I received a really great question from a reader when I solicited questions for the recent
video blog.
Kerrie asked,
"What is the best thing to have come out of the lower level flood?"
First. The cheesy answer.
The best thing was the reminder not to take advantage of the people and items we have in our life. It was a decent wake up call.
We tend to live each and every day with little thought about what would happen if we were to lose the things we surround ourselves with. When our lower level flooded, we instantly lost furniture, flooring, trim and doors in half of our home. That meant that we lost half of our home's living space, taking us from 2400 square feet to 1200 square feet. That is a LOT of space when you have a family of five and a pooch. And then when we were told our insurance wouldn't be helping us out, it makes it that much harder. But on that dreadful day, we had a slew of friends and family in our home, helping us try and save as much as possible, ripping and taking out the bad and even bringing our laundry to do in their own homes. The feeling of love was an overwhelming one. One that I will never forget. It didn't matter what we were losing, we still felt fulfilled.
Because I could tell my husband was taking it a little harder than I, I felt the need to be his cheerleader. That helped me as well. I talked about how it would be a good experience for us to share a single level together while we refinished the basement. We would all have to be closer, which was not a bad thing. I reminded him that things could have been so much worse.
Now. The fun answer. We get to do projects!!! My favorite!
I have always heard that if you can, you should live in a short term home before building your dreamy forever home. In the short term home, you realize all of the things that you would love to have in the long term home. Storage, layouts and preferred finishes.
Well, the way I try to look at it is, when we first finished our lower level, it was our "short term home". Sure, it wasn't intentional, but this time around we feel like we have the "one up" on making the lower level what it really needs to be to last and to suite our needs.
Because we lived with a space and learned it's faults, this time around we can make better choices. First, we put in a long lasting battery powered back-up sump pump. Then we had our backyard graded to slope away from our home, creating a valley of sorts to collect and drain the water.
This time around, we are using waterproof flooring, vinyl trim and looking for ways to seal our doors. When we first finished our lower level, we didn't think about the needs for water resistant materials. Now, it is a MUST!
We also took the opportunity to evaluate closely what we loved about our lower level, and where we could make an improvement or two while things were tore apart. We decided that most walls would stay, with the exception of the one dividing a sitting room and walk in closet, off of our original master bedroom.
We tore out the dividing wall, taking two spaces and making one large space which will be
our future exercise/dressing room:
We gave the
laundry room a bit of a facelift as well, just by adding shelving we already had in our previous office with some new cheapo corbels, a $35 rug and a fresh coat of paint!
You have been following along as we transform our old play area into my new studio office...
And for the big reveal many of you have been asking for...
"Where will the kid's new playroom go since you are making a studio out of their old one?"
We had a very underutilized area in our lower level which was basically a lounge chair, table and miscellaneous storage. We called it our "Game Room".
One day very soon hopefully, we will call it our new PLAYROOM!!
Some of the original playroom furniture warped and had to be discarded and some of it was moved to other spaces in our home. So we are sort of starting from scratch with this space. The blue on the walls is the same color that is in the studio {Behr's Prelude}, it all flows together {house plan coming soon}.
The chairs are ones I stole from around the house and the entertainment center was a $100 Craigslist find that will be getting a giant makeover. The boxes are for future LEGO storage.
I think the before and after pictures are able to show the positive from a negative. It's already been over a year and sure, it's been hard. But I am a believer that everything happens for a reason. And we are making lemonade from those lemons and adding bits of sugar here and there to make it even sweeter.
Plus, think of how many new projects I have to blog about! The list is never ending!!
So thank you Kerrie for your very great question!
I would love to know, what negative has happened in your life, that you were able to turn into a positive? Let's get cheesy with one another!
