Happy Un-Birthday Bottom Dweller

I know I already posted a colossal number of pictures today but here is one last event from this week.

We moved Alyssa to the basement!

I hate basements. I guess because I didn't grow up with them I have always thought they were ick and not suitable to live in. When we bought this house I was very happy that the basement was finished because our house is small and the basement gave us a big playroom that could be messy without anyone knowing if they stopped by, and a computer room/guest bedroom, but I was happy to have 3 bedrooms upstairs so that none of my kids would have to sleep down there. Of course that was before we had Chloe and I have told you that we had not planned on a #3. But even once we were blessed with Chloe it was fine because I was sure we would be in a different house before they were too big to share rooms. Well, since Alyssa is now entering Middle School we have started to think that she is officially too old to share a room with her little brother. They share bunk beds, and a closet and even a dresser because there is only enough space for one dresser in their room. It was time for another arrangement.

Seth decided that the basement was really the only option and I fought him on it for a good 6 months but I finally saw that there was not much else we could do. I was stubborn enough to insist that we get new carpet in the basement first and that we make her room look as much like a bedroom as possible. The carpet was here when we moved in and the people before us had a dog and two cats that had clearly peed on the basement carpet. I cleaned the carpet many times and the room didn't smell overwhelmingly like pets but if you laid on the carpet you could detect it. Not to mention all the food and drinks and paint and nail polish my kids have spilled over the years. It is really pretty gross that we waited this long to replace that carpet but so many other things had to be replaced first so it took a long time for it to make its way to the top of the list.

So we started the basement renovation by moving all of the furniture and junk out of the rooms that were getting new carpet. Thankfully the laundry/storage room is also in the basement and since it is unfinished it was not getting carpeted so we could store stuff there and not have to move it upstairs. We also loaded up about 30 bags of toys and miscellaneous junk for Goodwill and I am sick about how much we had accumulated in 8 years here. So happy to have some of it purged! Then we pulled up carpet and painted and painted and painted! And painted! Then the carpet installers came and took care of that step and I was so happy to have new paint and carpet that I just left it empty for a few days to appreciate it before hand prints and muddy feet mess it all up again.

And then we got to work on Alyssa's room. I can't believe how much work went in to making a guest room look like a real room. It doesn't look like a lot of work when you see the pictures but I assure you that there was a a lot of shopping and picking up and moving around and assembling going on. This is her birthday present and we are still over a week away from her birthday but her room will still double as a guest bedroom and Grandpa Bob is flying in on her birthday so we thought we would get it done and let her be the first one to enjoy her new space.

We kept this a surprise until this morning. We locked the door so that no one could go in there but Seth and myself. Alyssa did choose to have turquoise walls and we built her room around that color scheme but she did not get to see anything else along the way. I suck at decorating! And I am super afraid of clutter so I like empty space and minimally decorated walls. There is nothing on my bedroom walls except for one mirror. I just don't have any gift for this kind of thing so this was a pain in the butt.

Let me take you on a photo tour of the completed room.

Walking in to the room. By the way, this is the biggest bedroom in the house. My room is only 12x12 and this room is 15x15.

Turn to the left

Through the curtain you find the cupboard under the stairs which is now Alyssa's closet. We had an accordion door on the closet but we hated it and regular curtains were too long so that is actually a fabric shower curtain. We looked for beads but never found any that we liked and we may still get a full length curtain and get it hemmed but for now this will do.

The ceiling in the closet was not finished so Seth had to finish that and install lighting.

Not the ideal closet but she has two sides to hang stuff on and she even managed to create a little reading nook in there. 

And if you turn right when you enter the room...

We planned everything around the bedspread. We tried to use all the colors of the polka dots as accents in the room. I don't love how the art behind the bed turned out. It looks like it needs more, or less or something that coordinates better or a different arrangement?  If you have a gift for this kind of thing, help me out.

I will give you a closer look at a few things
 
I was looking online for a print of an ice skate and a print of a stack of books but I didn't love anything that I found and the price would be $100 just for the print and then I had to take shipping time in to account and frames. On Friday night I finally decided that I was not waiting for anything else to ship and that we were finishing the room on Saturday so I zoomed in on a picture I already had of Alyssa in skates and I stacked some books myself. I should have moved them out of the basement to better lighting or against a brighter background but I was ready to be done so I snapped a picture and called it good and what's funny is that Walgreen's called this morning to ask if we would mind if they display these 3 prints in the store so I felt like my idea was validated. The only thing I regret is that I didn't use bright colors for the text. I may modify that and reprint them at some point? 


 
Another one of my I am ready to be done projects was the curtain. We looked everywhere (in stores and online) for window treatments for this window but could not find anything small enough except for a few valances that didn't match at all. I was going to ask a friend to make a valance but I told you I was ready to be done. I also thought about making a curtain out of beads but then I thought about the tutu I made for Alyssa's birthday party last year and decided to use the same idea with strips of fabric and a curtain rod. I still think we need a more official looking curtain so I will keep looking but Alyssa likes it. 
 
New dressers. You can change the color so we did one in purple, although it looks more dark blue in this picture.
 
And the night stand in green. The clock also shows what time we finished the room last night. Oh and I don't have a night stand in my room. My phone and Kindle and scriptures have sat on a step ladder by my bed for 8 years now. I think it is my turn for a new bedroom. Alex and Chloe think it is their turn so we have really opened a can of worms here.

And now for the big reveal, which took place right before church this morning.





 
She loves it! Her and the siblings spent all afternoon/evening in there, taking turns getting in the bed and having the others pretend they were in the scare simulator from Monsters Inc. She said she is a little nervous to be on her own and Alex came down at bedtime to give her a hug goodbye. Kind of funny that I had my boy and girl share rooms. We never intended to. Seth even painted the girl's room and got it all ready for them to share with big sister and little sister vinyl decals on the walls but when Alex got a bunk bed she decided she wanted to stay with him one night and then never left. I am glad for the years that they were together, reading aloud in the dark and talking way too late.

Now the only problem is that the rest of the basement still looks about like this...
 
We have actually moved the computer in to the rec room since I took these pictures but there is still so much stuff in the laundry room that needs to be moved out and reorganized. Ugh!
 
Oh and for the grandparents who have asked what to get Alyssa for her birthday....here's an idea. Ice skates! She is just starting to do crossovers and spin on one foot and her skates are cheap sporting good store starter skates. She needs more support for her ankles. So we popped in to the shop at the Ice Plex to price out new skates. What would you guess that skates cost because I was SO wrong! They ranged in price from $125-$600...for the BOOT, as in does NOT come with the blades. I was stunned, especially since her foot is not even done growing. So we priced high quality used skates and can probably find a good pair for just over $100 so if the 4 grandparents want to join forces and buy some skates that would be awesome. If you already had another idea, go with it, and we will make skates happen when school starts. It was just a thought.