Basement beauty

This was my first ever renovation and experience with design and project management back in 2018. When we moved into our previous house, it had an unfinished basement, and I knew that gave us potential to increase the value of the house when we finished it.

Here’s what our basement looked like before.

When you think about basements, you typically think dark, dingey, cramped, and artificial light. Despite this being downstairs, I wanted it to feel bright, airy, and spacious.

I designed this basement to have a dry bar area, an entertainment area, a built-in bookshelf, and a beautifully spacious bathroom.

Being that this was our first renovation, I learned a lot from this one:

I did not like working with a contractor. I couldn’t drive the timelines and the process took a lot longer than it should have.
Since I was a woman as the point of contact, I felt like I was being taken advantage of both on price and process. I felt like the team was taking shortcuts because I didn’t know better.
I felt uncomfortable being home alone in a house where 4+ men were working at any given time. All of these reasons formed why maisoncoutts was ultimately born. I didn’t want women to feel taken advantage of or not understand what the process was. I didn’t want women to feel uncomfortable in their own homes. And I wanted women to understand the costs and timelines surrounding their home renos.

This project was fundamental to the existence of maisoncoutts today. While I didn’t love the process, I loved the result because I stuck to my guns, and I love the business I was able to build because of this experience.

Here is the final look at the basement.