Lower Level Update

Eddy and I have slowly but surely worked on flipping our house (DIY style, of course). Over the course of 5 years we have remodeled the kitchen, the deck, the bathroom and most recently we’ve been working on a lower-level makeover. We live in a split level home built in the 60s and the lower level is sort of like a basement, but sort of not. We actually have a real basement, that is entirely below ground, in addition to this space. The lower level has a half bathroom and about 400 sq. ft. of living space, so it’s definitely a huge addition to our current living space. When we started planning for the lower-level redo, we knew we wanted to do it on a budget. We chose not to remove all of the paneling on the walls, but rather to just paint it white. The floor was a difficult choice because carpet would have been the least expensive option, but carpet and humidity don’t do well together. In the end we decided to use laminate flooring that literally just sticks together. The drop ceiling was another item to tackle, it was dirty and old and couldn’t be salvaged. Instead of replacing the drop ceiling with another drop ceiling we chose to use vinyl lattice. The lattice looks nice and I think it will be great with the “wood” floors, but it has been a challenge to get it all up into place. Thankfully we figured out some makeshift scaffolding that we used to hold the tiles in place while simultaneously securing. So here are some of the photos so far. We completed the bathroom first, and we are still working on the other living space. Eventually I’ll include more photos showing greater progress, but here it is so far…