The Playroom

We spent the last several weekends renovating part of our basement into a playroom for Jocelyn (and Ian, once he arrives, although if all goes according to plan we will have moved by the time he is old enough to use it). It was a ton of work, but watching her laugh and smile and tumble around, clearly loving the space, makes it feel like time and effort very well spent.

When we started, the walls were covered with dark wood paneling, the floors had just a thin tile over a cement sub-floor, the stairs were covered with a ratty, dusty old carpet and the exposed pipes had rust spots all over. The space just felt *dirty*.

When we got going, it seemed like every improvement just exposed something else that needed fixing, like when each coat of primer seemed to expose more seams and holes in the paneling that needed patching, or ripping up the carpet on the stairs revealed hundreds of staples that needed to be ripped out by hand. And as we got near the end, we ended up doing some extra things we hadn't planned for because the room was turning out much nicer than we thought it would.

Here are a few shots:


Here's the view when you come down the stairs. We chose the Pooh theme mainly because when Grammy takes Jocelyn to reading hour at the library every week, she always gravitates to a big stuffed Tigger, which Grammy thinks is funny because apparently Julie carried a stuffed Tigger around with her until she was about 7 years old. Whenever Jocelyn is held close to the window valance she points toward Tigger's face and tries like heck to say his name, but can't quite get it out yet.

We (actually, I should say Pepere) drywalled in what had been a bar that opened into the adjacent unfinished room to create a TV cabinet. (Julie had enough points accumulated from a program at work that rewards her for achievements to get us a new flat screen TV for free.) We have had the couch sitting elsewhere in our basement for months (it used to be in our TV room in Manchester). The built-in cabinet was already there and makes a convenient spot for a stereo, DVDs, stuffed animals and such.


Here's the view from the opposite corner of the room. Pepere installed the stairway banister. He was a little nervous when he started because he had never installed one before, but from the finished product you would think he does it for a living.

We had originally intended to put interlocking panel foam rubber mats on the floor to finish the project as cheaply as possible, but later decided to go with carpeting because it wouldn't cost that much more. Then Julie was able to talk down the install company more than $600 off their original quote, which made it a no-brainer.


Here's the view from the couch. Pepere and I framed in the door by hand, since there used to be just a paneled hallway, and cut out a pet door to allow the girls access to their food and box. The table and chairs were a birthday gift for Jocelyn from Grammy and Pepere - she loves them.

One of the great features of the room is that it was pretty much completely baby proofed from the start. The TV cabinet is about 4' off the ground so Jocelyn can't reach it, and there are only 2 electrical outlets in the room, one inside the cabinet and the other behind the couch. Now that we have a gate at the base of the stairs, pretty much the only thing she can reach is her toys.

I have to admit that I have complained to Julie from day 1 about this house (many of you know that we bought the house intending to tear it down before we learned about the problems with the Manchester house), but if we had built a new house as planned I would never have gotten the reward of watching Jocelyn play in a space that we built for her. It's a pretty cool feeling.