A Detailed Tour of The Insomnia Project Basement | Easy Company for a Quiet Afternoon

In A Detailed Tour of The Insomnia Project Basement, Marco and Amanda respond to a listener suggestion and guide you on a softly narrated walk through one of the most ordinary — and surprisingly storied — parts of their home. What begins as a simple basement tour gently unfolds into reflections on an auction-winning painting, the thoughtful choices behind its placement, and the careful selection of tiles that define their laundry room. Each detail is shared at an unhurried pace, turning practical design decisions into a calming exploration of space and memory.
As the episode meanders, Marco reflects on his poster collection and the stories behind each piece, offering small glimpses into his eclectic tastes. The focus stays grounded in everyday surroundings, inviting you to imagine the textures, colours, and quiet corners along the way.
Like every episode of this calming podcast, the tone is steady and intentionally low-key — a relaxing conversation designed to help you fall asleep, ease anxiety, or quiet racing thoughts. Perfect for background listening at bedtime or during a middle-of-the-night wake-up, this basement tour provides gentle companionship and a peaceful place for your mind to wander.

​A Detailed Tour of The Insomnia Project Basement
(Original airdate: April 24, 2024)


The Insomnia Project focuses on one item in great detail

Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm and mundane and chill conversation that's meant to help you find your way to sleep or just to have you relax a bit. I'm your Host Marco Timpano.

Amanda:  I'm Amanda Barker.

Marco: Thank you for joining us, Amanda. One of our listeners asked us to do an episode where we just focus on one thing in great detail. Like the backpack episode that we did.

Amanda:  I would love to do that. And I'm gonna tell you, Marco, I often want to keep going with a thing and then you switch topics. You've got to stay with me.

Marco: Ok. So this is from Kashek on Instagram.

Amanda:  Thank you, Kashek.

Marco: And I hope I'm saying the right, the name. Right. Keshek says to focus solely on one item bracket purchased, like the backpack episode and go into minute detail. I love the photos, especially the Season 1 seasonal ones on their Instagram. So Amanda, what can we go into great detail? A recent purchase or not. Or not. So recent purchase or some item that we can really focus in on.

Amanda:  Oh my goodness. Well, we were just talking about renovations so I could walk everybody through our basement. Reno. And I could. I don't know, I'm just hearing this for the first time so I could go through the minute details of each room in our house.

Marco: Great.

Amanda:  I find that very relaxing myself.


Let's focus on the basement rental that we did. How many years ago? 2016. Was it really 2016? 17, 18, 19.

Marco: Let's focus on the basement rental that we did. How many years ago?

Amanda:  2016. So, quite a few.

Marco: Okay.

Amanda:  Gosh. 2016. Was it really 2016? 17, 18, 19. Seven years ago. Okay.

Marco: Seven year Renault. Seven years ago Renault for this episode where we focus on the seven year Renault.


Marco's basement was sold as a finished basement many years ago

So let me set the scene of what our basement was like before. Before.

Amanda:  Yeah, give us the before because it was many years.

Marco: So it was sold as a finished basement. But picture finished with a. Those elliptical brackets.

Amanda:  Because it was finished.

Marco: It was finished.

Amanda:  It had a carpet.

Marco: It had a carpet.

Amanda:  It had walls.

Marco: The carpet was dingy. The walls were a little bit grayish. It was a little bit sad. And it became an area where I would just store things in. It had a very deep closet that you'd have to sort of launch yourself into to take anything out of.

Amanda:  It had, it had an unfinished area and that was where you, your washer and dryer was. So I'm going to walk people through it.

Marco: And tiny, tiny windows on either side.

Amanda:  So you would walk down the stairs and on the immediate right was a cinder block sort of area, almost like it could be a storage space of some kind. And that's what it was used for. And then next to that on the right were those tiny little dingy yellowish basement windows. And there was a sliding, what we call an accordion door. The kind that you'd open in the middle, I believe. Was it at the middle or the side?

Marco: And it was made of plastic. Hard plastic.

Amanda:  Yeah. And that concealed poorly a washer and dryer. Marco adorned it with some posters.

Marco: That's right.

Amanda:  Both the unfinished wall behind the washer and dryer and I believe the little plasticky doors. One was of a woman's body and I believe one was of the Pussycat Dolls.

Marco: That's correct. That's correct.

Amanda:  I don't know how you came to own these posters.

Marco: The Pussycat Dolls poster I got for free.

Amanda:  I mean, I'm glad to hear that. But also I kind of wish you had bought it. But anyway, who. Who gave you a Pussycat Dolls poster for free?

Marco: I want to say Chris Bond.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: I want to say Chris Bond, friend of the podcast. Friend of the podcast. He has a podcast. We like theme parks is the name of the podcast.

Amanda:  We like theme parks. Yes.

Marco: Awesome individual. I feel like I got it from him.

Marco: But maybe not. Anyway, and the other one was a woman smoking.

Amanda:  Oh, she was smoking.

Marco: She was. She had a cigarette dangling from her mouth. A blonde woman, right?

Amanda:  No, I don't, I don't think. No, you couldn't see her face? I don't think. Oh, are you thinking there was another woman? Okay. It was a lot of like scantily clad 80s posters.

Marco: I used to work at Athena. Do you remember Athena?

Amanda:  Yeah. Is that where you got these posters?

Marco: I think I may have gotten. I got.

Amanda:  There was one of like a black and white and it was a woman's bare back. do you not remember that?

Marco: Barely get it. No, no, I, I'm,

Amanda:  Okay, we're not.


I remember when you bought this house, I didn't know you very well

We're gonna delve into one thing. It's not about where you bought a poster. Okay. Anyway, some old ratty dated posters on the right, if I can remember that.

Marco: And then I think I feel poster shamed a little bit.

Amanda:  You should. They were bad. And then I think just storage on the wall. That was all on the right. It's sort of long and narrow. and then there's a furnace room. So if you're looking. So you've gone down the stairs. That was all along the right wall. Then in front of you was a little bit of storage space. Ah, a furnace room. A furnace room. And then sort of just open space behind, like adjacent to the stairs and behind where the stairs are. And again, as Marco said, a dingy carpet. And the walls, I remember them being a light blue. I don't know if they were, but that's what I remember. But like a very pale blue, like a white blue.

Marco: And there was yellow. There was probably person previous had painted some things yellow down.

Amanda:  There was some yellow, some light blue. Maybe it was yellow. And then they painted to sell it a more neutralized kind of color. Like something bluey white.

Marco: Yeah, something like that.

Amanda:  And that was kind of it. It was really just used for storage. But I do remember when you bought this house, I didn't know you very well, but I. I came to your housewarming and I actually was hoping other friends would show up because I didn't know you very well and I didn't know any of your friends very well. And I really only came because you were part of the same cast as me. We had the same. We were in a show that we've talked about a lot. And so I wanted to be a supportive cast member and come since I was invited. But I was a little wary about.

Marco: Did I invite you?

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco: Okay.

Amanda:  Well, I didn't just show up. and I was a little wary of being here because I didn't. Which is funny because now it's my house. But I didn't think I'd know anyone. You had family members here and I didn't know any of them, so. And they were all in the kitchen, I remember. So I went down into the basement and kind of hung out. And you just had some folding chairs.

Marco: That's right. That's right.

Amanda:  In the basement in a sort of circle. That's all there was. So we kind of sat in a circle and talked a bit. And that was kind of it, really. And so that was more or less the basement. It was a little bit cobwebby,

Marco: mostly,

Amanda:  used for storage and a very dingy laundry space. So we decided to renovate it.

Marco: And here we go.

Amanda:  And, saved up for this. Hired a great person, for it. And he was sort of a one man show, A friend of another podcast I was involved in. And that's how I knew him. And he ripped up all the carpet. And now the space is as such, we ripped up the carpet and after a lot of research decided to go with tiles. And the reason we went with tiles is because. Well, sort of two reasons. One, if there would ever be any leakage, which basements can have basements flood and also washer and drying machines. Washing machines can leak. Then it wouldn't damage any hardwood, any vinyl, wood, any type of wood, like product tile is the one thing that can, you know, kind of. It won't get ruined.

Marco: And I Think you were even considering a tile that looked like wood?

Amanda:  I was. That was. I was very much wanting the tile that. What looked like wood. It looked like big, intricate kind of squares of wood. Almost like a very intricate parquet floor. Right. But that parquet floor, because they were big, square tiles. Chris, Chris Emanuel, the man who was doing the reno for us, said it would be more difficult because they were so big, and it would be easier to have smaller sort of more normal sized tiles because you can fit them to the drain. They're less likely to get ruined.

Marco: One by one tiles.

Amanda:  Yeah, one by one.


We went with white tiles that have a blue and brown pattern on them

So anyway, we went with, in the end, white tiles that have a blue and brown pattern on them. Mostly white. A little bit of a blue Moroccan sort of design, and then a brown little square right in the middle. So they're predominantly white and blue. So if you can think of a Moroccan tile that sort of, sort of comes in at the top, widens out in the center, comes back in.

Marco: Yeah, it has a name. I can't remember it.

Amanda:  Yeah, it looks like an onion almost. You know, like a. Like a big Vidalia onion. Anyway, that kind of shape that's in blue, and then there's a little blue or a, little, brown square in the middle. So fairly simple design. So that's what we went with. But I wanted something somewhat ornate, Moroccan or Portuguese, because I had been in Portugal right before I bought them and right before we ran out. And so I really wanted. Maybe it's actually 2017, now that I think about it. I think it was.

Marco: Sure. I like this tile still. Yeah, I do.

Amanda:  I wanted something that was reminiscent of all the beautiful blue tiles in Portugal that I love so much. So it. It's a little homage to that. So now when you walk down, we ripped out the carpet on the stairs and painted them, actually, after much discussion, a royal blue.

Marco: That's right.

Amanda:  The stairs also have a,

Marco: They're wooden stairs that are painted blue.

Amanda:  They're wooden stairs that are painted blue. and then there's white between the blue. So if you look up at the stairs, the stair. the steps are blue, and then the in between is white.

Marco: The kick plate.

Amanda:  Is that what it's called?

Marco: I think it's called a kick plate. Or anyone who knows what a kick plate will know what that is.

Amanda:  There's the parts.

Marco: Yeah, it's the part you would kick on the stairs, but not the part you step on.

Amanda:  What's the name of the wood Butcher block? So we have sort of butcher block handles, for the railings. Right. Those we put in with black, things to fasten them. I don't know what that's called. And then as you walk down those stairs now, in fact the first thing that actually greets you is a wall versus the, the cement little storage area, storage closety kind of area, which used to be the first thing you would see. There's in fact a wall there. sheet rock or drywall.

Marco: drywall.

Amanda:  And on that wall we have a very big old painting that I won in an auction. It looks like it's from like the 1800s and. And it's actually a scene of a, ah, child, watching a, gypsy woman dance.

Marco: That's right. With a tambourine. I think that's what it's called.

Amanda:  It's called the gypsies, I think. And

Marco: We didn't name it. That just happens.

Amanda:  No, that's what the painter named it. I really, really loved it when I saw it. There's something alluring, interesting about it.

Marco: there's a gentleman playing a I want to say accordion in it.

Amanda:  We'd have to look at it again.

Marco: I'll take a photo and I'll put it up for everyone to see.

Amanda:  That would be great.

Marco: Yeah, I will do.

Amanda:  And if they have any insight on the painting, that would be great because we actually won it at an auction. It was donated by actually a very wealthy family, I think, to this auction. And no one else bid on it. And we got it for $30, I'm ashamed to say, but we do love it.

Marco: We love it so much.

Amanda:  And even the frame is beautiful.

Marco: The frame is worth more than $30.

Amanda:  So anyhow, that painting is there and we have a lot of blue velvet down here. And I'll tell you, ways that we incorporate blue velvet sort of organically happened. So the first piece of blue velvet you'll see is a little ottoman. Just a little small circle, mid century looking ottoman. The top comes off of this ottoman. So it's a storage piece and a little seat. We use it for props for our auditions.

Marco: That's right.

Amanda:  So it sits next to the painting like a little seat. And then behind that wall is this studio.

Marco: That's right, yeah.

Amanda:  So we put in. We realized I really wanted to put a bathroom into the basement, but with various plans.

Marco: A full bath, right?

Amanda:  Yeah, like with a shower. And we had a friend who was an architect. So he actually very graciously, I'll, say his name. I guess his name is Brad Tapson, he's easy to find. Brad Tabson. And, he's a great architect. He was between jobs at that time, so he drew up two versions of plans for us incorporating a bathroom. However, because of where our meter is,

Marco: I think our water meter is the

Amanda:  way we wanted to do it, or what we had settled in basically meant we couldn't put the shower where we wanted to. One version of it was putting a shower here where we're sitting, but because it's cinder block, we couldn't.


You were always looking for space to podcast. And you came up with the brilliant idea

So we'd have to move it and it was closer to the mirror. In any event, we ended up with this space that was cinder blocks. And to us, it just seemed the only logical thing was to make a

Marco: studio to you, actually, because I was like, oh, maybe we make it into a sauna. Maybe we make it into something, a bar. I was trying to think because it was kind of dead space. And you came up with the brilliant idea. You said, what we need is a studio.

Amanda:  At that time you had started podcasting, you were maybe a year into the journey, not much more than a year, if that. And you were always looking for space to podcast. You were never quite happy with where you found. And I said, we should. We're already renovating. And, we were in the middle of it at that point. So we had already ripped up, you know, he. Chris had already started.

Marco: Right.

Amanda:  And that wasn't in the plans. But when we realized we had this sort of space, I thought, let's put a door and make it a studio. And that's what we did now. Full of, What are these called?

Marco: Acoustic tiles.

Amanda:  Acoustic black tiles. Like the kind you can imagine from a recording studio. so you open up a door. So it's. The door is perpendicular to that wall. So if you come down the stairs, you see the wall with the, gypsy painting. I feel weird calling it a gypsy painting. It feels like a weird.

Marco: We can just call it the Romney Dance. Yeah, dance. Dancing. Painting.

Amanda:  The dancing painting. Yeah. It doesn't feel right, but that is what it's called anyway. and, so perpendicular to that wall is the door for the studio. It's a very. It's, you know, a bit bigger than a closet, but not by much. You have had three people in here. But it's tight.

Marco: It's tight.

Amanda:  It's really just a two person studio with a small desk or table.

Marco: It's a, outdoor table that I sawed a third of it off.

Amanda:  Do you want to walk people through what the studio looks like acoustic tile

Marco: on the walls and on the ceiling. There's two lights, which I've had to put, What do you call this? Paper?

Amanda:  Gels.

Marco: Gels.

Amanda:  To soften lighting gels that you would use in a theater to make lights

Marco: different colors because they were a bit intense for when I would do a zoom, I would look like I was going to be beamed onto the Star Trek space. Right.

Amanda:  It's above light. Right. That sort of drops onto you. So to soften that, he put one with a blue gel and one with a. I think it's a reddish orangish kind of color.

Marco: Then I put a couple of shelves up, and they're not proper shelves. They're like shelves. you would put knickknacks on, like,

Amanda:  a knickknack, like a half shelf. Because there isn't. There just isn't the space to do a full shelf. Yeah.

Marco: And that's it.

Amanda:  And so then there's also hooks.

Marco: There's a bunch of hooks on the wall.

Amanda:  So again, trying to walk people through the space. So when you open the door, you see the acoustic tiles, the gelled lights on the ceiling. On the far wall facing the door, there are hooks, three of them. Each one has headphones on it, and one has a mic. is that called a spit guard? Hanging from it. He also has a series of pins that are stuck into the acoustic tiles. And these little pins, most of them are bare, but at various times have inspirational messages on them. Inspirational, drawings that Marco has drawn. He's very artistic.

Marco: This one has a bill on it.

Amanda:  I see a bill for our hydro. I'm not sure why that's there. So things to be reminded of. He simply uses these little pins.

Marco: They're T pins.

Amanda:  T pins, they're called. And he puts them onto the tile so they kind of live on the wall. different reminders for podcasting. You also teach podcasting out of the studio, and you often use the studio for other zoom work that you do, corporate work. So it serves truly. It's a studio and an office, really.

Marco: It really is. I get a lot of work done, and a lot of work happens in this studio. So I'm very.

Amanda:  It is a very small space, but it's certainly your. And that is our studio.


The door is perpendicular to the studio so that it faces the stairs

Now, moving forward, was there anything else you wanted to add?

Marco: I wanted to mention the reason the door is perpendicular is because we thought we would have the door. As soon as you come down the stairs, you would open the door and walk into the studio. But we couldn't put the door so that it faced the studio. or sorry, the door so that it faced. It didn't have enough clearance to the stairs. There was something about it that. That wouldn't allow you to do so. So I'm much happier that it's perpendicular. And you kind of have to turn

Amanda:  around to get it actually gives us truly just like a foot of more space. Not much more than that. So that's the studio. Then where that washer and dryer used to be on the right wall is now a bathroom.

Marco: That's right.

Amanda:  And as mentioned, it's not a full bath, it's a sink and a toilet. So what we call a half bath in real estate terms.

Marco: Pow.

Amanda:  Sure. A powder room. because it didn't, we couldn't put the shower in. And maybe there'll be a time I have an idea for, if we do want to at a later date, put a shower down here in. But in any event, it's a sliding door, a pocket door, if you will, for, space reasons. So it its, I guess 90 degrees from the door of the studio. Sure. And it's a white pocket door. and it's fastened with a latch, although not terribly effectively, I have to be honest. We usually just sort of slide it mostly shut and hope for the best. But you can latch it. And when you slide it open, you are greeted first by the window. That dingy, yellowed, tiny window that we had on that side of the basement, is now a bigger window. We bought a window that is twice the size that opens up. So it is at ground level. So we have it sort of dug out the way you can with the basement so that you're opening it up to, you know, you're not opening it on the ground, it's dug out. and there's some like river stones on the bottom. So you can open it up there, but you can fully open the windows now, which we never could. And the bathroom is a tropical palm leaf. I went for really bright, big and bold. I wanted palm fronds. And I realized that there's banana leaves and palm leaves in at least six years ago. The wallpaper options of the time. And then I found one that had both palm and banana leaves.

Marco: And that's what you want.

Amanda:  And that's what I went with. I also was wanting everything to be gold. So we have a toilet on the left. So you slide open the door and there's a toilet on the. And it has a gold handle. I have a little Palm leaf candle that I found. So that kind of has sat there for a long time. And then on the right is a sink that I got very much on sale. I think it was $30.

Marco: Yeah, it was like marked down.

Amanda:  It was insane.

Marco: And you were looking for that type of sink.

Amanda:  I was looking for a pedestal sink.

Marco: And you couldn't find one. You couldn't find.

Amanda:  I could not find one.

Marco: Expensive ones you did not like. There was like $600 ones. And you're like, I don't like this one.

Amanda:  So I happened to find one. They had one literally. Next door to our house is a. What's called the home hardware. And they were just trying to get rid of them. They had like three or four and they were $30. And the reason people didn't like them was because it was a pedestal sink that was a little wider on top where it kind of has a scalloped edge. And it's a little bit more ornate. Not. Maybe not or neat, but wider. But I loved it because it gives. It actually offers a tiny bit of counter space versus a normal pedestal sink, which would just be the basin and that's it. So it's just enough counter space that you can put a candle, some soaps. so it's a pedestal sink that has a sort of flare on the. On each side of it. and I ordered a brass. Brass knobs for it and a very wide brass or gold. It's gold, but it's brass. Ah, wide gold spout.

Marco: So it's a very swan neck type spout.

Amanda:  Yeah, swan neck spout. So it's a very wide stream. But I. That's what I wanted. I wanted gold and palm leaves. I really wanted to sort of lean into that aesthetic more like the letter

Marco: C than like a backwards C than a swan neck. But. But you get the drift.


We're going to continue the basement tour on another podcast

Amanda:  The mirror is a gold brass mirror with, sort of a geometric kind of shape to it. not quite a diamond. It has like little bars sort of over it. It's kind of intricate. I forget where I got that, but, it works there, I think. And that's. I think that's the bathroom. Oh, and we have a gold, light fixture. Gold light fixture. Trying to remember what it looks like now.

Marco: It looks like a. Oh, yeah, like a Sputnik satellite.

Amanda:  Like a Sputnik satellite over sort of, Yeah, like starburst almost. above the mirror. Above the mirror. So I really wanted a mid-60s 70s gold palm leaf kind of aesthetic in there, and I went for it. The floor is a white Moroccan tile. And, someday I'm going to regrout the floor for a darker grout. but that's a discussion for another time. Is that all?

Marco: With the time we have, that's pretty much the time. You have a minute to do the rest.

Amanda:  I think we're going to continue the basement tour on another podcast. Okay, well, there you go. Because I just think, this is meant to be a methodical room tour, which many people, including myself, find extremely relaxing.

Marco: Of course. And this episode was from Kishek on Instagram mentioned that they wanted a episode that goes into minute detail on an item like the backpack episode. And while it's not a particular item, it's certainly the basement.

Amanda:  And we will continue because that's one corner of our basement. And although our basement is definitely not large, we were very careful to really plan and pack as much as we could into that renovation. So I think we'll. We'll will continue to walk people through the rest of the space on our next episode.

Marco: Thank you for staying with us, and thank you for your suggestions for episodes until next time. We hope you enjoyed this one on the basement, and we hope you were able to listen and sleep.