hooray for progress!

I feel like I missed a whole stage of the basement, as far as photos go, but you can imagine how it looked I guess. Sheetrock was hung. Wiring was done. We borrowed my friend Jared's paint sprayer and Josh was able to paint the entire space in less than 2 days, including the ceiling, which was such a time saver! Last night Josh started on the floor, while I had a friend over (a much needed distraction, for me!) and when my friend left, I went down and helped him. We got so much done so fast, and we LOVE it. The cork is so warm and it's also kind of soft, which dampens the sound and makes it so cozy down there. We're now considering just moving into the basement and renting out the top of the house. Renting to someone who will let us use the bathroom and cook for us, of course. Installing the floor is a lot easier than I think either of us were expecting, which is also a big relief. I think we got about halfway done last night, and we were in bed by 11pm.
These first two are from the bottom of the stairs. There will be french doors in that doorway between these two rooms, but that's coming after the floor. We also have yet to put the light fixtures in, so it's just a bunch of temporary bare bulbs right now.

Stella isn't allowed to walk on the cork yet - it has to get sealed with polyurethane first. Her nails are too sharp and will scratch it, so she holds down the fort at the bottom of the stairs. The stairs will get new carpet at some point.

This section of wall turned out to be my favorite part of the basement project. The stairs come down to the doorway on the end at the right, for reference. There were a bunch of low hanging pipes, and pipes on the wall here that Josh had to frame around, and I like the detail it added once it was all sheet-rocked. We couldn't find a window that was the right size for the cut out there without ordering an expensive custom one, so Josh went to the rebuilding center and bought half of a pane of a full size window and framed it in. It can't open, but with the other big windows down there now, I don't think it matters.

This is just a shot of Josh's butt hanging out of his pants.

A close up of the cork. I'm glad we chose the planks, and not the squares.

This is the hallway leading to the (unfinished) bathroom, and the back bedroom (Josh's art room). The bathroom is the door on the left. We are looking forward to finishing the bathroom in a more leisurely manner after the baby comes. The hallway and back bedroom floor are tonight's project.