Basement Updates

As always I've been behind with blogging, so as I've tried to catch up I've left some stuff out.  The biggest thing is the basement.  Jeff and Averie were going to sell their house so we offered for them to stay here while they were in the process of moving out/selling and looking for a new one to move into, which meant a rush to finish most of the basement!

Dad and Preston busted out the framing/electrical/plumbing (we had to move the toilet pipe like 10 inches over...that was fun) in a matter of a few days, then it was on to sheetrock/tile/paint - in the bedroom and bathroom.  The gym room has been finished for a while down there, and on the original plans it's supposed to have 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a large living space, but we didn't want to add 2 bedrooms because we probably won't have any more kids, and even if we do we definitely aren't having more than one more haha. So our plan before they moved in was to have the bedroom and bathroom done, and the rest of the living space sheetrocked and sanded. Once they got sheetrock up and it was time to finish the bathroom I was down there just about every night after the boys were in bed for a few hours or more tiling.  It was such a huge shower to tile, I swear it's bigger than our master bath - not as tall but wider, so it took forever to tile.  I put a lot of work into it and although it's not nearly perfect, it makes me proud!  I really like the way it turned out.  Sanding and doing sheetrock is really hard for me, I always see every imperfection and it's all I notice when we've done it ourselves, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than paying someone to do it.  We actually got a quote and it was absurd to just have them mud and sand it.  Nope, no thanks!  Anyways... I finally finished the shower and was a few rows in to doing the floor when I realized something was off... well we're dumb and didn't run the water supply line for the toilet.  Shoot me now.  Cue the tears and meltdown that the bathroom was never. going. to. be. done.  Ha ha.  Luckily it was a fairly easy fix to bring it from the sink supply lines over to the toilet.  It just meant more mudding/sanding/painting.  Overall I think the bathroom turned out really nice, I found a fixture I loved, as well as an awesome mirror and vanity.

I don't have many pictures, but here's what I do have of the progress down there! Emmett had to inspect everything and Aiden loved helping, he's actually quite the little painter!

I designed the closet in the bedroom with it being a playroom in mind.  I wanted less rods and more shelving for bins/storage for toys and books.  It's a pretty deep closet too, not quite a "walk in" but not your standard size for sure.  We did it that way because of the duct work in the ceiling, rather than having a little drop down in part of the room we just made the closet the depth of where it all was so it looked more seamless.  Even with that taking a little space out, the room is still spacious!  I don't have many pictures of it done because it was seriously a race to the finish line and such a time crunch for the project being done so they could move in! Carpet was installed literally the day they moved in and we had just painted the few days prior to that ha ha.

Dad had his knee replaced so he helped us mud the big living space but between all of us working our jobs and when he had his knee done we didn't have time to sand anything, but at least it's all mudded!  It also helps hold in the heat a bit more down there for sure.  It was so stressful trying to do all of that on top of everything else that comes with being a working parent, but it was so worth it in the end. I love how it turned out and can't wait to finish the rest of the basement, although it will be a bit before we carpet it down there because its so expensive!

I also wanted to show our awesome bike racks we got.  There was no way I was getting up there to mount them so we backed in my dads truck and put the ladder in the bed for Preston to climb up - he was still almost to the top of the ladder! I want to paint the garage this Summer... It's $1000 to have someone do it, but the more I think about it, the more it just might be worth it :/ I do not like heights. At all....