The basement, pretty much complete

The end of last week was pretty eventful here. Thursday morning the men arrived to install the carpet in the basement. They were here all day working on that. I really wanted to see what it looked like!! After they left around 5:00, we all went downstairs to run around on the soft new carpet!

Shortly after that Chad's brother Bradley and daughter Lucca arrived. We were excited for their visit and enjoyed spending time with them. They were the first people to stay in our newly finished guest room! We had one small problem though, the queen box springs that has been set up in Carson's room for two years now would not fit down the stairs to the basement. It was SOoooo close, but it just wouldn't fit. The mattress did make it down to the new guest room and Bradley and Lucca slept on that on the floor. I looked on the Internet and they do make a split queen box springs - which is what we need I guess. I was really looking forward to getting that out of Carson's room!! For now, I just leaned the box springs up against the wall in his room to give us a little more room in there. Here are some pictures of the wall to wall furniture in Carson's/guest room prior to finishing the basement.

This is the guest room in the basement. It was kind of hard to take a very good picture of the space but there you go. Mattress on floor. The quilt was made by my Grandma Short for our wedding. The wall color we had actually purchased with the intention of painting our living room the darker color and hallway the lighter color on our main level. But when we started painting the living room we didn't like the color with the color of our kitchen. So we used it down here instead! One problem with the carpet install, now the doors don't fit back up! They need to be trimmed in order to hang. It really only affects this room, the entry door and the closet sliding doors. When we thought we were almost done, yet more work for Chad.

It will be so nice to have this space for our guests and now Carson won't have to sleep in the pack-n-play in our room whenever we have guests! :)

The finished space (office, hallway, guest room and bathroom) is to the left when you come down the stairs to the basement. To the right is a large open partially finished space. Chad painted the brick walls and we had carpet put down in this space as well. In the collage below, the top left picture is what you see when you come down the stairs to your right. Wide open space to run run run! To the right in that picture is the furnace/storage room. The middle picture is an area tucked off to the left in the first picture. Lots of toys were taken off our main level and put down there. Top right picture, Andrew and Carson in there "on your marks, get set..." position. Bottom left pic - the GO! picture. They race a lot! Bottom right pic - Carson bating. He often says "batter up!" before he swings. Lots of fun. Chad and Andrew have started playing some form of dodge ball down there. Basically it consists of Andrew running around and Chad throwing balls at him. They both seem to enjoy this a lot. It's a little wild! :)

The Office & The Bathroom

This is where our desk used to sit, inside our bedroom. This is the view you would see when entering our bedroom. The laptop carrying bag, Chad's work bag, several bags he receives at conferences he attends (what to do with all of those?), a large stack of the journals he receives in the mail but hasn't had a chance to look at yet...and that is just the floor. Plus the stacks of materials on top of the desk. Not really what you want in your bedroom.
Here is the desk's new home! (Thanks for helping Chad move it downstairs Justin!) It is so nice to have this space for the desk. (I would show a picture of the entry from the doorway of our bedroom now but all the stuff that was on the floor and on top of the desk is still on the floor there!) We would like to get some shelves for books and what not down there yet, (then we can move the stuff out of our bedroom - what will we do with the extra space in our room?) replace the socks under the desk with some furniture coaster things and hang some things on the walls. Probably some OSU paraphernalia! (You can see what the space used to look like here.)

This is the cork floor that Chad put down in the office and the nice trim work by Chad and Justin.

Here is the guest bathroom in the basement.

The shower.....

Chad stained the concrete floor in the bathroom. I will admit I was pretty sceptical about this. I wasn't sure how it would look. Plus it is a concrete floor and in the basement, so in the winter this floor could be quite cold! (Bring your slippers when you come to see us!!) But I really like how it turned out. Love the marble effect and the chocolate brown that pops out. It did turn out a little more orange than what the picture on the internet looked but we still really like it. We still need to hang a towel bar in here and get something for storage. (We did get an antique washstand but we have decided not to keep it in the bathroom. We would like to find something with a dark finish like the mirror for in here for towels etc. Maybe even just a large shelf for a spa like feel :) We plan on the putting the washstand in the guest bedroom or out in the semi-finished part of the basement to put toys/games in.)

Here is one of the 5 doors Chad has stained. He has one more to do and then the doors will be done. This one turned out really well. It is quite the process of two coats of stain plus two coats of top coat with sanding and allowing time to dry in between coats.

Our weekend

My sister and bro-in-law, Tricia and Justin, were here this past weekend. They arrived Friday evening just in time to share some strawberry pie that I mentioned in the previous post. Justin had offered to come help Chad with the basement.

Saturday morning the men headed to the basement to begin their work. The boys, Tric and I headed to the Farmer's Market. We enjoyed looking at all the produce, plants and baked goods. We purchased some rhubarb for the crisp I mentioned earlier and a cilantro plant. I used some of the cilantro to make guacamole. After that we headed to the boys favorite playground. From there we stopped at the hardware store to get some freezer containers for the strawberry jam and then we were off to the bike path. Andrew rode his new ride pictured below riding in our driveway. We found this bike at a garage sale so now he can strech his legs out a bit more while riding. Tric and I walked and Carson enjoyed a nice stroller ride.

I put this little table out on the deck on Friday. I put a plastic storage container filled with water and water toys on top of the table. The boys have had fun playing with the water and toys. It is perfect since our deck is right off the kitchen and I can see and hear them yet still be inside getting things done! The boys played with it Saturday afternoon while Tric and I cleaned strawberries.

Miss Tricia cleaning strawberries.
We began the process of finishing off some of our basement I think back in Feb.? We had a local construction crew out for about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. They did the framing, plumbing, electrical, & drywall. Chad has done the finishing work. He did a lot of painting, staining the doors and trimwork and some flooring (perhaps pictures later).

Justin brought several saws and other tools {I don't really know what all :)} and together they put up the door casings and baseboard in the basement this past weekend. I think they had some rough moments but then got in a groove and it looks really nice!! Justin was the jokester as usual, saying how he was heading back to the dungeon or that Chad doesn't let him take breaks.... Chad has a little bit to finish up in the guest bedroom closet and then one more door to stain. I think all we need then is the carpet and it will be done! We are really excited to have that extra space for guests (Come and see us!) and a large area for the boys to run and play.

Thanks Tric and Justin for all your help. We enjoyed having you here!!

We've been framed!!

So yesterday morning our basement looked like this....





And this is what it looks like this evening.....




We had debated about finishing off our basement for a while now. Considered doing it our self - meaning Chad with the help of bro-in-law Justin - but in the end, contacted a contractor. They started yesterday morning and all the walls are up! We are really excited about this.

They are finishing an office/den space, a bedroom for guests and a full bathroom. They will also finish a wall to close in the water heater/furnace/storage area. Our house is a ranch so the basement is equal to the upstairs in terms of space. The remainder of the basement we plan on semi-finishing. We will put carpet down (or Lowe's will) and Chad will paint the cement walls. We plan on having this space for the boys to play in. Right now, they love riding their bikes / riding toys / scooters around down there, which will end once the carpet is in but it will be a great space for them to run around in. And get some of the toys of our main level.

We will then have a nice space for guests to stay with us. So come on over!!