Basement Fast Forward

Well, it has been quite a while since I posted last. Lots of things have happened since then. I will post a couple of times to get all of the information out there, but thought I would start with our basement construction. We are done! Well, mostly done anyway. (We have to paint the doors, do some touch up paint after the carpet was installed, and start furnishing it. The furnishing will be slow, since we have to save up again. At least we have some additional space to live in. We almost doubled the size of our house!)

I'll start from the beginning. Here is the basement when we started. Joe was working on the framing, while I was sorting and cleaning all of the things we had accumulated.

Here is another angle of the main area with "stuff".

This is a picture when most of the cleaning was done. The electrical had not been completed yet, but it looked brighter just having the area cleaned out. You can still see the area where Takoda (our old dog) had torn off the vapor barrier and started eating the insulation...

All that is left now is a trash pile in the middle of the room from the framing scraps.

Okay, well there is more stuff "hiding" in the other room. We made the decision to join our neighborhood garage sale this year, so I stored the things we were selling in the other room until the sale weekend. We were able to sell quite a bit and dropped the rest off at the Goodwill around the corner from us. I told Joe once the items were out of the house and in the garage they were not coming back in!

The kids liked coming downstairs to "help" Daddy with the framing. It was good for them to get involved with the construction. Makayla just looked pretty and watched.

Now all of the framing is done, the insulation is installed, as well as the electrical. I can't remember if the duct work was completed in this picture too, but if not it was completed shortly after. You can also see one of the three piles of drywall Joe hung.

We decided to finish room by room, so we could at least see some progress as we went along. The bathroom was the first room we were completing. (I was tired of all of the dirty shoe prints coming up the stairs to use the one in the hall...) You can see a little of the tile we installed in the bathroom in this picture too.

This is one of the many nights Joe spent hanging drywall in the theatre room. (Where the garage sale items were stored.)

We put in a tray ceiling that will have rope lights in this room. It was also a decorative way to hide the duct work in the ceiling!

This picture was taken at about 1:30 in the morning as we painted the bathroom. We had to wait until we put the kids in bed and took care of the dinner dishes and getting things ready for the next day before we could get down to do some painting.

And one room is done!

It started to look messier than it did before we started with construction for a while. There was so much trash, equipment, parts, etc. all around the basement. However, the more drywall Joe hung, the more it started to look like a finished basement.

The next room we painted was the theatre room. We also put in a kitchenette in the back of the room. We will eventually have an oven and refrigerator installed. There is also tile in front of the cabinets.

We went with two different shades of green. We wanted to make this room a little darker, since it will eventually have a projector for movies. The green blended nicely with the blue bathroom too!

The last room we painted is the game room. We chose two different browns. Most of the walls are in this lighter brown.

Here you can see the darker brown we painted on the back accent wall above the stone work.

In this picture, you can see the blue bathroom, the green theatre room, and the brown game room at the same time. We were getting closer to the end in this picture. There are also two large storage rooms that we created, but they are not as exciting to see as the rest of the rooms.

The last pieces we were working on before the carpet was installed was painting all of the trim work. There is a lot of trim to go along the floor and around all of the doors!

This is it, we have everything painted and are ready for carpet!

I can't believe the difference a few months of work can make!

The last three pictures were taken the night before the carpet was installed.

The carpet installation ended up being on Monday Aug 3rd. It was just in time too. Sean, Amy, and Nathan flew in from Utah on Wednesday Aug 5th for a visit. It was great to have a space for them to sleep and for the kids to play!

Of course the kids spent a bunch of time in the play area under the stairs. They seem pretty happy with the space. I know we sure are! And I am sure happy to be done with all of the drywall dust...

I will be back with more updates on the family shortly. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the end of your summers!

Confusion...

Okay, I know I normally upload pictures along with my posts, but I had to write this down somewhere before I forgot the story...



Joe left on Sunday for Utah to go race Ford Mustangs. It was another one of his "work" trips. Jaden seemed a little confused as to why Daddy was not sitting down for dinner. He asked where Daddy was, so I told him "in Utah". Jaden gave me the funniest look and said, "my tah"? I thought it was just too funny!



Jaden has been doing very well with his Speech Therapist. Joe asked me the other day, "Does the ST know that we were wanting Jaden to speak more clearly, not more abundantly?" That cracked me up too! The more confidence he gets in what he is saying, the more he speaks...It has been an interesting turn of events, but we are SO glad that we can actually understand more of what he is saying and he will actually hold a small conversation with us vs. just answering yes/no questions.



Hope you are all doing well as we get closer to summer!

Spring Rocks!

Jonathan ended his school year with a wonderful concert. I was very excited this concert that he actually took his hands out of his pockets and did some of the hand motions. He even looked like he was enjoying himself! (At the Christmas concert he stood with his hands in his pockets not moving at all...) Of course I could not get his to keep his shirt tucked in. He is really trying to show his independence! Notice TJ (to his right, our left) un-tucked his too...

The very next week was Kindergarten graduation! My little scholar! Jonathan received an award for knowing every memory verse for the entire year. They received one memory verse a week, so that is quite a few verses to remember when you are 5! Jonathan definitely liked school. I just hope he keeps that up for many more years to come. The best part of this night was the fact that he got to keep the cap and gown! You know Jonathan and his costumes...

Jaden has decided he is old enough to ride a bike. He was oh so excited when we finally let him! I will have to say it was rather exhausting for me. I made it around our block, hunched over pushing him, and needed to trade Joe for pushing Makayla's stroller. I'm trying to figure out how we are going to get Jaden back in the cart we pull behind our bikes...

Makayla had her first trip outside in a bathing suit. She seemed to enjoy it. I was rather surprised at the suits that were for sale for her age. I just couldn't imagine a bikini at 8 months old...I found a cute one piece with butterflies and a matching hat. I am really into the butterflies and caterpillars with the girl colors. Poor girl probably has nightmares about all of the bugs in her room!

She is also sitting up by herself now. This makes playing with her a lot more fun for us!

I'm not sure what Makayla thought of the grass the first time we put her in it. I can't tell from her face if she likes it or not...

The boys really had fun with their new Slip-N-Slide. Jaden has to do everything Jonathan does, so when Jonathan started drinking the water, Jaden jumped in.

I think this stems from the potty training we are doing with Jaden right now. Apparently he is really catching on to washing his hands!

After all of that water Jaden got cold and asked me to cover him in the towel. I put it on him and pretty much lost him under there...

Makayla is also scooting on the floor. The only problem is the only direction she has is reverse! I can't tell you how often I have to pull her out from under our bed. She also gets stuck when she gets a table or chair leg caught between her legs. She can't figure out how to go a different direction and just gets frustrated not being able to move. Joe and I talked about how we have to put the gate back on the stairs now...

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I have not taken recent photos of the basement. I will have to do that soon and post them. Joe was able to hang all of the drywall in the bathroom, so it is ready for finishing! He also had a group of guys from his bible study over last Saturday and they hung the drywall on the ceiling in the "entertainment room" and about 1/2 of the "game room" in about 2 1/2 hours. That was a huge help!

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We just received a time table from our contractor today with dates by which we need to have our pieces completed so that he can complete his parts. Our goal was to complete the basement (carpet, trim, paint, etc.) by the last week in July, since Amy, Sean, and Nathan are coming to stay with us on August 5th for a few days. (They stayed with us the last time they were here, but we had 2 less kids back then and more rooms available upstairs...) When I looked at the calendar, our contractor has us finishing on August 3rd. That means no slacking for us!

We hope you are all doing well and enjoy the summer!

Bright Colors for Spring

Jonathan's class did a week long session about the circus. One of the days they were supposed to come dressed as clowns. Of course with how much Jonathan LOVES dressing up, I figured if we actually bought a costume vs. just making one, he would get good use out of it. I think Jonathan has worn this costume at least four times a week, since we got it! (That is not to mention the other costumes he dresses up in on a regular basis...) I swear he is going to be an actor or writer someday!


For anyone who wonders why we spend so much time in the morning on Makayla's hair...There are lots of people out there who would kill for the volume this girl can get! She doesn't seem to mind at all.


This was the next step in the process to finish our basement. All of the framing was completed, all of the moveable items were in the storage areas, and most of the trash was cleaned up.


This is where we are now. All of the plumbing is done, all of the electrical is done, and all of the insulation is done. Now it's Joe's job to start dry walling! I'm not sure how excited he is about that...

The kids were so excited about the weather getting warmer and their ability to get out and play in the backyard. This picture just shows me how we need to clean the weeds out of the sandbox and refill the sand this year...

Jonathan is really starting to get good at baseball. He really no longer needs a tee, just someone to pitch the ball to him. This hit actually flew over his climbing tower to the other side of the backyard...

Makayla had her first turn in the swing. She seemed to enjoy the ride.

Really enjoy the ride...

For Mother's Day we took the kids to the Children's Museum at Navy Pier in Chicago. It was a great trip! Joe helped the boys build a house with the building sets they have. I have to do some searching on the internet to find where we can get some of these sets. The boys (yes, all three of them) really loved this!

At least I got to help with the decorating!

Makayla seemed to enjoy the day out and the new Dora doll she got. Man it is really nice to have a little girl who loves to play with dolls!

Jonathan and Jaden also got to ride the large Thomas Train at Navy Pier. They had a lot of fun being the engineers!

I hope you all are doing well and wish all of the mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day!

Seasons Change

All good things must come to an end...Jonathan's basketball season has ended. I will say that Jonathan was VERY excited about the Upward backpack he received for playing! He uses it everyday for school now. I think I may get out of buying a new backpack for first grade next fall! :-) It was a very good season for Jonathan and I am very glad we signed him up. I know we will be doing it again!

As things end, new things begin...Jaden has started potty training! Okay, he has played around for a few months, but he is really getting serious about it now. I will have to say I think this is my least favorite stage. It takes so long, is messy, and rather frustrating. I can't tell you how many times I have tried to explain that he only gets candy if he actually goes potty, not just sit on the toilet...I always said I would never bribe my kids with food, until I had them...

At school they take his class to the potty every hour and most days he stays dry the whole day. We just need to get him to start telling us when he needs to go. I may have to pick up a stop watch like I did for Jonathan. We made a big deal about the big boy watch and how every time it beeps you have to stop playing and go potty. That was the trick for Jonathan. Maybe it will work for Jaden too.

Another thing that has started is the finishing of our basement. We ahve been talking about it for 5 years and we are finally starting! Here is a very early picture when most of the toys are still in a pile in the middle of the room. I will keep you updated with new photos as we keep completing more tasks.

I took the kids to see the Easter Bunny this morning so Joe could have some free time to work on the basement. (I took Grandma and Grandpa along too as backup!) Jaden was a little happier to see the Easter Bunny than he was to see Santa. This time Grandpa could actually get next to the Bunny before Jaden freaked out!

So we got a nice picture of Jonathan, Makayla, and the Easter Bunny anyway...

We wish you all a blessed Easter!