Because we are nuts. Totally and completely nuts

As a family, we are pretty full right now. Craig's working weird long rotating shifts. I'm busy trying to manage two crazy kids and keep them from tearing my house apart, manage my regular lactation consulting volunteer obligations and finish planning a parenting and breastfeeding conference that will take place at the end of the month. We're dealing with a couple minor health issues. So what's the solution? Start another remodel project, of course?!

Our next task is the basement. At the moment it is pretty much unfinished. The previous owners had built two non-legal bedrooms. They had closets but no egress windows and no heating or air vents. And they were odd. We know why they were odd, but it didn't make them less odd. The closets are really really deep and this one sticks out in front of the window. The ceilings in the room were done with thin drywall and were sagging and the dark wood paneling really opens up a small confined windowless space, don't you think? No?

As you can see, we basically used it to hold junk. And sometimes our guest. I didn't mind it holding junk, really hated putting guests here. It might work if you are trying to discourage guests but we actually like the people that come visit us so wasn't really working. And then when Craig started working nights, he had to sleep down there too. Sad :-( But still better than my trying to keep both kids quiet so he could sleep upstairs. Basically they not functional for our needs and as I mentioned, they aren't legal or safe.

The rest of the basement is mostly storage as well but completely underutilized. And I've been getting rid of a lot of stuff  - three car loads since April to be donated plus lots waiting to be throw out as soon as we set up the bagster! 

Up next is the installation of an egress window. Yep, just one. The other window is under our deck so we really can't make it larger. So one room will become a legal bedroom with nice big egress window, venting and closet. The other will have it's closet removed and become an office. The rest of the basement won't be finished yet but it will be spruced up a bit and rearranged so the storage is contained and part of the basement is available for play time during the winter when we can't get outside as much.

We're paying in cash so it will be a slow and steady project. Technically, we started it this spring. That's when we started planning and demoing a bit so we could have our new furnace installed. At that time we also had them put in vents so now those rooms will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Step 1 = done.

Step 2 began last Monday when started digging the hole for our new window. Craig worked from the inside to clear out beams and paneling leaving us with this.



Wednesday they finished up. Of course, after a few really lovely weeks, the part of the job that left us without air conditioning had to be done on a 95+ day. But we survived and here we are.

`

It's still not pretty but at least it's progress. And what you can't really tell from the window is that there is so much more light, it seems like a real room and not a dungeon. But the best part about Step 2 being done because the next parts aren't expensive, just time and labor intensive. And Craig's good at the laboring thing. Time is a bit harder to come by but we can work little by little and I'll still feel like we are making progress.