Basement Project Stage 1

When we first bought our house we loved the idea of having a partially finished basement, especially since we couldn't really of made one work with our old house. The thought of being able to eventually host parties and have another place to relax was awesome, the only thing stopping us was this:

Hot mess, I know. I was reminded of it several times a week when I would have to go downstairs to do the laundry and have to walk pass it.

I woke up determined to get that room cleared out, I meant I was determined to get the hubs to help me take care of it..  So after a few hours, we managed to move, organization and throw away a ton of stuff, which then left the room looking much better:

Then we got busy painting the walls from the salmon-ey color to Dutch Boy 'Water Fowl' (C15-3):

And you're probably wondering why we painted the walls before installing the ceiling.  Well we do things when we have time for them and frankly installing a ceiling didn't fit into our time frame at the moment, plus we were not sure exactly what type of ceiling we wanted.

All the holes in the trim were filled, sanded and a nice coat of glossy white paint sealed the deal.

From there we had plans to work on the vinyl flooring.  It is beat up and desperately needs to be replaced.  We wouldn't normally go with peel and stick tile, but for this area we didn't want to fork out a ton of money right now and wanted a temporary fix.  So off to our second home Menards we went because I really wanted this vinyl flooring:

But it can only be ordered in sheets and cannot be custom cut.  With that said we would have ended up wasting money, plus we realized the color wouldn't have matched. 

Round two. Back at Menards looking for something reasonable and we stumbled upon pre cut rolls of vinyl flooring for $20 each and we found two that matched thinking it would be perfect.  We brought them home and that was epic fail #2, the flooring was WAY too dark.  I took a picture, but accidently deleted it.  Trust me, way too dark.

After that fail, we went back, returned the rolls and found this tile:

We were kind of hoping to crank out this project, get the quarter round down and check off another thing on our list, but the thing about peel and stick tile is the only way it can work is if it sticks.  The hubs laid down one tile and it popped right back up. (Yes we took off the backing on it too, so it wasn't operator error).

So back to the store we went...again.  Crappy peel and stick tile returned and we raised the white flag.  We decided that the gods were working against us and took it as a sign to take a break and not worry about the floors.

We were able to make some progress besides the fact that we totally failed the floor and managed to get some can lights installed.

What's next?  Drywall.  Even a healthy Emily is not strong enough to help with the drywall, so we will have to enlist the help of a friend or two to assist the hubs in finishing that part.

Seriously A Hose Reel?

Usually the hose ends up spooled on the ground, or laying in the middle of the yard, or just tossed on the side of the house. So, every spring/summer for the past FIVE years, EVERY SINGLE TIME the hubs and I venture out looking for a hose reel we end up coming home empty handed and beyond mad at each other.

There really aren't many options out there....

There was this one.  We opted out of this one because we thought it might slide around too much in the ground and eventually fall or lean to one side or the other.

Then there was this one.  I really loved it, but I believe it was almost $100.  It was heavy duty and seemed like it would have done the job, but nope. Not going to happen.

Then the usual.  The hide away hose reel.  It wasn't terrible, but most of the parts were made of plastic and we didn't think it would hold up.  There are always return policies, but we always lose our receipts, forget where we bought it and say "screw it" when it comes to dealing with bringing it back.

There were a few others, but these are the usual three that we see EVERY year.

This is usually how it goes for our hose reel hunting process:

• Spring comes around, the hubs and I get the itch to want to clean out the outside.  Obviously we have forgotten about the previous year.
• Out comes all of the pots, patio table, chairs, cushions and the hose.
• We realize there isn't anything to hang the hose from so it looks sloppy on the side of the house.
• Off to the store we go, eagerly hoping to find something that will work perfect.
• Once inside the store, the hubs and I approach the hose/hose reel section and take in everything.
• I choose a hose reel that will most likely work, hide everything and say, "hey what about this one?"
• Hubs knocks it down. "Nope, that's not going to work."
• Then he's like, "how about THIS one?"
• I knock it down and say, "Seriously, $100 for a stupid piece of equipment to hold a hose. Absolutely NOT!"
• After going through EVERY hose reel in stock, slowly getting MORE and MORE frustrated, I march out of the area, annoyed and frustrated.
• We go home, and the hose lays either in the yard or on the side of the house all season.
• Rinse and repeat next year.

This year after going through almost all the steps above, I found one.  Its not a crank reel, no wheels on it, and it wasn't terribly priced.  The hubs and I were tossing different ones back and forth and he wasn't a huge fan of it, but I was so over doing this every year that I put it in the cart and we managed to not kill each other and we left the store.

So after FIVE stinkin' years of searching, we ended up with this:

I know, fancy right?  It's plain, simple, and works for the front of our house.  Eventually, at some point when we change the landscaping around that one might bite the dust, but for now I'm happy that we don't have to struggle with dragging the hose out from behind the bushes.

Funny thing is I brought up this struggle with my mom and she said that she's been having issues finding a decent one too.  Anyone else?

Garage Organization

Every man needs to have "their spot". Their one area where they can make it their own, get dirty, work on projects and throw back a cold one with friends if they want. The garage is THAT area for the hubs. While we still have a long way to go to get it perfect, we've made some major progress and are loving all the extra work space!

The garage isn't close to done, but we've made some major progress and are excited with how it's turning out!  After a little bit of organizing, a lot of insulating, dry-walling and bench building we are at this point in our project:

When we started our garage was a mess.  A hot mess.  We had a ton of stuff from our old garage, including stuff that needed to go inside that was just piled up in the middle of the garage.

We knew insulating the garage was a must, so the hubs got to work.

And after insulating, came drywall which makes the garage feel SO much more finished!

And after a few hours the hubs had a work bench built:

He mounted his toolbox to the wall, built another work area and mounted our two cabinets to the wall to allow extra space in the garage.

The cabinets are amazing and we are so happy that we dragged them from our old house, because we are able to store all of our car cleaning materials, vacuums, gardening and grilling items in them.

To see the comparison of what we started with:

And where we are at:

Yes.  That's a pirate flag.  That's how we roll in this house. Hardy har har!

There is still obviously a list of things that we want to do, and it's just about finding the time:

• Build a shelf above the work bench
• Finish mudding the walls 
• Paint 
• Epoxy the floors
• Get better organized

Settling In

The day we moved in was crazy.  Boxes flying, newspaper everywhere, furniture randomly all over the house.  We manage to get our bedroom and the living room the most functional, and over the past few weeks we've been unpacking, putting away and trying, TRYING to get things in order!  We are loving the layout of the house and totally loving how our furniture works with the flow!

While we still have to figure things out, here is where we're at so far!

Our office was red, had a decal on the wall and seemed kind of bland.

And after a little paint and furniture:

When we moved in we had this:

After some paint and getting our things in place we have this:

Painting the soffit made a HUGE difference with making the room look SO much bigger and it feels good to have a starter kitchen that we don't HAVE to completely gut right away!

Here is our dining room before we got our hands on it:

And all we have done is paint, but it seems a lot less "brown".  The crazy thing:  Our dining room is all the same color, no accent wall, that's just how the lighting works in our house.

Here is our living room before we painted and added our furniture:

We have been spending most of our time in this room and after moving things around managed to get it functional.  We love how comfortable this room is now!

Our bathroom.  Here is what we started with:

We have SO many plans for this room but while we figure out our game plan here is our bathroom once we added our little touches to it:

The same goes for the half-bath:

I threw down a bath mat and called it a day. Bam. Done.  At least for now.

I had big plans to get all the wallpaper down and get this room painted in time.

But that didn't happen and now this room is our catch-all room.  We haven't done anything and I just close the door and pretend it looks done inside.  Maybe one of these days I'll have the energy to tackle it.

Our bedroom was kind of bland.  We didn't like the color and even though the curtains worked for the previous owners, they weren't really our style.

 After some painting and some blinds, we did manage to get our room together and love how cozy it is.

I was NOT digging the "blue horse room".  The first thing I peeled off the walls were a bunch of horse decals that were everywhere...

And after a few coats of paint and our attempt to get something kind of set up:

The finished portion of the basement is a hot mess.  Totally looks like a tornado went through but we have plans to figure out what we're keeping, donating and tossing.

Moving on to the hubs' work area in the basement, we pretty much just dumped our boxes and moved on.

 I haven't seen any zombies come out of the crawl space yet, but I'm still on guard...

Right now my sweet fur baby is trying her hardest for me to take her out so I'm off to enjoy the beautiful weather!!