Basement Progress

We have an unfinished basement.  2,600 square feet to finish.

Over Thanksgiving, John and my Dad broke ground.  Really.  They broke ground with a jack hammer.

This past week John has put in many hours placing the new lines for the bathrooms in the basement.  This is a first for him ... underground plumbing.  Can I say he is amazing!!!

Today he passed the inspection!  Now to fill in the holes and top with cement.

You can see the plumbing John did for 2 toilets and 2 showers and sinks. 
Far back right wall John ran another drain.  2 more areas are not shown where he reworked or added plumbing.

Basement Design

We have 2,600 square feet in our basement - unfinished.  John has been having fun designing a floor plan.  It has been fun seeing the design evolve.  This is the most recent design - and most likely getting to the final stages of having to indicate where the smoke detectors, lights, outlets, fire sprinkler heads, etc are located for design approval for permits.

The green lines indicate windows.  Jenna's room will need to have a window installed.

We have a walk-out basement which is really nice!  (Door by the Bar/Kitchen)

Jaley's room has the circuit panel for our breaker box.  Building code states that we cannot have it in a bathroom or closet so it is in her bedroom/hallway leading to her closet.

Not sure what to do in the area where we have the laundry ...

Our storage room is already organized with a lot of our stuff!  It will be nice to have walls up to block it from view.

John is looking forward to a theater with theater seating!

Another computer will be at the base of the steps.  John has all of our computers networked to his server.  The server and media computer will be in a "room" under the stairs.

We learned that we cannot have a cook top or oven in the basement.  Ugh.  I was looking forward to having another place to cook in the summer ... and when our soccer boys come to visit.  Cooking with one oven is going to be tricky with large groups.  I was spoiled at the other place, but we can make it work!

If you have suggestions on what to do with the space near the laundry - or any of the design, we'd love to hear your suggestions!

Kendall's Room

A couple of weeks ago, my sweet beautiful and overly talent friend Emily came to help me paint Kendall's room.  It was nice to have someone to talk to while working on the house ... especially since John was gone for 16 days on a trip of a lifetime with his parents and siblings.

Kendall's room has the Book of Mormon theme from the boys' room in our other house.  I love it!

Kendall shares a Jack-and-Jill(Jack) bathroom (toilet and shower) with Kerst.  You can see his separate sink to the right of the picture - Kerst has one in his room too.

Love my pantry



I do miss my other kitchen.  My induction cook top.  My cabinets.  But I have found something I REALLY love about my kitchen.  The pantry to the right of the oven and cook top.





My apron hook would look great adorning one of my friend's, Lisa, beautiful creations!   Time to start a Christmas Wish List!

I love the baskets on the top shelf.  They are plastic and have long handles that hang down.  It makes it easy to grab down and put back up (although on my tippy-toes).  Wal-Mart carries them - Mainstays is the brand.  I have large ones in my pantry.  The smaller ones fit perfectly in my kitchen cabinets to hold salt and pepper, spices, etc.



John met some neighbors and told us that the previous owner did work on the house 1/2 notch.  That explains the quality.  I'm glad John does things 2,000% - just love him!



Master Bedroom ... boy what a difference less color makes!

Remember the dark maroon/red/plum color? I do ... here.

John has been gone for 16 days in Europe with his siblings and parents touring his ancestor's romping grounds ... and enjoying a cruise. While he was gone ... I was a little busy. Just a little. I didn't rush to post finished pictures until he was home (just in case he peeked in on our lazy life!)

I LOVE the room so much more! No more cave feeling. No more dark ceilings. Ahhhh....

I took mulitiple pictures and did a panoramic stitching on them (that is why the edges of the pictures are shaped a little odd)

(Sorry, blogger keeps flipping my pictures on the side.  I can't figure out why! ... so turn your head or your screen!)

I love the really fun detail in the ceiling.  You can see it better now that it isn't dark!

(sorry, on the side)  Painted walls and lighter ceilings!

(Sorry on the side) ... Painted ceilings in the bathroom!

Painted ceiling pictures of kitchen and eating area

You can go here to see the pictures BEFORE I painted the ceilings.

Much better with painted ceilings!

Stay tuned to see the transformation of the Master Bedroom that I did last week ...

Before the ceilings are painted ...

I've been painting and painting and painting.  I took pictures before I started the task of painting the ceilings I can reach.

Before:

Hallway leading to the "red bathroom".  Formal Dining Room/Music Room to the left.  Kitchen is to the right of the bathroom.

Eating area (with new light fixture - great find for $50!).  Large walk-in pantry (white door).  Gas cooktop is to the left of the pantry with a built-in oven/microwave combo (I will miss my double oven when our Soccer Boys come to visit).

Kitchen ... with dark painted ceilings.  You can barely see the piano through the doorway.

Kitchen looking into the Family Room (fireplace can be seen through peek through window in kitchen).  
What I would have done differently:  The sink is to the left of the fridge.  I would have put it in the peek through window area.  Prep sink in the island (I would have put it closer to the cooktop).  I also would have made the cabinets taller ... but then it would have made it difficult to paint the ceilings!

Looking from the kitchen towards the garage door hallway.  Coat closet with backpack rack.  Laundry room would be to the right of doorway entry.

After pictures to come soon ... I completed the ceilings on Tuesday ...

Easiest room so far

The formal dining room - aka our music room - must have been done professionally.  The paint job was well done (meaning, no drips or paint strokes on the base boards, window frames or blinds).  I even loved the color!

This has been the easiest room so far - move right in.  I love hearing the kids play the piano ... so close to the kitchen.

The house ... outside pictures

I'm sure you have been dying to see what the outside of the house looks like.  It is very pretty.  It reminds me of a gingerbread cottage - in the woods.

We are nestled down low.  We are shaded by beautiful grown trees.  The home stays very cool during the day even during the warm days in August that we have experienced so far.

As you drive down to our place, this is what you see ...

The driveway is crazy.  Jack knife shaped.  Yes, this is the driveway.

The back of the house ... very steep back yard with lots of shade trees.  A huge deck (that we need to refinish) .. over 700 sq ft.

Kerst's room

I painted Kerst's room over a week ago. It was originally the builder's flat paint that was a peachy cream. (I am slow at posting - busy doing other stuff).

The silhouette on the door is of Kerst from his Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet.

The trunk near the window is John's grandfather's when he immigrated to the United States.  It has his name on it!

I LOVE Craig's List. I found all of Kerst's furniture on there.

Mattress: $40 (pillow top, rarely used ... problem - drove home with it on the top of my van and the pillow top became fluffed up.)

Box Spring: Free. I covered the queen sized box spring with a full size flat sheet. It matches his fitted sheets perfectly. I dislike the box spring showing - and then not matching the sheets.

Dresser: $100

Sleigh Bed: $100 (I LOVE the lattice look!)

Total: $240 ... You can't beat that!!!

Now what to hang on the walls ... I love suggestions and ideas!

Privacy

The Master Bathroom is used by many. Since the basement isn't finished, we are missing some usable living space that we were accustomed to in the other house. We used every square inch there!

Jenna and Jaley don't have a room yet. They are sleeping in the unfinished basement ... surrounded by stuff that I still need to organize. Why can't I have 48 hours in a day? I could get so much more done ... maybe.

So, since they don't have a bathroom either, they use ours. We take shifts. The curtain I hung in the entry to the bathroom comes in very handy. We had another issue ... the shower door. No privacy.

In our other home, I had installed a film on the old windows to block out the heat when we first moved 2 1/2 years ago. It made a huge difference. We eventually replaced the windows this past March.

Since I was familiar with the product, I knew that they made privacy film too. Mirror. Stained glass. I found frosted. It worked out perfectly!

Before ... Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is painted a dark red/purple. Even the ceilings!

The color made the room small and dark. It also clashed with the Cherry Wood bedroom set John made when we were first married (yes, I married an amazing and talented guy!).

I love all of the windows ... and I LOVE white! I did these same curtains in the other house.

You will need to tilt your screen ... or your head ... you pick. I couldn't get these photos to load properly.

You can see the tall, painted ceilings. One of the master bedroom closets is located off of the bedroom - the other is in the bathroom. These closets are larger than Jaley's bedroom she had when we lived in Ohio (it only fit a rocking chair, her crib and a large doll house - the dresser went in her closet).

I still can't figure out why there are no doors that go to the Master Bathrooms. Once again, a curtain fixes that problem (a longer pole is waiting to be traded out so it fits better).

Once again, tilt your head or your screen. You choose. Here is the master bathroom. At least this color is more of my liking ... yet the ceilings are painted.

And what I am working on now ... stay tuned.

Hunter Green to Evergreen

The Study/Library in the new house is very spacious. I have the desk facing the window so that it looks out to the "front yard/driveway" ... I love sitting and looking out at the beautiful landscaping (which needs a little tlc).

This is the view from the desk:

This room is painted green. I love green. White and Green are my two favorite colors. This room was painted the wrong green. I learned from a friend (one of my visiting teachers) years ago about the importance of having rooms flow - paint colors. The main house color is a dark brown. The hunter green with the hint of blue clashed with the adjoining walls. Thankfully the ceiling colors worked in this room.

I worked on this room for several days. The ceilings are quite high so I took it in strides. I also cleaned the windows inside and out (I don't think they have been cleaned in years).

I LOVE the new color! It is amazing what a little hint of blue in the green does to the flow of the rooms in the house.

Now onto the next room ....

Gold No More

You wanted before and afters ... here you go!

The main floor 1/2 bathroom ... a large room. Large enough for a Christmas Tree in the corner ;o) !

The ceilings are gold (turned out cool in this picture with the flash - but they were really weird). The walls are red with a black wash on them. I actually really like the texture and the color on the walls in this bathroom. The gold ceiling really made the room dark. The kids refuse to go in this bathroom. Oh, and the previous owners swiped the mirror.

Before

After:

I found the mirror at Ross. It had some scratches on the frame so they gave me the mirror for $20! I touched up the scratches with a black sharpie ... you'd never know! The white ceiling really opened up the room.

A silver lining

John's Mom suggested to me to list the things I didn't like about the house I was leaving (to help me adjust to the idea of change). Yes, I had a list ... but I also had SO many things I loved that were hard to leave.

Now I am working on my list of what I love about the new house.

A list in progress:
1. The drive to where ever we are going is beautiful. (I went through a tank of gas driving the kids to and from school - 25 minutes away ... and some errands since I was out. I also started and completed a book on tape this week.)

2. The house is nestled down low and surrounded by mature pine trees. We don't have air conditioning at this new house ... and I see why. We cool off beautifully at night and the house stays very nice through the heat of the day. (Maybe that is because the ceilings are painted the same color as the dark walls ... hence a cave ... hence cool .... oh wait, this needs to be positive. I get to paint the two story ceilings throughout the main floor!)