Final Four Picks.....

We had a good laugh at this and thought you might enjoy seeing how we spent our mornings before March Madness began.




Couple of highlights that make us laugh...
Around 4 seconds - he is actually selecting "Mason" his friend from school and not George Mason
Around 15 seconds - notice that he selects "neighbor Dave" and Notre Dame
Around 17 seconds - the computer makes sound - quite a surprise that is to him

So despite the fact that Duke has to play his friend "Mason" and his "neighbor Dave", they are still his pick for the tournament! It is likely he will win the family pool!


Well, I think that is about it from us for a while (since this is really a blog about our remodeling).

Cheers~

Duncan's Birthday

Duncan had a great birthday! Thanks to everyone for the cards, gifts, food....etc.

Here are a few videos of the birthday/birthday week.

This was a fun airplane that sang happy birthday that Great Aunt Ruth sent. It was a big hit through out the week.

Birthday Donut.....

All in all a great birthday!

All done but the organizing...

The work from our contractors wrapped up around the 4th with the carpet being installed a few days later. Then it was obvious the old carpet needed a good cleaning. So with the help of family, we started to move and rearrange the house over the last 1 1/2 weeks. We still have work to do on our end, but we are getting close.

Here is the playroom and a view of the new bathroom and bedroom. The tent and (smaller) bar is is about where the old brick bar was.

The bathroom. Toilet is behind the door. Here is the spare bedroom/office.

Next post will probably be Duncan singing Happy Birthday - hard to believe almost 2!

Lots of progress

Well, it has been a while since we last posted. So, there have been a lot of jobs completed since then: Drywall, sanding, plumbing, electrical, and priming. Today, our contractors came out and installed the bar over the sump pump area, installed the doors, and started on the trim. The project is finally seeming to come together.

First, here is DPK sitting on the new bar (still waiting for the sink and the top).

Next, here are the two installed doors and trim. (The door on the left goes to the new bedroom, the door on the right goes to the new bathroom. The door on the adjoining wall goes into the storage space. )


Here is the window jam from the egress:

Finally, two views (one top and one from the front) of how the sump pump, hot and cold water, and sewer clean-out all fit inside the leftmost cabinets in the bar. The two matching gray boxes are the water alarms (if the sump fails and water hits the sensors they scream like banshees). The other one is a remote meter reader from the city.

Basement work #2

As you can see from the pictures, the framing has started in the basement along with some additional concrete breaking and dirt moving. From the sounds of it, the plumber should be coming by shortly for the next step.

This first picture is the little pocket the toilet will sit in (from the perspective of the pedistal sink). I think the placement was a good way to minimize space loss in the storage room.

The second picture is the framing of the bathroom through the door. Nothing too exciting, but it should be a very usable addition to our basement.
The final picture is of those two cuties standing in front of the door to the bedroom. You can see how the access panel on the left was dealt with (we found out where the spigot shut-off was for the front of the house!).
We expect more work again today but it seems like good progress is being made quickly.

Basement Remodel...Take 1

We have officially started the basement remodel project as of this morning. We will update occassionally with a few pictures of the work.

In summary, we are removing a very large and underutilized bar, adding a bathroom and a bedroom. A few other misc projects will occur at the same time but those are the big ones.

Here are a few pictures before the remodel started:

The very large and underutilized bar is above. As a side comment, this bar is what houses our Sump PUMP. When Tom told Duncan this, he alerted me there was a fire in there and continues to tell everyone that comes to the basement. Why...because fire trucks have Pumpers. :)

The door on the right goes to the storage room. The window on the left is new - an egress window for the bedroom. (That window was put in on Thursday)

That brings us to tonight - which we will call, "NO Dirt" - Duncan is not pleased with the dirt in the basement - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree on that one :)

This where the bar used to be and the infamous Pumper.

There is the door to the storage room mentioned earlier and a new cut out which will be a pocket where the toilet will reside (and of course our DPK).

And last but not least...the dirt that Duncan so disliked.

The first day is usually the biggest for noticing the changes so we will update again when things continue to progress. They estimate it will take about 6 weeks, we are hoping that is accurate!

Learning to walk

Duncan has been taking a few steps over the last 2 weeks. It is now enough steps in a row to consider it learning to walk.

Here are a few of his first steps.