Sunday, April 13, 2008

HGTV: Draper Edition

Well, we finally did it. After months of debate, planning, and procrastinating, we finally finished our basement. It started with a desire a long time ago to have a more inviting place to play ping pong than the dirty, dusty, cold basement. It ended up being more work than we could have imagined and a great hang out place that we love. Here is a little before and after video we made. The casual reader or one with limited time at the moment can feel free to turn away after this video, and for those more interested, more details and pictures lie below (meaning it's a long post)........


We had some HUGE help from a few people and can't post without giving a shoutout and thank you to them for all their hard work and help. Russell Nelson & Katie Jorgensen-Nelson came up several nights and ended up staying until 3 or 4 in the morning to help. Russ gave much expertise and construction worker language to the project. Brandon and Meredith Winter also helped a TON with everything. And we must also give a shout out to our neighbor Mikkel. They're not quite in the blogging world yet, so I don't know if he'll read this, but he helped a lot, especially with the surround sound and what not. Thank you guys for all the help. We couldn't have done it without you. We will not be thanking Ivan, our drywaller. He took 2 weeks longer than expected and didn't speak any English, so we never had any clue what he was doing. Ugh.....Ivan.


So here's how it went down........ Last Thanksgiving, Russ and his framing buddy came up and we framed the walls. We had decided we wanted some sort of built in entertainment center type thing, so after much planning we attempted it. The project sat at that stage until February. Here we are trying to follow the plan I'd drawn up the night before.


The Bjorkmans were coming to visit us in March, so we decided we should really step it up and try to finish before they got here. After 3-4 failed electricians, several bids, and a lot of hesitation, we finally got the real work started. We had an electrician come and then his cousin, Ivan the drywaller. Ugh......Ivan. When Ivan finally finished with the drywall, it was our turn to get busy. He finished 4 days before Adrienne and Steve were to arrive. That gave us 4 days to paint, have carpet installed, finish the entertainment center, put up beadboard, hang doors, install baseboards and door trim, find and hang drapes, put up crown molding, and wire all our electronic devices. It was a very busy 4 days, and we didn't finish the crown molding until after they'd left, but much thanks to the Nelsons and Winters we were able to get all the rest done. Below are the before and after pictures.........

Entertainment Center
This turned out better than we could have expected. Lesley's idea for beadboard (the white stuff) was genious. It really made it look a lot better than it would have otherwise. We mounted the tv on a swivel in there so it can be seen from anywhere in the room, threw some wall sconces in for that movie slight movie theater feel, and with Mikkel's help, even managed to get some legitimate surround sound going. I'm pretty sure I still can't tell the difference, but he tells me it sounds good, so I take his word for it.


Room in various stages


Fished Product
We absolutely love the big sectional we found. It seats a ton of people and it very comfortable. To give you and idea how much she likes it, Lesley gets annoyed because I won't let her sleep on it overnight. But this couch was almost not to be. When the delivery guys showed up, the couch was too wide to fit in the door. They told us they'd take it back and we could get a different one. We said no. So later that day I took a saw to the door jam and cut out the door stop. The width of the couch was actually about 1/16th wider than the door opening after cutting it. But after much pushing and prayer, it somehow slipped in. Now I just have to fix that door.....

We decided to go with a somewhat of a sports theme down there. At Ikea Lesley found this tall, bar style table. She then bought a piece of glass to go over the top of it and then we put a bunch of old school basketball cards in there. We're talking Kurt Rambis, short shorts John Stockton, and of course, all the old school Blazers (Clyde, Mercy Kersey, Buck, Duckworth, Terry Porter, Ala Abdulnabi, etc). We find ourselves just sitting at the table looking at all the cards. She really outdid herself. Also, keeping with the sports theme, we have a wall of sports photos, with multi-light fixture to highlight each of them. The couch is probably Lesley's favorite part of the room, but this is mine. All the photos on the wall were taken by us, with the exception of the middle one that was taken of me, Ross, and Rodney at the BYU vs. Utah game in 2005. Feel free to let us know which photo you like best. We find it very interesting to hear the different opinions. You can click on the pictures below to get a larger, better look.


A Few Highlighted Pieces
I just liked this shot of the cards so I threw it in there. But Lesley wanted a highlight on the drapes that we got. They do a good job of tying in the colors of the room. This picture on the right is our closet (mini-fridge and DVD's inside) and the stow-away for the ping pong table. When we want to play ping-pong, we roll the table out, and slide the cards table into this little hallway so we have room. Let's just say I've had a good run on the new table thus far, embarrassing both Evan and Brandon (sorry guys, you know it's true).



Crew at Work


Well that's pretty much it. What started as an attempt to facilitate ping pong turned into a full fledged family room, and we love it. We're grateful for those who helped make it happen. It pretty much took over our lives for about a month, but it was well worth it. Lesley's artistic eye and skills learned from "Divine Design with Candice Olsen" on HGTV really came in handy. There is still a little bit of decorating work to be done (a BYU stadium panoramic is in the works), but that will come with time. For now we're happy to be done, and happy to finally have it blogged about. It wasn't officially done until it had been blogged. So anyway, next time you're in Draper, feel free to stop by and visit. You never know, Lesley might even let you beat her in ping-pong.............

26 comments:

Theo Fam said...

this looks AMAZING!! my favorite part...entertainment center and the colors. Les, have you gotten ANY of my e-mails????????

Evan said...

Great work crew. Les your skills really have shown through on this project. Sure makes me want to come visit more and more. Trev get us in on a 3-3 tourney this summer and we'll come visit.

Ross said...

Was that a Muggsy Bogues card I saw on the table?

Russ Nelson said...

Heck of a deal. Looks great!

Whitney said...

I love it, love it, love it! Truly a great room. Congrats! - Whitney

Marci said...

Love it. Want to hire yourselves out and come about 17 minutes north??? :)

My favorite line from this blog...

"It wasn't officially done until it had been blogged."

That's the spirit.

Unknown said...

You know, I've gotta admit, that looks pretty dang good. Well done. Now you guys just have to invite us up there for a party or something.

Seth Schenfeld said...

You're dump looks great. Nice job on the colors and final touches with the basketball card table and pics on the wall. Consider some of those tennis shots I was talking to you about to add to what you already have.

Unknown said...

WOW it looks great!!!!!!! Leslie I give you the credit.

Vanessa said...

WOW!!!!! I'm very impressed! And Rodney and I are INCREDIBLY jealous of your new sectional/couch. Congrats!

Meredith said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Meredith said...

I have two votes for fav picture: I love the high-five one with the BYU players and also the one of Trevor and crew in the stands at the Utah game. It just captures the true emotion of the BYU v. U rivalry.
-mere

Jeris and Suzanna Hobbs said...

Meh. Not that impressed. I've seen better.

Jeris and Suzanna Hobbs said...

Just kidding. I just wanted to shake things up. You know, bring some spice onto the comment wall. It looks amazing. It makes me want a basement.

Justin and Amy said...

I just can't come up with the words to describe the basement guys. I have been trying and trying. It's unbelievable. Truly a masterpiece. You guys (and helpers) are amazing. We are mucho jealous.

The Smith Family said...

Wow what a difference!!! It looks super great! I will have to show Ryan the transformation. He will be green with envy at your sports themed room. Way to go guys!

Adam said...

Good work guys. I'm impressed, and I'm not easily impressed.

The video was a little cheesy though. It would have been better with some Doors or Jimi Hendrix (I'm in a bit of a '60s acid rock phase right now) instead of that girly piano "Butterfly exiting the cacoon" piece.

By the way, just because I'm not a CM major doesn't mean I can't pound crap. Let me know next time you have a major home renovation project.

The Winns said...

The basement looks great! I just wish I could get you guys over here to help finish our basement! We are close, but with just Brad doing the work I don't think we could finish in 4 days! You guys really did do a great job...I can't wait to see it in person.

MaryM said...

Lesley, You ahve an incredible eye for color and design. It's beautiful!

Lauren said...

looks so professional! Post some pics so we can see where the ping pong table goes..... does it go down there?

Ashley and Mikkel said...

Wow guess who's blogging? your next door neighbors...no.. the other side.. We, well I, Ashley decided to start a blog because of constant pressure and harrasment of many. I hope you guys are proud of us and want to hang out with us some time. its been so long and i have hardly seen you guys and we live next door! maybe us having a blog will rekindle our friendships. jk. well we hope to hear back from you whether its from a blog message or an actual encounter outside. well the basement looks great by the way!
talk to you soon. -the neighbors

bbond said...

i really like the entertainment center. what a clever idea. it ties so well into the room and isn't this big, chunky cabinet thing. WELL DONE!

Ashley and Mikkel said...

So Lesley i think you skipped out on relief society yesterday! i was excited to hear your thought. . . was it for sunday school? maybe it was, but i was still super pumped to hear it. i guess i missed out.

Becky @ Project Domestication said...

this really looks so great. I love the built in entertainment center. that is my favorite part of the room. i think i could live on that couch too.

okay, fave pix...this is really hard. i love the one of you guys... but the one with the nike shoes/golf on the bottom left could be in women's golf magazine. :)

bravo!

LauraJ said...

Totally impressive!

Rain in My Head said...

Unbelievable!! Can't believe you guys did that yourselves and so quickly (well, with a little help from your friends). So impressed. . .Will you come do ours? :)