Drumroll, please…. the basement project is officially finished!! Craig has worked so hard to complete this big project, and the end result is immensely better — even though the basement was pretty great to being with. For Craig, the most exciting part of the basement remodel was the new bar area. For me, it was opening up the room by knocking out a wall.

Before, the blank wall behind the counter had a wooden dresser mirror hung on it as a faux bar shelf. Craig started by taking that down and ripping the drywall out. He ordered custom cabinets to go on the lower half of the wall and planned to have a large mirror and glass shelves installed on the top half.

He then framed out where he wanted the mirror to go with cedar boards, and then continued to fill in the wall to the right of the mirror with cedar.

Then, the fun part…. a big cork wall! We thought we had collected a lot of corks over the years, but it turns out that we didn’t have nearly enough to finish even half of one side. So we’ve been taking cork donations from friends and family for the past month, and now we’re a little over half way done! Part of the wall on the left side is still empty, so we painted it with leftover chalkboard paint so that it’s usable until completed.


When we were in NYC this summer, we saw a cool wine rack at a restaurant and used it as inspiration for our bar. Craig drilled 3 holes in each cedar board down the center of the wall to hold a total of 6 bottles. Now we can display our favorite wine bottles… like ones with Coco’s picture on them!

Over the years, I’ve written notes on corks from special occasions in hopes that we’d be able to somehow display them one day — we have them from our anniversaries, NYE, etc. and now they are mixed into our cork wall. Can you spot any?

After a couple mishaps with the glass company, the mirror and shelves were finally installed and the bar was completed just in time for our New Year’s Eve party!

I don’t have process photos, but Craig also built a desk and a bookshelf for my Stella & Dot business.It’s still a work in progress regarding set-up, but it’s so pretty and spacious!

One of the last projects on the list was building a small table for the patio to go with the new turquoise chairs we found recently.

Craig used 4×4 posts for the legs, 2×4 boards for the frame, and 1×6 boards for the top (as well as brackets underneath to make it more sturdy). Once completed, he sanded it to remove any splinters and rough spots. We still need to stain it, but it’s a great addition to our patio!