The basement of this ancient farm house is not what you might expect. I personally would have expected VERY short ceilings and dirt floors. What is here is over nine foot ceilings, solid slab floors and a foundation that has never leaked in its long life. Amazing! It has never been finished so the basement is a blank slate. When I first started working on the basement plan it was a whole helluva more basic then it is here… it just kept growing on me. First I moved the kitchen sink down here because, ya know, I had it and it would have been a waste… so I might as well put it down there. Next went the kitchen stove because I had it… so I might as well. Next came the laundry because I have a working dryer… Yeah, so, it just kept growing on me. The little sink and stove combination became a full blown kitchenette because, ya know, I had the cabinets already so I might as well… God knows I can get a microwave, washing machine and refrigerator for dirt cheap on craig’s list to complete the cast.

Through the door at the end of the kitchen is the laundry and a closet that suddenly existed when I put a wall between the kitchen and the washer and dryer – very convenient. Is it time for me to stop calling this a kitchenette and just admit that I made a whole damned kitchen in the basement? I choose to remain in denial. What is really cool about this basement is that it has an outside entrance so, I believe, that one day soon I am going to really appreciate that I went to all this work finishing it. Especially if a family member could use a place to stay and I could use a little bit of extra income. Besides the three other appliance (washer, refrigerator and microwave) I have everything else except the counter top. The cabinets will be fully cleaned and painted (hardware will be kept and painted too). The counters look a little low in the 3d picture because I’m not going to modify the existing lower cabinets for this basement kitchen and they were built to accommodate my much shorter grandma.

Recognize the bathroom vanity? Yes, it was one of the dressers I refinished with just this use in mind in my refinishing adventure of 2013. I just love my idea of using towel bars for hardware, if you look at all of my bathrooms and even my kitchen sink, there is a towel bar for hardware on every one of them. I am hoping that I can end up making this bathroom bigger but I just won’t know until I get down there with a plumber and start talking about jack hammering up the slab to create the drains I am going to need for this basement suite. This is going to end up a ridiculously big job for a kitchen/bathroom/bedroom/space that I am probably never going to personally use! I keep telling myself though that if this does end up helping me pay for the mortgage… every moment of work will, of course, be worth it.