Basement Family Room ~ Before, Part 1

I’ve decided recently to take a big ol’ brave breath and show you around my basement.  It was the one area that I was strategically hiding from you…my delightful blog friends.  That just didn’t seem right.

So, I started slowly by giving you a peek of the laundry room area  that, in the month of January, ended up as the craft room.

Now it’s time to tackle another area.  {Brace yourselves!}

Half of the  basement (and house) was built in 1926.  I often wonder what was going on in the world of architecture and home decor that year.  I could spend time researching it, but instead, have had fun being a “detective” in our own home.  These are my observations, based on the current state of my built-in-1926 half of the basement:

1.  Basements were probably referred to as “cellars” back then.  In that case, I’m glad this one has  a cement floor instead of dirt!  The cement is of a “weird” variety, though.  Instead of being smooth, it is filled with tiny holes and sharp protruding rocks.  Walking in bare feet feels like torture training…

2.  The odd troughs and giant drain holes also indicate flooding seemed to be inevitable.

3.  Since the basement cellar wasn’t intended to really be a living space, it probably seemed totally normal to pour a round cement “stand” in the middle of the floor to place the coal furnace on…

4.  The windows were a complete luxury in the day, I’m convinced (and I find them a luxury now!).

{Yep, it’s a gray, rainy day here.  And the windows are beyond dirty…}

5.  Perhaps people were shorter back then?  The ceiling height is only a little more than 6 feet.  If you are taller than that, you learn to duck quickly while approaching a beam… {Let me tell ya, there are some advantages of being 5 foot 2!}

When we moved into this house, the basement was filled with assorted and sundry storage shelves.  They were wonderful, but honestly, I wanted to use the space for more than just storage.  It seemed like such a waste of “prime real estate”  (ha!).

After I mopped up my tears from the dreadful state it was From day 1, I dreamed of having some sort of “family room” space down there for our boys.  I became much more motivated toward that end upon the arrival of the WII gaming system from their grandparents.  We tried using it in the second level upstairs at first…  Yikes!  As they bowled, boxed, river rafted, and segwayed, I felt like the house was going to topple right on my head…

So began the “Family Room” project.  It was much, much more difficult than just “throwing a rug, couch and tv down there”…

This is what it looked like when we moved in…{Sadly, this is the only before picture I have…}

Come back tomorrow and I’ll show you what it looks like now.

…and be prepared…It’s not done yet!:)

Update: Click here for the “After” Basement

And how I really felt about that Basement when we moved from that house!

{Linking to The Nester’s “It’s Not Perfect But it’s Beautiful” Party}