Again.
In an effort to make the basement cease being the place where we dump all the things, I decided to try and turn the basement into a functional space.
We've played this game before.
You might recall that years ago, we bought carpet tiles for the basement and I painted the walls. We turned that basement into a cute play space. And then Hurricane Irene showed up, followed by Hurricane Sandy. Or maybe it was the other way around, who knows? All I know is we lost power, we do not own a generator and the homeowner's insurance guy said the carpet tiles had to go before he could authorize our payout, so out they went - and we were once again faced with an empty, non play-worthy area in the basement.
This time, I told myself, it would be different.
The kids are all older, they don't have to sit on the floor to play, so decided to just leave well enough alone and work around the bare tile floor. Also, I kind of feel like if I put down carpet again, I am inviting another storm and I am done with storms.
This time, I went with an art space for my girls who are at the age where they can be somewhat trusted on their own with glue and scissors and paint.
We started the art table by hanging a humongous pegboard that covered most of the basement's back wall. We added a large piece of laminate countertop that we already owned, as well as two end tables that we *took home* with us from my brother's upstate house, so if you're keeping track (and I certainly am), all we spent so far was $20 for the slightly imperfect pegboard that did not fit into Josh's jeep the first time we tried to bring it home from Lowe's.
But before I hung my little banner, I used some leftover light blue paint to paint the entire pegboard a happy blue color.
The art space is almost done, with hanging things like hole punchers and scissors and baskets of markers. As soon as it is, I'll be back to share the rest.
:)
Jen