Finishing the basement

Our Basement-

Um, so when we bought this house almost 6 years ago, we clearly had no idea that we would welcome triplets into this home a few years later.  Although, I love our house, it was feeling a bit, um, crowded after the triplets became mobile.  We toyed with the idea of moving, but finishing our basement just seemed a whole lot easier.  I am so glad we went ahead and finished the basement, now the triplets have a dedicated play space and I just wanted  to share a few pictures.  

When we first decided to finish the basement we asked around and for recommendation on contractors. The guy we chose came highly recommended and has finished 14 basements in our neighborhood.  Becuase he had already done so many basements in the area, he was very familiar with the footprint of our house.  He gave us a good price, but of course being the trifty person I am, I simply asked him  "is this the best you can do?" and he actually took %10 off the price, score!

  

Before he started we went and looked at a few basement he had done in our neighborhood and I really liked his work.  But, one thing I noticed is that all the basement were painted beige???  Was there a fire sale on beige paint or something?  This area is for my kids and I wanted it to be bright and inspiring.  A place were imagination and learning could come together.  As you can see I pretty much choose the brightest colors I could find!  Also, I wanted the decor to be unisex and fun, so I went with a Dr. Suess theme.

In the picture below we used chalk board paint, and had it framed in with crown molding.  Above it we put one of my favorite quotes (the wall decals were ordered off ETSY)

This next photo, is what the triplets see when they walk down the stair.  I thought this quote was a great way of reminding the triplets of there individuality

Here is a general view, we have since put a book shelf under the big circle quote on the far wall.  As for the furniture we got that couch for less than $300 new.  One of the big furniture store in our area has an outlet store where they send product with small flaws or that were floor samples.  The only thing I could find wrong with this couch was that it is BRIGHT green.  I guess not alot of people are in the market for this color couch.  Oh well, finders keepers.

This photo is the area under our stairs.  I noticed that in a lot of basements this becomes wasted space.  So, I had our contractor frame it in with a dutch door and a small pass through window.  I am hoping at some point to paint this to look like a store front, so the kids can play "store".

But, in the mean time Baby C "The Muffin" just likes to run his cars on it.

We also added a bathroom to our basement.  We figured running up and down the stairs with 3 potty training toddlers would not be fun or any one.  

On a final note, we recently had our house appraised in order to re-finance and lower our interest rate and the values our newly finished basement for more than we paid to finish it.  So, basically, it has already paid for itself!