The (almost) Finished Product

This is what the basement looks like now.
Here's the hallway. The wall on the left and and on the left of the door all had lots of mold growing that they cut out. The wall directly behind me also did, but the picture would just be a wall so I figured that you didn't really care to see it.

Sorry that this room is such a mess. It has become my craft room. It was Mark's idea - God had completely blessed me with a sweet husband who cares enough about my interests to think that I should have my own space for my projects! ...Or maybe he just wanted them out of the way in the rest of the house. hehehe No, he really did care....
Anyway, there is a huge table right in the middle which takes up most of the room so I couldn't get any good pictures. But I'll still show you what I took. There were two walls that they cut in this room, this isn't one, but it looks good! :)

They cut this one, but of course, you can't see it because it's covered with chairs that I haven't figured out what to do with (that sentence just doesn't sound right...).

Both of these walls were cut also. As you can see, I haven't gotten my craft room organized at all. That will come. I'm hoping to get lots of shelving/drawers and maybe some more work surfaces at garage sales and other types of thrifty places.

 At least you get to see our new sump pump and back up. Isn't it just so pretty and exciting!?

And here's the guest room.
For my birthday (since it's on Thanksgiving and we'll be visiting his fam at the ranch), Mark gave me all last Saturday (the 17th) to work on projects. He took care of the kids all day and all I had to do was fun stuff. I got so many projects done that were in my head and on my sewing machine (which I can see again! YAY!) and just laying around everywhere. Some of those projects are in here.
 It looks slightly better than it did when it was in all it's 90's glory. :)

I'm going to do something to those lampshades because they're silky (but you can't tell in this picture) and it just isn't quite right with the rest of the room. Also the bed needs some throw pillows. I have leftover material from making the couch pillows, so then they'll match those. I just have to get more pillows to cover...to thrift store I will go. :)

Mark's Grandma Muriel's picture. She got it in Mexico years ago. I think it's what started Mark's love of ships.

The crib turned into a couch. Eventually, I'm going to move things around a little to make it even more couch-like, but this is good for now. I got this idea from googling "cribs turned into couches (or benches...I can't remember)." I learned how to make pillow covers here. And then decided it needed a skirt, but I made that up as I went.

This is the spring from the crib. I got the idea for this here.
I tweaked it just a little because the silver/grays she used didn't quite go with this room; neither did the white computer paper that I printed the ships on. So I had to figure out how to make the paper look older (without spending money) - I painted and dabbed it with coffee and coffee grounds. Besides the coffee making it tan, it made it crinkled, which I thought looked nice.

It's all been a bit of an adventure but a very fun one!
Projects like these are my new hobby which I never knew I liked or could even do. Thanks to to the internet, things are so much easier than they used to be. It's not always good, though, having projects for a hobby because once the wheels in my brain start turning, it's hard to think about anything else! Not a good thing when you're a mom and wife and have lots of other things you NEED to think about. :)

I'll make a post with a few more projects some time in the future, but I think that my next post will be continuing with August. I need to catch up since it's November! Goodness!

Sump pumps

After our couple vacations in July, we came back to a wonderful surprise.

I said, "Mark, I smell something."

He said that he thought he did too.

The kids wanted to play in the basement, so I told them to go for it.

And then all of a sudden...

"MOM! THERE'S WATER ALL OVER THE BASEMENT!"

Our sump pump had failed.

 We figured that it had happened quite a few days earlier because the water had soaked up into the drywall about 18 inches and had dried in other places.

 There's mold growing on the walls...hard to see.

 

 Mold growing on the end tables and the bed skirt is wet...it had been wetter because you could see where it had dried.

So we called our insurance company and they gave me the name of a company that takes care of things like this. That company sent people the following day (since it was Sunday) and started the cleaning out process.

 They tried to dry the carpet out to salvage it, but it ended up being all stained.

 It took a few weeks, but they did a terrific job.

Our carpet, walls (the areas were cut off), trim, and door jams were ruined and all had to be replaced. Most of the furniture was okay after they cleaned it with whatever they clean things. I washed down the remaining walls with a bleach solution, just to be on the safe side. 

We ended up having to re-landscape to make sure we didn't get any other water in the basement. 

Here Marky is working on that. 

The dirt to move over to the side of the house.

And here's the boys, helping. :)

Next post will be the end results.

Eavesdropping

Bodie was playing in my room as I was busy packing to go to Marky's parents' house. I listened to the conversation that he was having between a stuffed animal pig, a Barbie doll that looks like the Rapunzel from the movie Tangled, and himself.

Bodie to the pig: Do you like Rapunzel's hair?
Pig (but really Bodie being the pig): Yes, I wanna eat it.
Bodie: No, you can't.
Pig: Why? I wanna.
Bodie: Because you can't.
Pig: Why?
Bodie as he's playing with Rapunzel's hair: Because it's nice and big and nice.
Pig crying: I wanna!
Bodie: No, you can't!

At this point, I didn't know how long this conversation was going to go on, so I continued my packing, but I'm pretty sure that the pig was never allowed to eat Rapunzel's hair.

Okoboji

On Grandpa Brown's birthday,

we went down right below their condo to swim and enjoy the beautiful day.

Time for Lunch

 Even Chester got to enjoy the water.