Time capsule

When we were redoing our basement, I thought how cool it would be to find something from the previous owner, like a letter or old pictures or anything.  And then one night I was walking through the torn-up basement and I saw it, just leaning up against our furnace.  It's not anything real significant, but it's kind of funny.  And how we never found it before now and how it didn't get thrown out with all the other junk from the basement, I don't even know.

We bought this house from an elderly guy at our old church.  When he still lived here, he had a granddaughter that often came to stay with him for the weekend.  She was the same age as one of my sisters, so often my sister would come over to this house and spend the night with his granddaughter.  They were probably late elementary/early middle school at this point.  Well apparently one night they wrote all over this board.  It's really funny because it has the Spice Girl names written all over it and little hearts with "Nic" in them.  Typical teenage girl stuff!   It's just more funny to me because I know the people who did it!

 

I had always wanted to put a time capsule somewhere downstairs when we remodeled, just so if someday down the road someone else remodels (please don't let it be us!), they would find it and it would just be a cool little piece of history.  I put in a couple pictures of what the basement used to look like and a picture of our family.  I also wrote a little letter just saying why we're remodeling and a little about the house.  Then I put it all in an envelope and stuck it behind the insulation in one of the walls. 

 

 

Goodbye paneling, hello lovely basement

Our basement was really retro.  But not the cool retro, the ugly, old, time-to-get-rid-of-it wood paneling.  Yuck!  When we moved into our house, the whole thing was in desperate need of a cosmetic makeover.  There was teal shag carpet covering the upstairs, a pee-yellow bathroom, wallpaper on almost every wall, etc.  And that was just the upstairs!  We decided to concentrate on getting the top, main floor looking more modern and then we said, "we will redo the basement in a year or two."  Famous last words, right? 

When I look back at these pictures I realize just how bad it was.  I had gotten used to it to a certain extent.  I mean, how depressing is this laundry room especially?  And we both were so embarrassed when we had guests over and they went into the basement, so we are excited to now entertain a little more.

Old laundry room (looking towards family room where the new door is now)

Old laundry room (other side)

Old laundry room



I don't mean to sound bratty or ungrateful at all, the space was great and it served our family for years, but it just didn't have the look we were going for and it didn't match the main floor of the house, which was mostly all updated and really reflected the style and needs of our family.

Old basement (looking north, where new bedroom is now)

Old basement (other end)

Old entry to laundry room

Old basement (where we used to sit and watch TV)

Old basement (double doors are to furnace room)

Old basement (entry to existing bedroom)

Chris did most of the work himself.  He so selflessly gave up his whole summer to work 8-10 hour days so it would all be done before school started.  It took 7 weeks of work, but I am so proud of the hard work he put in and the sacrifices he made on not getting work for school done so we could have a nice basement.  I didn't even realize just how much I hated the old paneling and how un-relaxing it was to be down there until it got gutted and it was like a breath of fresh air.  I told Chris once, even when all the framing was up and there was a saw in the middle of the floor and no drywall or anything, that even if we had to leave it like this it for awhile, it would be better than it was.  He agreed.  Maybe a little melodramatic, but seriously it felt like that!

First thing to do was demo.  I was so nervous about this part and told Chris I didn't even want to be home when they did it because I expected tons of dead mice to be behind the walls and up in the ceiling.  A couple of years ago we had mice in our house and garage (long, gross story) and I figured when they died, that's where they went.  Thankfully Chris didn't even see one dead mouse, though I didn't confirm that information for myself!

Demo!

 

Demo!

We added an egress window to the wall where the small window used to be, to make it safe to have a bedroom in there.  Chris and his brother dug the big hole outside (6'x6'x8') and then we had a company come and cut the foundation.  But then Chris and his brother cut up the big chunks of concrete and hauled them up and out of the hole to the dumpster.  Hard, manual labor!!



Demo is done!  Looking better already - haha!

Next came framing and insulation.  

We closed off the old entry to the laundry room and made a new, bigger one on the other wall.

We took the double doors off and just made a single doorway to the furnace room.

 

We sloped the ceiling down the stairway so Chris doesn't have to duck his head
every time he goes downstairs! (although he still does out of habit)

 

The walls to the new bedroom and hallway to the existing bedroom

 

Looking out from the new bedroom

 



New laundry room doorway

Insulation is done!


Then came drywall, doors, tile for the laundry room and paint.  We hired a company to do the drywall, mudding and texturing, but Chris and his dad tiled the laundry room and Chris and I did the painting (mostly Chris).  We chose a light creamy-taupe for the family room and stairwell and a grayish-taupe for the laundry room and new bedroom.  Funny story about the gray paint though.  On the swatch, it was more brown than gray, but on the walls there is hardly any brown, it's almost all gray.  It's not a cool, bluish gray, it definitely has brown undertones, but it doesn't match the swatch AT ALL.  It turned out to be a happy accident though, because I think brown paint in those spaces would have been too much brown with the trim and cabinets, etc.

 

Then we got carpet installed and furniture delivered and finished up the trim and the million other little finishing touches that really add up.

 

Photo bomb by Sequoia (who loves the new basement, BTW)

My new laundry room/office -LOVE IT!

Other side of laundry room/office

New bedroom

Family room

Family room

This isn't much of a playroom, but honestly the kids mostly
play in their rooms.  They just aren't much into toys lately, they
prefer Legos or dress-up.



It took 7 weeks total, including some really, really late nights painting, staining and hanging that stupid TV!  But I totally, totally love the new space and it feels so neat to say that this whole house is ours now.  Everything you see inside and out (minus just a few exceptions) is something we did, so it totally feels like ours!  I am so proud of Chris doing all the work - he learned some new skills and he amazed me with what he was able to do and how hard he worked to see the project through to the end.  I admire his hard work and his dedication!

We still have to save up for and hang up some artwork (probably DIY cuz it's cheaper and more personalized), style those bookshelves and hang curtains in the new room, but it really feels pretty much done at this point.

So......ten years later and it's finally done!  But I actually think it was good to wait (maybe not 10 years, but oh well), because we were able to live with it awhile and see how we really used it and what we most needed out of the basement.  For example, had we done it a year or two into living here when we only had 1-2 kids, we probably would not have had the foresight to put in another bedroom downstairs.  We probably would not have had the foresight to make a bigger family room and a smaller playroom, knowing that our kids were getting bigger and eventually the amount of indoor space they needed to play would be much smaller (Legos only take up so much space).  Phew, it's nice to not have that work hanging over our head each night anymore, now we can just sit on the couch and enjoy it!

A date with Logan

Like I posted about before, my parents have been having each of the boys over this summer to spend a little one-on-one time with them.  I think it's so neat that they desire to take the time to get to know them individually, since they are very different once you get them one-on-one, as opposed to them being all together. 

Logan's "date" was in July.  He hiked up Green Mountain with my dad, did several mountain bike rides, went to a parade in Golden, went to Chick-fil-A for lunch, and played lots of games together.  Logan especially, because of his closeness in age to Brayden, enjoys the times when he is on his own doing something special for just him.  I think he has lived most of his life just being lumped together with Brayden and so doing something out from under Brayden's shadow is really meaningful to him.  I am so grateful to my parents for giving the boys this opportunity this summer!

 

Goodbye July

(i.e. what happened to summer and what is happening to this whole year?)

I'm sorry, it happened again.  This summer got away from me and I took another unintended blogging break.  I always have such good intentions at the beginning of summer and I always think I will be able to get more done, not less, but it never seems to work out that way.  Chris said that he thinks it's because for everyone else (him and the kids) it is a break, but for me it is more work because I still have all my normal stuff (meal prep, cleaning, etc), but then I also have them around all the time to do things with and for.  It is not all bad, I love having them home for the two months of summer, but for this girl who likes routine, it can seem really crazy and hectic sometimes!  So, sometimes everything doesn't get done, and for me this summer that was blogging (and cleaning and cooking and outings with the kids - I was generally just a boring bum). For the 2-3 of you who check my blog regularly, I'm sorry, I plan for things to get back to normal here soon.

So July......

• Brayden went to camp for a week.  It was his first time away for more than 1 night and it was hard on me.  I missed him and I think he missed us quite a bit too.  But he had a blast and those kind of experiences are good for him.  I know this is only the start of me having to let go little by little as he grows into an independent adult. *sniff*
• Logan and Preston spent 1 hour in the pool every weekday for 4 weeks.  They both improved a ton on their swimming.  Brayden spent 1 hour in the pool every weekday for 2 weeks (he missed the first session because he was at camp part of that time).  I worked on my tan, watched Ashten swim in the kiddie pool (or as she called it, the Hello Kitty pool), drank iced coffee, whittled down on my stack of magazines and just tried to relax.  Good times!

• We remodeled our basement (more on that in another post, because it deserves its whole own post!)  And when I saw "we", I mean Chris.  His brother helped for a couple of weeks and he had a contractor that helped as well, but Chris did 7 full weeks of work to take our basement from this.....

Before

to this......

After (looking same direction)

Awesome, no?  It's like night and day!  It's finally a place to relax instead of such an eyesore.

Most years I am totally ready for school to start, but this year #notsomuch!  I finally got motivated enough to do school supply shopping last Saturday.  So I think we are technically ready for school, physically, just not mentally.  Chris went back to work today, but the boys are home this whole week and they start school next Monday.  I miss them when they are gone, but the routine is nice after a summer of spontaneity.  Bring it on, August, what's left of you at least!