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spryte · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject: Mission: Basement

Our basement is only use-able because we are not tall people. Hector had a concrete floor poured about 7 years ago. The walls look awful. The ceiling is all exposed beams. It's very dark down there. My extra small kitchen appliances live down there, as does the freezer, the workout equipment and a computer for music, work out programs and just misc internet access while down there. The furnace side stores all of our tools, Hector's homebrew equipment, our bikes, and the Christmas decorations.

When I re-did the living room... we needed to move a lot of stuff out of the furnace half over to the workout half, so they could access all the venting to move a vent for me.

Anyway... all that crap has been there ever since. So today, I planned to dig out my exercise equipment, so I can actually use it!

That went really quickly. Then I remembered that last year, I bought a gallon of DryLock to seal and brighten up the walls. Hector dug it out for me and we started painting.

WOW! That brightened it up. But painting with DryLock is like painting with spackle!! My arms are sore!! We ran out of DryLock... and I have no plans of driving this weekend. So... painting is done for today. I'll buy more drylock on Monday and we'll finish painting and add a second coat.

Anyway... I was in a restaurant recently that had a couple of BRIGHT yellow walls. I thought the dark basement would be the perfect place for bright yellow. I figured in the basement, I could even experiment with faux finish. (with those darned stone walls it will probably be faux finish anyway!!)

Should I just do an accent wall in BRIGHT yellow and leave the other walls white? Or should I do them all yellow... or just leave them all white.

I plan to paint all the ceiling beams too... I was just gonna do that white.

Suggestions??

Here are some before/after pics from today.

No paint here... it's an inside wall and still looks good.

I will paint the stairs and maybe make a curtain to hide the under stair area (kid bike storage)

Horrible mint green stairway... I'm painting it white and adding a light... can you believe... no light in the stairwell?

Through to the furnace side... I'm not doing anything over there

I wish I had actually 'planned' to do this this weekend, I would have had more supplies on hand!!
_________________
~Marguerite
Keepin' it green!

Spryte's Place Blog

ddpie · Elite BakeSpacer Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 8618

A quick question before I answer....What's Hector brewing down there?

A)Wine
B)Beer
C)Moonshine

If the answer is "A", you're NOT a bright yellow person

If the answer is "B", Hector's not a bright yellow person

If the answer is "C", who in the he** is gonna care? Shocked

(ok, couldn't resist, sorry)

Seriously tho, what about painting just ONE small wall and then deciding from there? That's such a strong color, and looks like a small space, I would "test" it out first.

spryte · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 1:14 pm Post subject:

He brews beer and makes mead... but not in the cellar... he just stores all the equipment down there.

You know... it's the basement... I guess no one really cares! I should just start with a small wall (maybe the wall with the tiny little window. EXTREME blinding yellow. It's so hard to brighten it up down there. Everything seems to absorb the light.

Hopefully painting the ceiling will help!
_________________
~Marguerite
Keepin' it green!

Spryte's Place Blog

Babette · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 1:32 pm Post subject:

spryte · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 1:44 pm Post subject:

I 'think' he's brewing tomorrow. But is a kit. He has made up some beers too... but I just picked this one up for Christmas.... I also got him a sake making kit and a hard cheese making kit!
_________________
~Marguerite
Keepin' it green!

Spryte's Place Blog

ddpie · Elite BakeSpacer Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 8618

Babs, I'm psychic....naw, I saw it in her post (first paragraph Smile

) "Hector's homebrewing equipment" LOL

Spryte- my hubby brews beer and wine too, that's why I was asking Smile

spryte · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 3:37 pm Post subject:

He usually takes over the kitchen and the utility room for at least half a day when he brews.
_________________
~Marguerite
Keepin' it green!

Spryte's Place Blog

julib · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject:

My dad makes his own wine at home -- definitely takes up the whole kitchen whenever there is a step in the process! Smile

He is actually making mead right now (the last couple of months he's had some in the process) Smile

Julianna
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ddpie · Elite BakeSpacer Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 8618

Jim's "brewery" is in our laundry/utility room (it's pretty big though).....and yeah, like you guys said, he takes up the ENTIRE room when he's workin' his magic.

In the closet, he keeps all of his supplies, along with his hot plate and equipment. I make him put the 5 gal jars on these dolly thingys so I can roll them around out of my way if I need to.

I don't dare complain tho, it's all worth it in the end result, right? Wink

Babette · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 10:03 am Post subject: