One almost down.....four more to go!

In my last post I shared with you my New Years resolutions/Goals mainly for the month of January.  It pretty much includes all "house stuff" since the main focus this year is turning our little abode into a loving and "more us" home!!
The basement is for the most part empty.  2hotty is calling it his man cave!!  No doubt about it, it definitely feels like a cave.......and up until recently once smelled like one too!! HA!! I like to consider it our entertaining room (did you read that hunny "OUR entertaining room") since we plan on hanging down there with friends and family to watch movies and play board games (ie. entertaining room)!!! 

The rooms downstairs needed a little bit of TLC when we moved in.  I don't think the previous owners used the space down there a whole lot, so it was a bit dingy to begin with.  We eventually want to use every square inch of this home so prepping and painting (every square inch) is our main focus these days.

The before (after cleaning every nook and cranny):

Right now the room stores Scotts ancient (its a dang FOSSIL) T.V. from his Best Buy days (it use to be the "it" T.V. way back when and I think it ways like two tons!! NO JOKE!!) and some blankets on the floor (before we got our cable hooked up we layed on the floor and watched movies all night.......so much fun.....brings back GREAT memories)!!

I haven't measured the space yet, but it is very narrow (as you can tell from the above pictures)!! The wood paneling doesnt help the situation either.  It really just emphasizes it and makes the room feel like a box......a dark wooden box!!  Ugh!

The paneling is the real stuff too and has a really rough texture.   It was a real treat wiping down the panneling with a wet rag.  It SUCKED........so after like my third splinter I got my vacuum out!!

We didn't want to spend money ripping the paneling down.....too costly.....so we turned to Plan B...........painting it!

But before we did any paneling painting, we decided to paint the walls first!  I invited my pops over (more like I tricked him on coming over)......his name is dad or to most Frank (I like to call him "Frank da Tank")........and when he got to our house I led him down the stairs and handed him the paint bucket and a roller!!! My dad is totally a pro at painting. He takes his time and does a REAL good job.......that's why I trust him to "get er done" under my (high) standards!!!  I'm really picky on who does what with the house!!  Just want everything to be perfection.......can you blame me?!?!

Here it is after "we" painted (we've taken down the tree since.......sigh):

 We went with a bold color for the walls and chose a blue slate color.  I love it.  We wanted something a bit darker for the walls to give it that dark "movie theater" look.  2hotty wished we would have gone a bit darker and a bit more navy but I think it is fine for now.

This past weekend 2hotty started on the panneling and primed it all on Friday! I worked late that day and came home to one stinky house and my (high as a kite. HA!!) husband!! That oil base primer is just NASTY!!! (The primer stunk so much that night that I think I got high during my sleep. I litteraly woke up the next morning craving brownies!! HA! I KID! I KID!).  Lucky for us the weather has been so unusual here in Wisconsin that we were able to open up all the windows to let the room air out without freezing our tushes off!! Who else thinks this weather is just too bizarre......40 degrees in January when we should be having winter snow adviseries and the kids should already have a few snow days from school?!??! I'm not complaining one bit......I secretly kinda like it!! (I say secretly because a lot of people are upset with this "no snow" thing around here!)!

So back to painting the paneling with primer:

The primer makes the walls look imperfect and blotchy.....its OK.....its suppose to do that:

Scotty just used one thin coat on all of the panelling.

 Then we allowed the primer to dry before painting again.  Sorry for the HORRIBLE dark grainy pictures......we do alot of our projects at night!!

We went with a tan color to ofset the "darkness" that we had going on top!! Don't worry if you think it looks a bit top heavy......we will balance that out with our dark sectional and other furniture we plan to put in this room.

We are leaving the trim white to divide the paneling and the wall.  2hotty just started painting the trim today so hopefully by the end of the week we will be done with the room all together (we still need to paint the panneling that comes out past the room into the hallway and touch up where needed!)! Oh and I think the we will wait to paint the trim around the windows later on (maybe spring?!?).  So this is where I will leave you off until next time!

Hence the title of this post "one ALMOST done" and four more things to check off of my January list which include:

1. Paint the trim and paneling downstairs (almost CHECK)
2. Paint the paneling in the kitchen (using left over paint from project above)
3. Replace the two light fixtures in our family room with recessed lights
4. Buy a couch for the family room and move the sectional downstairs
5. Organize my office/beauty room

Phew.  I'm so glad we are almost done with this room!! Painting is definetly time consuming but we have no regrets......it made such a difference with the way this room looks and feels now!! 


Stay tuned as I share with you the finished freshly painted room. Fingers crossed hopefully sometime later on this week.  This time I'll take some pictures during the day :-)  Until then feel free to ask me any questions!!!

xo Joanna D.