The lower level: before and after

Continuing with more before-and-after pics!  So, I never know exactly what to call this part of The House of Goodwill.  I used to call it the basement, but it's nothing like the basement in the house I grew up in.  This house is built on a hill, so the front door opens up to the second story of the house; when you go downstairs you can walk outside at ground level to the backyard or the driveway.

So the main living area is on the second story.  Anyway, all that said, here is the lower level of the house or "the downstairs apartment" as we sometimes refer to it.

Here are two pics of it from the day we bought the house: 

The door on the left is a bathroom, the door on the right leads to the garage.

While the upstairs has a wood burning fireplace, this one below is gas with an on/off switch.

I kind of like having one of each.

The wall not in this pic, to the right of the fireplace, is a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass with a sliding glass door.

When we first bought the house I loved this room, because it was the only light-filled, bright room in the whole house.

Here is the kitchen in the lower level.  The back wall is painted dark olive green (always with the dark colors!) and has the original dark walnut-stained cabinets.

The room has a wonderful tile floor.

The bathroom aside, the lower level is one large room.  It only lacks a bedroom to be a complete apartment.  We put a sofa bed in it in case a large family rents it and someone(s) want to stay downstairs.

Here are the after pics:

Quick story: I saw this awesome game table on craigslist for $200, and I thought it would be perfect for the house, but I was really busy and waited too long to contact the sellers.  Then the ad disappeared. 😟  I was SO mad at myself for losing the opportunity....UNTIL three weeks later, the ad miraculously reappeared, but now the table and chairs were only $100.  They hadn't sold, so the seller lowered the price.  Turned out they'd never even been used; they were purchased to help stage a high end home for sale, then moved into storage.  Score!

You can see the wall of windows in this pic.  I just love the light!

I bought this sectional from a lady on craigslist who was moving out of state for $300.

The tv-facing end has a recliner; the other section has a sofa bed.

This chaise lounge was around $100 (I have it written down somewhere) and is in great shape.

This is MY spot when we watch tv.

The oak side table was free from some people getting rid of furniture.

The orange container I won in a contest, I keep it full of magazines I've finished for guests to read.

This enormous shag rug was $100.

Everything in this room was in like-new condition when I bought it.

Everyone loves lying on the rug, especially my dogs!

Side story: this was the one room in the house that I really didn't have a good idea of what I wanted to both color and furniture-wise.  I started collecting stuff that seemed like it would work furniture-wise; the rug I mainly bought just because of the size.  I knew I really, really wanted to paint the kitchen cabinets orange, but the only things we knew we were keeping and not changing in the house were the window curtains (because they are a special size and custom) and the barstools at the island, which happened to be maroon.

I was really afraid everything I was collecting just wasn't going to work, and that orange cabinets would not go with anything.  (Orange was one of my theme colors for my 1970's house.)  But in the end, as we were putting the room together, we were all amazed at how well everything worked, color-wise.  Orange and maroon?  Hard to explain, but it really does look great!

I found this huge peacock wall hanging for $45 at an antique store, and I just loved it!

Birds are one of themes throughout the house, and the blue and purple (maroon?) colors in this help bring the room together.

My husband says he feels like he's in a Thai restaurant every time he walks by it.

(But he loves it.)

Another view of the room and the door to the back yard.  I let my husband and son put a huge tv down here.  (It was not allowed upstairs!)  It covers a lot of the beautiful stone on the fireplace, and it's so big it eliminates the possibility of a mantel (! 😧 !) - so we did it my way upstairs in the living room and their way down here.  That's fair, right?

And finally...

Here is my beloved orange kitchen!

Sanding and painting these cabinets was a NIGHTMARE, but we got it done.  

(We also soaked, sanded and cleaned all the hardware to remove the tarnish - it took hours and hours of work because there were so many.)

The walls are the same light green color we used throughout the house.

Honestly, it's so much brighter and cheerful now.  I really think the pictures don't do justice to how nice it looks.

I found these resin 70's fruit wall hangings at Goodwill - they were just what I wanted!

They looked like they could have come with the house.

Finding era accurate decor made me so happy!

And here are the cabinets on the other side.

The dishwasher that came with the house was broken, so I found someone giving one away on craigslist who was changing kitchen colors.  It's free and it works!

My husband taught himself how to install a dishwasher.

It was a project.

Some of my favorite little details in this room I forgot to take pics of, so I guess that'll be another post in the future.

This was a big room, but I bet we didn't spend more than $800 total - that's for all the furniture, the huge rug, the games, the dishwasher, and everything in the kitchen.  (This is a very well-stocked kitchen!)  Considering that two new pieces of furniture could cost $800 together (or more), I think I did well!

My guess is that probably 90% of the things in this house were purchased secondhand.  There are very, very few new things in the house.  (Bed sheets and towels being the main newly purchased items.)

I was sitting in the living room at my home/house yesterday, looking around and thinking how almost nothing in the room was bought new, so I didn't do The House of Goodwill this way just because it's not my main residence.  This is how I live.

I like the challenge of making things beautiful on a budget.  I like the sustainability factor.  I like not spending a lot of money unnecessarily!

And finally, I have to credit my son, who painted the entire downstairs himself.  (Including all the walls twice, because the paint company gave him two gallons of different paint, but that's another story...)  He painted all the kitchen cabinets as well.  All I did down here was sand the cabinets and help clean the hardware.  (But it definitely felt like enough!)

It wouldn't have gotten finished without him.  He learned a lot.  He's picked up a lot of simple handyman skills from this house; he's an excellent painter, and an excellent cleaner.  He's seen what's possible with hard work.  And he's observed what can be achieved when you manage money well.  He's not afraid of thrift stores!

A finished house and a kid with skills for life.  Would more could I want?