Bathroom Progress

I am going to make a couple of posts to bring you up to date on everything that has happened in the bathroom with the final post being the reveal of the finished product. I made a post about the bathroom renovation a while ago, so if you haven’t seen that one, you may wantContinue reading “Bathroom Progress”

The Guest Bathroom–A Warm-up for the Basement Bathroom

We finally found a contractor to take on some of our projects. First up is the guest bathroom in the hallway. As I have mentioned before, the people who built this house decide to divorce during the build and so whereas the framing, etc. is pretty good quality, the bathrooms are definitely builder grade. We’reContinue reading “The Guest Bathroom–A Warm-up for the Basement Bathroom”

The Ancient Basement–Decisions

Since the holidays, I have been watching a bunch of videos on YouTube from The Potted Boxwood, and Homeworthy to get some ideas about how to design the basement. (If you enjoy home design/decor, these are great channels to watch.) Now that we’ve lived with the stairwell painted for a while, I have been thinkingContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–Decisions”

The Ancient Basement–Projects in Process

Work has continued here, but there isn’t much to show just yet. My husband took the last two weeks of the year off as vacation, which is good, because he worked a crazy number of hours over the prior 4 months. He spent a lot of time in the woodshop until the kids got homeContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–Projects in Process”

The Ancient Basement–the door for the storage room

We bought all the doors for the basement from a guy up near Toledo, OH. Most of them were painted. This is the door that we selected for the storage room. My husband thinks that this is an exterior door (a detail that will be important later on) so it’s thicker. It has a pocketContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–the door for the storage room”

Gift Wrapping and Sources

I love to wrap a beautiful package, but people who know me will tell you that if it’s magazine worthy, there is probably the worst prank gift in a gorgeous box. Over the years, I have found some fantastic sources for reasonably priced packaging items, and some are even made in the USA! Cream CityContinue reading “Gift Wrapping and Sources”

The Ancient Basement–the New Storage Room

When I last posted about the storage room, we had really just started working on it. You can find that post here: https://cathyathomeontheriver.com/2025/10/10/the-ancient-basement-were-back-at-it/ . Basically, we had made an opening for the door; did the rough in for the little bit of electrical that was required; and did the framing. My husband is still workingContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–the New Storage Room”

The Ancient Basement–More Progress on the Built In Bookshelf

In my last post about the bookshelf, I left you with the shelves mostly stripped. I had my husband help me move the shelf, so that we could put down a new drop cloth because the one I was using was completely trashed. I put another coat of stripper and plastic on it and scrapedContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–More Progress on the Built In Bookshelf”

The Ancient Basement–A Compendium of Progress Made

I’m going to copy a bunch of the posts about this project in this single post, so if you’re new, or have missed some posts, you’ll be able to catch up on it all. And, it’ll be a walk down memory lane for me. August, 2022: We are starting the process of finishing out ourContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–A Compendium of Progress Made”

The Ancient Basement–An Upper Cabinet from a Butler’s Pantry is Being Converted to a Built-In Bookcase

My husband and I drove to Rye, NY over Mother’s Day weekend to pick up a bunch of cabinets that we’re going to use in the basement. Here they are when they were installed in that house: The upper cabinets are about 40″ tall, and we’re going to make a base for them to sitContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–An Upper Cabinet from a Butler’s Pantry is Being Converted to a Built-In Bookcase”