement for many reasons :) xo

Hope ya'll have the very coziest christmas with lots of family time and wonderful memories made!! xo

Basement Reno (the before and process)

A promise is a promise.  I said I’d be back with a basement blog, and I’m baaaaaack, with a basement blog.  

I did not intend for it be four months later but in all honesty it’s still not done (insert emoticon with the straight teethy smile face). It’s almost done, most of the construction is done but this weekend we have a three day weekend with one of those days kid free and bye gosh darn it we are determined to finish this thing!!  

Let me take you back to where it all started. Our basement was already "finished" in most sense of the term these pictures below are actually what it looked like when the prior owners lived here.  

  We wanted paint, lay hardwoods, add a kitchen/bar and just make it more usable for us. The paint color we chose was sherwin williams "agreeable gray". After it was painted we ripped up the carpet ourselves.

Then we had laminate hardwoods put down. We got these from Lowe's and are really happy with the color. 

Then came in Dan the Man our contractor/handy man.  He was recommended to us from a friend and is AMAZING!!  He and his wife own their own photography business and on the side he does handyman work.  Talk about TALENT!  If anyone in the charlotte area would like his contact info just shoot me a message. 

Kitchen deets:  Grey Ikea cabinets, butcher blocker counters (stained to tie in with the floors), white backsplash from lower, sink, ice maker, and 2 tap kegerator. 

Dan built the bar around the Kegerator and the wine rack/TV cut out all CUSTOM!! It couldn't have turned out more perfect in our eyes!

At this point he still needed to install backsplash, facet, cabinet hardware, and stain the butcher block counters. Plus as can see Ikea dropped the ball on having all of our cabinet faces in stock so we played a bit of a waiting game for those.

And while Dan was hard at work we did our best to purchase furniture for the space.  Not always getting it right on the first try.  This is the look when you realize the couch you purchased is too short for the space. 

Luckily we were able to buy one more armless section to make it longer and fit the space better.

Here's where we are at now.  The kitchen and contract work is done we just need to organize, add decor and at some point in the future Hunter has hopes of building a shuffle board table.  

 It's a perfectly rainy and dreary day to get some good indoor house projects done.  Hoping for some sunshine and great natural light at some point this weekend for some stellar AFTER pictures. Stay tuned :) xoxo

Scenes from the weekend...

It was a very productive weekend in the Lunsford household but we started it out friday night eating outside and enjoying the beautiful weather. 

I totally remember doing this as a kid in the summer time. Squirting water gun water into my mouth. Hunter was doing it to James and they both thought it was hilarious. 

Can we say trouble ;)

So much fun!

Hunter and his dad worked really hard all weekend long.  Replacing exterior lighting, cleaning the exterior lights, cleaning all of our white columns and exterior windows sills, scrubbing the brick patios, and planting new shrubs where old ones had died.  

 I looove hydrangeas and excited to have some in the front of the house now.  Hoping the sun light is good to them and they should grow a bit bigger. 

 The new boxwoods in the front of the porch will eventually grow together and form one rectangular hedge.  And now its time for me to get my flower pots planted! Thinking of getting some new aqua colored ceramic ones this year....

The guys brought a tv out to the garage so they could watch the masters on and off while working.  Hunter V thought it was the coolest thing being able to eat lunch outside and watch a cartoon.  (don't mind all the "junk" ... we're preparing for a garage sale this Saturday... come on by!)

 Egg salad sandwiches is the "proper" lunch to have on Masters weekend

The men made sure to finish up their work just in time to watch the Masters sunday afternoon. We pulled the tv out to the back deck it was way to nice to go inside!

 And the "little boys" played legos

Big Daddy got in a some good tickle time before he had to leave...the boys just adore him

Annnnd...as if we hadn't accomplished enough, after Big Daddy left and the boys we're down we headed to the basement to rip up some carpet (full basement post coming soon)

Life isn't slowing down anytime soon! Garage sale, visiting grandparents, hiring contractors, jobs, babies, family moving down,  dr appointments, parent/teacher conferences, school pictures, car inspection, plant flower pots, and now I need to stop writing my to-do list on here and go write it in my planner.  bye bye for now...hope you all have a great week! xo