May 29, 2013 -What we have done on the house so far, Part 2.

So, one of the reasons we bought our new home was the unfinished basement. We like to be able to mold our home to suit our needs, so, an unfinished basement gives us a blank slate to play with. Unfortunately, this one was kinda gross. With evidence of past floodings, a pane of glass broken out of the slider,  somewhat elevated radon levels, and a general lack of having been cleaned meant it was off limits to the children until we could address some of the issues. Here are the pics of the basement from when we moved in, notice the lower part of the insulation was ripped off, they claimed damage from a dog, we are more inclined to believe they were trying to cover up for past water damage.

So, the 1st things we did to make it more kid safe, were to chemically clean the floor, tear off the bottom half of the insulation because it was loose and we didn't want the kids to touch it, we upgraded the radon system from passive to active with a fan to suck the radon out, and we painted the floor. Painting the floor served to hide the old stains, get rid of any cement dust, and further aide in blocking the radon.

Then, we started to address our other need down there. Shelves to hold all that stuff laying around on the floor. And, that meant we had to build a room to put them in. So, our 1st room, the storage closet, was born.

We have also been able to address the issue of the broken slider, by, installing a new french door in it's place.

Then, as we have had a couple hundred dollars here or there, we have been able to further frame, wire, insulate, and drywall more areas of the basement. 

 

Being like other parents, the kids get their stuff 1st, but, we have now gotten to our room too. This was an expensive one, not for the crown moulding we added, but, because it involved upgrading to furniture that fits our gigantic bedroom. We had wanted to build our new bedroom set, but, I saw this set and it was just what I wanted without all the time and labor, involved for us. So, we took the plunge and got it.

And, where did the other furniture go you say? Well, it has become the guest room furniture. Complete with a new stand we built to hold the TV.

And, now it goes better with this other little project we did this year, paint and crown moulding in the guest bath.  I will also note that we painted the kids bath early on, but, I will refrain from posting that because the colors are too similar to the original to tell the difference, plus we may gut it at some point.. We  also painted the master bath a pale green early on, but, I will hold off on that one for now as well, because we need to gut it at some point too.

 
 
                             Looks like I nearly forget the garden boxes we added in the backyard.  .

And, I think that brings us to our most recent projects. We have had to save and dig deep into our pockets for the most recent upgrades. Okay, maybe not so much for this 1st one, but, the next one is the big one. It is a little small, but, the 1st pic is an attempt to show how the front of the house used to look. The next one is a little bed of shrubs I was able to create by transplanting some of the plants from the front yard and the one below that is of the new plants we put in front of the house to replace the overgrown, dying ones that were there.

And, because we have wanted the luxury of being able to walk out our back door for over a year now, we have been setting some money aside and finally got enough pulled together to start our back deck. This one is still a work in progress, but, we have made some significant progress, enough to warrant a couple of pics of it. When we are done there will be a roof and more railing, but, that will have to wait for another post.