Ikea Kivik sofa and chaise

Something we have loved about this house since we moved in is the nicely finished basement. Being able to pull off a decent finished basement in a 1915 house is no small feat. The PO did a nice enough job with the basement, putting craftsman-esque six inch trim around the built-out glass block windows, etc. The basement is where we watch TV and use the computer. Yet since we moved in, our only upholstered furniture was a futon with hard wooden arms. Since we don't have a lot of money right now, we looked at craigslist forever, we even looked at a couple of couches in person. We just couldn't find anything at all. So yesterday we headed to ikea and bought a kivik sofa plus chaise in orange. The upholstery is removable and can be dry-cleaned or replaced. A nice feature what with the cats and kids.

At $900, it definitely works for the basement space.

Basement storage shelves

Storage in our house has been a little hard to come by. Not because the house is small - it is actually huge compared to our last place - but because there is no garage or shed and the basement is finished with only one small storage room. That one small room, of course, became a hazard of leaning and stacked boxes. I considered buying those fairly inexpensive utility shelving racks, but wanted something that maximized available space. Plus those utility shelves aren't that cheap anymore.

One of my favorite handyman sites -- Ask the builder posted these fantastic instructions for shelves. I liked this option because for a cheapskate like me it meant buying a minimum amount of lumber.

The design of these shelves is simple -- you nail or screw an 8 ft 2x2 to the studs of a wall, then you front a piece of plywood with a 2x3, screw the plywood to the cleat, and support with 2x4s on the side. The link above will give you far more details.

My shelves, pictured, are made from
- 1 4x8 sheet of OSB, cut at 15 7/8" x 8 feet long
- 3 8ft 2x2s
- 1 10 ft 2x4 cut in half

And that's it. $26 in materials not counting screws. Hard to complain.