We wanted to completely tackle this project on the day we moved in, but we finally finished it, as we worked hard on fixing all of the problems that persisted in our basement.
For starters, we had to start with the mildew and moisture problem in the basement. Why were we having moisture in the basement? Prior to purchasing the house, the basement was a storage space for 60 years worth of THINGS…and lots of them. The basement had one solid walking path that you could walk through. All of the trash and years and years of accumulation piled up on the walls, hiding a lot of the big problems. We had to move all of the outside downspouts away from the house because the water run off was too close to the house, causing the water to seep into the basement. Once we fixed that, the walls dried!
After that, we contacted a local company, responsible for mold and mildew remediation, and they applied a specific cleaner (it was kid safe, bonus!!) to the mold and mildew. Once the product was applied, we waited several months, and watched the walls through the various seasons to make sure there was no moisture in the basement coming through the walls, so it took us awhile!
Next, the crawl spaces. Oh the crawl spaces. When we toured the inside of the house for the first time, we opened the front door and were knocked in the face with a delicious musty smell. It took ripping out the floor, tearing off wallpaper, ripping out walls, and giving everything a fresh coat of paint to help the smell. However, it wasn’t 100% gone. Why? The smell was originating in the basement crawl spaces and was infiltrating our whole house. This typically happens when the crawls are not sealed. So we kicked the squirrel and his walnuts out (seriously) and then we cleared up our crawls and sealed them with plastic, a special sealing tape, and a specific powder-actuated nail gun. ALL of the knowledge came specifically from Crawl Space Ninja. Their Youtube channel is what we tried to follow to a “T” and it was so incredibly helpful!
Also, we originally went to Home Depot and Menards to check out their powder-actuated guns and the one we needed was well over $260. Thanks to my dad, we found out that some local hardware/power tool stores sell used equipment and they just happened to have the gun we needed for 60% off. That saved us a whopping $190.
Then, we replaced our electric panel, which we were told was a major fire hazard upon the inspection of our home.
We also added 20 new lights in the basement, because three pull on light bulbs weren’t going to cut it for adequate lighting for a basement playroom + storage room.
After that, we purchased and replaced three basement windows, which we purchased all at Home Depot and Grant followed a Youtube video to install them, super easy!
We originally decided to paint everything white and then we decided to go out on a limb and paint everything Tony Taupe by Sherwin Williams. We scoured the internet for inspiration pictures of a basement painted head to toe in taupe, all to no avail. We wanted a cohesive, cozy look for our basement space and we truly would never go back now that the paint is on the floor, walls, and ceiling. It’s the coziest!
The next big part of the project took us forever. We had to prep the ceiling, floors, and walls for paint. We used a wire brush to go to town on all the walls, a sandpaper block, and a sandpaper pole to help with a lot of the prep. We also washed everything in a vinegar wash to make sure everything was clean and free of any dust from the sanding (see more details below).
We hired a painting company to come prime the walls and ceiling and then they painted the walls and ceiling as well. There is so many nooks and crannies in an unfinished basement ceiling that hiring out made it 100% worth it to us, and quite honestly, it saved our necks, as looking up for that amount of time can be really painful!! We painted and prepped the floors ourselves. We tried to chip away the paint, and in hindsight we would’ve definitely rented a professional sander from Home Depot, to take off the old paint, so that it would not take us so much time to prep.
Here’s the paint products we used for our basement:
PRIMER: Used for Walls, Ceiling after we prepped them.
Hands down the best primer on the market! It does have a strong odor, but it’s mighty.
WALL PAINT: Sherwin Williams Promar 200 in the color Tony Taupe
FLOOR PAINT: Sherwin Williams Heavy Shield tinted in the color Tony Taupe * SEE NOTE BELOW
Overall, she turned out so great! We love our basement space now, can you believe that transformation!? As for the other side, its used for wall to wall storage, and a workout room!
We truly can’t believe she is finally done and we have been LOVING this new play and storage space.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today, friends!
Jenna