Basement Remodel

This past weekend was spent painting, painting, oh, and painting. Our buddy was able to come over and replace the drywall that had gotten wet from the water back up. We had decided to texture the walls as it was easier to patch in the new drywall with the old. Before, we had paneling on the lower half of the wall with a lovely wallpaper that had the strands of fiber running through it.

Family Room - one half of it.

Office/Lower Bedroom - one half of it.

Looking back at these pictures, it's hard to remember that carpet looking that nice! The dogs really did a number on it. The quality of the carpet left a lot to be desired. So what we did, because the water penetrated all along the perimeter of the lower level, from the chair rail down we tore out the old, wet drywall and hung the green board that is designed to be in bathrooms. That way it is mold and mildew resistant throughout the entire drywall. Once that was hung, our buddy came and primed and textured the walls. Funny enough, it looks a lot like one of my animal-print sweaters that I own.

Primed Family Room

Primed and textured Office

So with that done, it was time to paint! I decided to paint both rooms the same color just for the sake of convenience. I like neutral colors, and I really like earth tones. We needed something that would work with the couch that we have downstairs, plus our love seat from our living room set that has now made its home in the office. What I ended up with was a gray-green color from Sherwin-Williams called Techno Gray.

I started painting Saturday morning, and since Jason was busy with the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new police department followed by two games of flag football (one he refs, the other he plays in), I dropped Dan off at our friend's place so I could paint uninterrupted. Here he is playing in the kitchen with our adopted niece C.

Since we were painting, I also painted the ceilings. They definitely needed a new coat of paint. So, after all was said and done, we got the ceiling painted plus two coats on the walls over the weekend. Everything looks so much better than before!

Family Room

Office

 We are still deciding on whether to put down bamboo flooring vs. carpet as well as if we're going to do wood doors or go white. We will be changing the doors out to the 6-pannel style, it's just a matter of whether we match the cherry like we are installing upstairs or have these ones be white. There is a nice divide between the different levels so having these doors white wouldn't look out of place just as long as the door style stays the same.

Aside from Jason having his busy Saturday morning, on Sunday we went to the family open house at the PD and did a little grocery shopping. If you ever come through West Bend, the new PD is beautiful! Not only are the upgrades esthetically pleasing, the functionality is far superior. The safety of the officers and the citizens, whether in custody or not, is vastly improved as well as the facilities for evidence handling, gun cleaning (they never had a place in their old building), and computer/network storage area. Their locker rooms are also much better with vented doors to allow the Kevlar to breathe. If you have never smelled sweaty Kevlar - you're not missing out! They also have a nice workout facility with a large open area for their DAAT training. The chief was talking about having fitness classes in there, which is where I suggested I come in and teach a yoga class. He was very interested. Coming into the PD and teaching the guys yoga has been something on my mind since I was in my yoga teacher training.

Before I end things here, I was able to get the video uploaded of the water flowing out of our sump pump well during our power outage the week before Easter. This is only a six-second clip. Imagine how much water was coming in over the course of 5 hours! Thankfully the way the cement settled in the basement, there wasn't a lot of water overall, nor was it more than a quarter inch deep at the deepest points. It was still a lot of water!

Sump Pump Water Flow - LINK

And, just for fun, I also uploaded a video of Dan laughing at me making fake hiccup noises. He is such a ham!

Fun With Dan - LINK

Before I left for work this morning, Dan and I were playing around. His thing now is grabbing peoples faces, especially lips and noses. He grabs my nose and starts smiling and laughing. I go in to grab his nose and he brings his head forward causing my thumb to hit his forehead. Well, my nail got him and gave him a good scratch. Poor buddy didn't like that. Here is his response after he calmed down. I like to think he's saying "This is where my nose is, silly Mama!"

Sassy Dan

Oh, and while we're going through our things, Jason ran across a picture of him when we was about 7 months old. I definitely think we have a little Jason! You can see glimpses of me in Dan, but there certainly is a lot of Jason! Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Mom, Dad, and Dan at roughly the same age