Last pictures of the basement before drywall

I cannot believe it was 1 year ago this weekend, that we were demolishing our basement and tearing out drywall, wood, cabinets, flooring, insulation.... pretty much everything down to the necessary wood structure and concrete. It has been a crazy year with lots of surprises and frustrations. But we are almost done! We can't believe it.

This weekend we did some very last things to get the basement ready to be drywalled (the drywall crew was scheduled to come and there was no more delaying things!). We finished any last electrical projects we wanted done before drywall, including wiring lights for above the future bar as well as wiring cable/internet/electrical behind our walls so that when we finally mount our TV on the wall there will be NO cords hanging on the wall... anywhere...yessss.

Matt worked quite a bit on final framing to make sure there weren't any spots that would be a problem for the drywalls to install, and there was also a lot of just general clean up this weekend.

Today (Monday) we insulated the ceiling of the entire basement. With the help of my wonderful parents (who volunteered to spend their entire memorial day helping us do this today)... we got the entire basement insulated in just about 5 hours, faster than I expected, but also dirtier and itchier (even wearing goggles and a mask that stuff gets everywhere and it is itchy!)  And then we celebrated with some BBQ'ing.

Finally, I took about 200 pictures (literally) so that if we ever need to know where things are behind the walls we can refer to the photos first before ever having to cut into the drywall later. Matt had me take a picture from each direction going between every beam (I think that was about 80 pictures...), and then we took lots of extra pictures of all the the plumbing and electrical in the walls.

Anyhow... here are just a few pictures of the rooms to enjoy, before it is all white and drywalled tomorrow! We will keep everyone updated on the progress over the next few weeks.

Part of the future living room and bar/kitchenette 

The other half of the living room on the other side of the stairs. 

Looking into our future office (the extra large door opening will be for french doors)

Another look at where the bar will be. 

Stairs coming down into the basement. 

When you let your wife organize the tools...

One of my projects this weekend while we got everything ready for the drywallers to come on Tuesday, was to get all the tools organized and everything moved upstairs. Matt gave me free reign while he finished working on other things.

For some reason he found it really funny that I chose to get plastic bins at Target and to label them (organized in a way I thought made sense.... small tools like wrenches and screwdrivers in the small box, metal tools like hammers and saws in one large box, and all other supplies like extra caulk and plastic parts in another). Apparently this is not how he would have done it... but whatever, it works! =)

*I wish these were the only 3 boxes of tools we had, I have to caveat that this does not include all of Matt's power tools, or his tool bin with 50 different types of nails/screws/bits, as well as the 10 gallons of half empty paint cans I am keeping (in case we ever need them... haha).

White ceramic animals

I have a love for things white and ceramic... and recently this extends to white ceramic animals. We recently purchased this Rhino from Z Gallery (it was already painted white like this... and we loved how it looks like it was folded from origami). I also have this little ceramic bird I picked up at the Thrift store for about 50 cents, and spray painted it white a few weeks ago.

 (*This may be part of the reason I am so obsessed with reading the very popular blog Young House Love, she has great design ideas, and also a love for finding fun objects and painting them white).

My obsession has luckily been ok'd by Matt (if he hated it I'm not sure how far I'd get with these... we have somewhat of an unspoken agreement that if either of us totally hates something... be it a ceiling fan or light fixture or anything house decor... even if the other person loves it we don't do it). So while I was away a couple weekends ago and he went garage sale shopping with his mom, he picked up this cute little frog for me to spray paint white. Not sure where it's going to go yet... but will be a fun addition to our decor somewhere... I think he might look cute sitting on top of a stack of books somewhere? We'll see.

Before & After

Another new fan

Last weekend we installed another new fan in our house. Not super exciting I know, but it looks a lot better than the light brown one from the 80's or 90's that was there. The old one also didn't have a light on it (it was just a fan)... so this makes a big difference in our little living room. Who knew having light in a room would be so nice? =)  It was super easy to put together ourselves, and then Matt installed it in about 20 minutes to our ceiling... he is really getting quite handy with the electrical projects.

Something about having brand new fans in our bedroom and living room makes me feel like summer is coming... can't wait until the weather turns around and is actually nice enough that we will need to use these!

Oh, and P.S. we grabbed this fan at the good old Home Depot for only about $85 (on sale), steal!



What we've been up to

I have been bad at blogging this last couple months. We've been busy, with life, work, and house projects... but for some reason I have failed to really take any pictures (and in my mind there is no point in posting a blog post without pictures). Well I figured I should just get over it and post an update anyways... and make an effort for more pictures from now on.

Updates on the House... lots and lots of little projects... including finishing wood framing in random places to get it finally ready for drywall. This included framing in places like the ceilings of the closets in the basement, and around the main beam (so that its all the same size and will be smooth once we drywall). I give all credit for this to Matt. I am useless when it comes to framing walls or anything else in that realm.

We also have an official start date for when drywall goes in! The day after Memorial Day weekend, May 31st, we will have contractors in our house and drywall is going in! Overall they think it will take them 1 day to drywall our whole basement, but then 8-10 days total for all the mud and taping and sanding and texturing (with dry time in between some days). Super excited this is going to be done by professionals and we know for sure when it's happening now. 

This also means the next 2 weeks we are going to be full force working on the house to be 100% ready for drywall. Our last projects will include: insulation in the basement ceiling (this weekend), getting internet & cable hooked up and wired to the basement (so that the wires will be behind the walls), and lots of clean up of supplies and tools...

I promise I will take pictures as the next few weeks unfold and things quickly progress with the house!