2010 Project Recap

So 2010 was a tough year actually. Not much blogging at all. We really didn't do as much with the house as we wanted to. With hubz out of work a lot this year, the funding for all the projects we want to complete wasn't readily available. And with my new photography venture, house blogging kind of took a back burner... but now with the basement if full swing, there will be a lot more.

The main project we've been slowly working on is indeed the basement. Which I started dreaming about as soon as we bought the place... actually, before. :)

Chapter 1: Early Preliminary Planning (a girl can dream right?) I was right about it being a year before we were able to start finishing the basement. Or at least we've been working on it a little at a time for that long, and we're still not 100% finished...

Chapter 2: Basement Inspiration: Young House Love One of my favorite house blogs. They redid the basement in their old home and gave me several ideas on how to inexpensively and effectively finish ours. They recently moved to a new home, and I can't wait to see how it evolves!

Chapter 3: If Walls Could Speak We began looking at different types of ways to do the walls - our panel adventure began.

Chapter 4: Basement Layout Plan The way we plan to layout the basement once finished. This still remains the same to this day, for the most part.

Chapter 5: Basement Idea Board This has indeed changed. I originally pictured us painting whatever we put up (either drywall or paint-able paneling)... and my color scheme idea has now changed as well. Some things will stay. I will probably create a new idea board soon to replace this one.


Chapter 6: It has began? begun? Started. The "official" start of the basement work!

Chapter 7: Basement Progress! We've Made Some! The title says it all... the first account of the progress we've made thus far.

Chapter 8: Basement Wall Panel The paneling hubz and I have agreed one - picked it out today actually. Hope to be ready to install within a couples months. This project is being funded by my father in law, as sort of our "house warming gift" he'd promised to help us with it since we moved in. With hubz out of work he's been able to devote more time to it. I guess him being laid off has some perks...

In addition to the basement, we did have a few small projects this year... We vowed not to forget the small things, even though money has been tight, and we did some more recapping on our small projects in February. And our "biggest" project this past spring, aside from the basement work, was an old swing set that came with the house, that hubz drug out of the overgrown woods and cleaned up for the kiddos, during our "Spring Cleaning" weekend.

Chapter 7: Basement progress! We've made some!

 

So above is the basement before we moved in. It's a great space! Mostly we've made progress filling it up... but slowly we are making it into a usable space. Below is the basement filled with our stuff... which is a mess and very dusty from the saw dust!

Adam has started working on his workshop at the far end of the basement. We put the first coat of paint on today, but I haven't taken pictures yet. I took these before we painted (there were only studs & some insulation here before he started):

So this is our progress... hope to update with photos of the painted walls soon. He hopes to put the 2nd coat on Monday. :)

Chapter 6: It has began? begun? started...

It's been several months since my last blog... we hadn't done much on the house to blog about until recently. We have officially started the basement renovation! I'm super excited! Adam has almost finished his little workshop at the far end, and after he's done we'll move on to start finishing the rest of the basement.

The work he's done in the workshop includes finishing the walls (they were already studded & insulated). He just had to add a few more studs to extend the room to include a large storage closet, and he used ply wood for the walls, to give it a "workshoppy" feel. LOL He has to finish the ceiling and build his workbench, then he'll be ready to move his cabinets & tools in.

For the rest of the basement, which has been mostly studded, we just have to add a few more studs, add insulation, and we are going to put up paneling. We're not going to be finishing the ceiling in the main part, as it already sits too low. We will be finishing the floor with tile.

We have a little area closed off under the steps that will be our storm center. Adam is going to add a storm door to the entry way, and we'll keep our emergency supplies down there.

Spring Clean & Swing

This past weekend was beautiful! We finally got some rain to wash away the massive amounts of pollen that has kept us indoors with the windows closed for weeks... No point in washing the car - 30 min. later it's completely covered again! You could see pollen clouds (looked like dust from a crop duster) around the trees... but this weekend I was able to open the windows and start my Spring Cleaning. Shampooed the carpets, dusted, swept up the cobwebs, mopped the hard floors... got everything done accept dusting and the carpet in the master bedroom (though I managed to get all my laundry put away and vaccuum the floor for the first time in weeks - I always clean the other rooms before mine, and never get to it), and the family room- which I dusted last weekend. Which isn't 1/2 bad... shampooed three out of four carpets, cleaned both bathrooms, the kitchen, living room, dining room, and the kid's rooms! My back is killing me... And we managed the cut down the swing set that came with the house and was at the bottom of the hill cemented down and overgrown with weeds, vines, trees... and we managed to salvage it! A little soap, water, new screws, and WD40 does wonders. I wish I'd have taken a before picture because it was really bad... But now it's great and the kids love it!

So on the agenda for next weekend is a well needed vacation-trip to my parent's in Valdosta... it will hopefully be hot enough to warm the pool! Saturday I get to endure a family reunion (inlaw's side), but otherwise it will be a much needed restful trip... Because the following weekend it's back to work! This week and next I'll finish inside the house after I get home from work... but then we have outside work to tackle... and boy do I mean tackle. The house was vacant for over a year, so the yard is badly overgrown with weeds... Hubby mowed last weekend, bless his heart, you can no longer tell - it looks worse than it did before he mowed, and this was the first time he'd mowed it since we moved in! YIKES. So weed and seed here we come... In addition to cleaning up the yard we have a back deck & front porch that need pressure washed and a fresh coat of paint... so we have some projects coming up - finally! The blog has been a little dead lately. And hopefully later this summer we'll start on the big basement project!

We're Baaack!

So the good news is hubby was only out of work 4 days (by the grace of God - there's no other explanation seeing as the average person is out of work 600 days with the economy!) He got back on out at the base, and he's happy to be back out there - he prefers the atmosphere & the schedule... he's back on M-F from 7:30-4:30-- no more Sunday's! Woot! He took a small pay cut, so we went from "comfortable" to "just fine". So the home improvements may continue, but at a slower rate... No more charging up 3 cc's at once! LOL So we have to pay off the one we have a balance on now before we do something else. We bought surround sound for the big ol' TV (that we no longer have HD cable for... *sigh*) and once it's paid for, we're looking at getting a new recliner for hubby (the padding has deteriorated on the one he has, and you can feel the edge of the wood on your back... not comfy.) We're looking at a chair and 1/2 recliner at Big Lots. :)

So the basement (which will go on the Home Depot card) is going to be set back a few months... our original starting point was March... but seeing as it is March, that's kinda out the window! So maybe by June or July, we'll cross our fingers!

Someone threw a rock into my gears... or whatever that saying is!

Welp, clear to say the basement and several other things are going to be put off for quite a while... hubby lost his job last week... he may have something lined up - he's waiting to hear from a contractor on base that he interviewed with on Friday, and it went very well - he had said he just had to talk to his boss for the final say so, and he'd call him today... 4:39 and still waiting.

But even with this new job we'll be shorter on cash... This job may not pay as well, and most likely won't do 6 month raises, and we'll have to buy another truck (we sold the one we had when he got that job b/c he had a company vehicle, and the truck just sat in the yard not being driven...) He'll start paying for gas - that was another benefit of the company vehicle - he only put gas in it when he used it for personal reasons - the irony being "personal use of vehicle" being why he was let go *cough* bull crap- they were downsizing the teams, they just found a reason... he was told by a previous supervisor he could use it as long as it was minimal, within city limits, AND he put gas in it... which he did! COX CABLE HAS BAD ETHICS! They just didn't want to pay severance... so they picked a few guys they could dig up anything on and booted them. My hubby didn't have ONE write up... no negative feedback, nothing. Anytime he asked his boss for feedback, he didn't have much to say... he couldn't get any constructive criticism to save his life, or in this case his job. He always got GREAT feedback from customers, and was probably one of the hardest working & ethical techs they had - he wouldn't have driven the van to the chiro if he wasn't under the impression it was okay. They didn't care what his "reason" was, they were going from 3 teams to 2 and this was the easiest way out.

Clear to say if he doesn't get this job, he's on his way to the unemloyment office tomorrow, I've already put the kids back on Peachcare (Thank God for Georgia's healthcare for kids!) and applied for some assistance just in case... If it weren't for my father in law we'd probably risk losing the house we just bought all together, but we're going to make the mortgage and he said he'd help us with the smaller stuff as long as we need it... I'm just glad we have someone in the other house making payments or we'd be double screwed.

We feel pretty confident he'll get this job... I'm just not very patient when it comes to waiting! LOL The guy was supposed to call him today, and if he doesn't Adam will call or go up there with his dad tomorrow. Fingers crossed, prayers said... God will get us through this! We'd been praying for him to get off the Sunday shift... this wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but God answer's prayer in his own way...

Since it's February...

I thought I'd blog for the month, since I haven't had anything to post in a while. So we filed our taxes, should have our refund by the end of the month, and be ready to start on the basement by March! Woo hoo!

We haven't done too much around the house... we did add another shelf to the pantry and finally hung the curtain track in the family room, and also hung the curtains in our bedroom. Small projects, been spending my weekends keeping the house clean. Sooo ready to take on this big project in the basement!