Little Bear

Little Bear, as Slug and I are now referring to our tiny, California, mountain house, experienced many "firsts" this past weekend... The dark, 1970's style basement got a face lift (including fresh paint and fresh carpet):

The dining room/sitting room got a sofa/banquette combination:

and the guest bedroom had it's first visitors!!!:


Thank you to my truly lovely in-laws, Donna and Paul, for helping us move in, for their patience while we took the house apart to re-carpet, and for all of their thoughtful gifts (including those great Adirondack chairs on the deck!), and countless other useful gifts that I would have never thought of.

To appreciate the current state of the basement... you really have to see where it started. These are the stairs leading down to the basement. Lovely brown/red/black(?) shag carpet circa 1970s, and awesome laminate wood paneling on the walls:

The dirty cream-donut colored beams were even more offensive in person than they might appear in this photograph:


Dark and UN-inviting:

But alas, what a little white paint can do!!! Plus, a fantastic install team screened by the Home Depot and sent over to install our new carpet! Here are the guys ripping (literally) up the old shag. (NOTE*** If you are planning to paint and change your floors, paint first so that you don't have to worry about getting paint on your new floors!)


Here's a great shot of the basement subfloor, also the foundation of our house. Look at those gorgeous white beams!


A close up of the $14 sq. yd berber carpet (style: CRESTHAVEN, color: HONEYDEW) also selected from The Home Depot. This carpet was such a good deal... from eye-level, it's textural fiberous appearance LOOKS like sisal but the medium tone allows it to mask stains and debris, and the synthetic fibers allow it to weather basement humidity and dampness. I am obsessed! (but of course I'll let you know how it continues to wear).


We also switched out the shag in the 2 bedrooms. Here is the guest bedroom before:


And after they ripped up the shag, but before the old padding was lifted and the room was "broomed":


Some lovely bright blue padding!:


New carpet "relaxing":


And when they were finished... a nice little guest bedroom:



Have a great week everybody! See you Thursday.