Telling this weekend, and I need your help

So my parents are coming up this weekend. They will be bringing our desk (they are building a built-in desk for our office as our Christmas and my birthday present), helping us re-do the downstairs bathroom, and basically just helping us with the finishing touches on the basement. We should be completely done with the basement this weekend! Of course this is only includes the permanent stuff such as trim, floor, doors, etc. We still have to get a sofa and a love seat, hang curtains, hang pictures, get the plasma TV we have had our eyes on at Best Buy, and finish organizing. But we are so close we can taste it!

Our plan is to grill hamburgers Saturday night. We used my birthday and lack of celebration on my birthday as the excuse for getting together. We figure that we will eat, have dessert, and while everyone is sitting around visiting, we will make the announcement.

But we aren't just going to blurt it out. Jon's mom collects the Willow Tree angels and figurines, and my mom and expressed an interest in starting a collection. I bought the Grandmother and Grandfather Willow Tree figurines and we are going to give those to them and let them figure it out from that.

I figure we will disguise it by saying, "We really appreciate all the help you have given us over the past year and a half, and we wanted to get you a little something to show our appreciation. The basement wouldn't be finished and look as good as it does without your help."

I guess I will wrap them, I just hope it doesn't seem too obvious.

There is one dilemma I am dealing with. We want to invite and include his brother and SIL. I think they would be hurt if they weren't included. However, I am trying to be sensitive to them too. They have been trying to get pregnant for the better part of 6 years. They have tried some fertility drugs, looked into adopting, but nothing has really panned out for them. I know they will be happy for us, but I feel that if they are there that they may feel put on the spot and uncomfortable. The last thing I want if for them to be upset with us. I just don't know what to do, and I feel like it is a no-win situation. What really stinks is that I can't really talk it out with my mom and get her advice, because to talk about it would be to tell her.

Should we go ahead and invite them and before they come down call and tell them first to give them a heads up and they can decide if they want to come down or not? Should we just not invite them (which I think may be rude)? Or should we just let them find out with our parents?

Help!

Storage and a product review

So we are getting close to being done with our basement, and I just have to brag about our storage room for a sec. I believe the measurements are around 20ft x 6.5ft. So its a good size, perfect for putting up shelving side-by-side. I have been buying Rubbermaid bins in 3 different sizes for keeping things tidy down there, because I know we have the ability to really clutter it up.

So here you somewhat see the length of the room. We were in the middle of putting up that long shelf across the back wall, hence the level. I plan on storing seasonal decorations that don't have boxes on the shelf, and hanging our ski bibs and heavy winter coats that only get worn every once in a while.

Another view of our shelves and storage bins. I've bought a few more smaller bins by now that fit in those empty spaces next to the bins. I've also started filling the bins. I'll probably just wait until we are 100% complete for those pictures.

As part of the great storage event of 2009/2010, I had to get something that would help me maximize the use of the bins and the space we have, as well as avoiding the cluttering effect.

I've always been curious about Space Bags:

These nifty little bags allow you to stuff as much as you possibly can into them, zip them shut (much like Ziploc bag), then suck all the air out with your vacuum. As with all "As Seen on TV" products out there, I was a bit skeptical, but I figured I'd give it a whirl.

Here I have a velour blanket for a full size bed, and a wool blanket that Jonathan's dad had when he was enlisted.

Bag is full and ready to be vacuumed!

Simply close the bag, open the valve, and start vacuuming, and remember to close the valve when you are done. A little hint, don't suck it all out at once, especially if its clothes. You can do this, but the bag gets all wrinkly, which would be especially annoying if you are putting clothes in there because then they in turn would be all wrinkly. What I found works is if I suck some, pull out the wrinkles in the bag, suck a little more, pull out wrinkles again, then by the 3rd suck you should be good to just let the vacuum do its magic.

Ta da! I think it was about 4 inches thick here, and hard as a rock.

I give these bags A+++

Seriously, the coolest things ever. I have actually since added one more twin size blanket to this bag. I had so much fun with these bags, I "space bagged" everything I could think of. I managed to fit 14 t-shirts into one bag, leaving a 4 inch space between stacks of shirts in the bag so I could fold the bag in half when I was done vacuuming it. I also fit 4 jackets of Jonathan's from when he was little into one (leather bomber jacket, a pro football letter man style jacket, a trench coat, and a bugle boy jacket). Another bag had 6 sweatshirts in it. All this I managed to fit into one of those bins you see above. ONE! With room to spare. How cool is that.

The bags come in various sizes, and some are large enough to fit a King size comforter into! I would definitely recommend these to anyone that has lots of comforters that they like to change out with the seasons. (Ahem, both my mom and mother-in-law) I would also think they would be good for those with kids. If there are clothes that they have grown out of that you just love, but couldn't' imagine parting with, these would be great for keeping those in (and keeping moths, ants, critters in general away) and keeping them fresh.

Hey Space Bags, I promoted your product, you wanna send me more bags?

I almost forgot!

Actually I totally forgot. If you recall, back in this post and this post, I talked about our new floors getting installed and the delivery of them. I also mentioned in those posts that I would post pictures. Obviously I didn't do that. So, I am here to rectify that.

For your viewing enjoyment, I present the new floors!

The new floors are delivered!

Moisture barrier down in the bedroom (sorry, its kinda dark...)

What a mess, but part of the process.

Floors done in the office!

Floors done in the living area!

Floors done in the bedroom!

Looks totally different, doesn't it? I love the way it turned out. Even better, all these rooms now have window and door trim, and baseboards down. The bedroom even has the furniture in it now, too! I really need to get more pictures on those.

This weekend we are tackling the gym, that will be the last room we do. As it stands right now, it is the "staging area", if you will. We are using that area to paint all the baseboards before we nail them down, that way we don't have to worry about getting paint on the new floors. So, on the agenda for Saturday is to move all the equipment and stuff out of there, sweep, vacuum the floors, and paint the floors. I think we are going to start with just painting the edge of the room (i.e. where the baseboards will be), then once the baseboards are down and caulked, I will paint the rest of the floor. We are doing it this way because the caulk actually makes quite a mess.

The plan is to paint the floor the same dark brown as the storage room, at least 2 coats (what I didn't tell you is that the storage room actually got a 3rd coat because it got chipped in a few places from the hammer.) To try to avoid the new dark gym floor from getting chipped and ugly, I am wanting to do a final coat of urethane on the floor for protection. I don't know if this is a good idea, but I want to investigate that a little more. Eventually we will put carpet down in there, so maybe I just shouldn't worry about it. Meh, we'll see.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Yes, I know I'm 4 days behind. I have been busy. Needless to say, after a 10 day stay-cation I am back and work and have a little more time to write here.

Christmas was good. We spent Christmas Eve with Jon's parents, then got up bright and early Christmas morning to drive to my parent's house 2 hours south of us. We ate too much - which is the norm with us - we exchanged gifts, and visited. We even managed to run ~7 miles on Saturday (12/26/09) to try to put a dent in all those calories we consumed.

Sunday we drove home and that started our week of work. After spending close to $500 in pre-hung doors and trim, we realized how much of an undertaking finishing the basement would be. Pre-hung doors are of the devil. We started trying to hang a door on the storage room Sunday night. After 2 hours of fighting with it, we completely disassembled it. Once is was all up, we saw that it looked like crap. So we went to bed and decided to tackle it first thing in the morning.

Door - 1; Us - 0

Monday morning we got the stupid thing down, and using our knowledge from the first attempt, got it up by noon. Total time hanging one door - about 7 hours.

Thankfully, we had a steep learning curve with this. The second door took about 2 hours (only because we had to cut off the bottom and chip out some of the toe board that was hanging over so the door would fit right). The third door took about 30 min, and the fourth door about an hour. Thank God my dad helped us hang the french doors on the bedroom last year, I think I would have thrown it out the window.

Pretty much the rest of the week was spent measuring, cutting, nailing, painting, and caulking trim. And we still don't have it all done, but we are sooo close. We are pretty positive that we will be 100% done with all the trim work by the end of January. I can't wait for that. Then I can start decorating and moving in furniture!

In other news, I signed us up for the Atlanta ING Half Marathon.

::cue my deer in headlights look::

I really am excited. We had talked about doing the Callaway Gardens Half Marathon on January 31, but with zero running last week, missing my 8 mile run, and the fact that we really want to have the basement done by the end of January (not to mention that its a freaking icebox outside - hello 28* high!), we decided that we were putting too much on our plates. We will be much better prepared come March 21, and it will be slightly warmer. So, let our training, err, re-training (?) commence.

Any of you have exciting 2010 plans?

Its here!

Woo hoo! They delivered the floors today! And might I say, they are probably the best at sticking to their schedule and promised time than anyone I've ever dealt with. Seriously. Yesterday, they told us they would be at our house sometime between 12 and 2. I groaned at that, because, while I knew they would be there at least by 2, that is still a 3 hour window. And so commenced trying to figure out our schedules.

Jon was approved to tele-work, but at the last minute yesterday (read: as he was walking out the door), his boss told him there was a meeting at 8:30 that he had to go to. So then I had to plan to take an early lunch that would last 1.5 hrs (of course, I am not opposed to this.) Thankfully, Jon's meeting was done by 10:30 and he took the rest of the day off. I still left at 11:30, because I hadn't brought my lunch and I hate buying fast food. I was home by 12:05 (thanks flood for wiping out roads and making my usual 15 min commute 30+ minutes), and around 12:20 they were pulling up with our floors. Talk about punctuality!

It took all of 10 minutes to unload the flooring, and then we were left admiring and daydreaming about our soon to be new floor!

And, yes, I was back at work around 1:15...

A new love

This past Saturday, Jon and I ventured to Atlantic Station for a trip to Ikea. I was so excited, as I had never been to an Ikea before and I had been wanting to go for quite some time. We turned onto 16th street and as we rounded the corner, the big blue and yellow building loomed ahead of us. I think it was at this point I let out a squeal. This was more exciting than our trip to Whole Foods the weekend before.

So, we park (didn't see the parking decks until after we had parked, and man it was cold out!) Make our way to the entrance, walk in, then stand there not knowing where to start. So we go left. Wait, these are the checkout registers. Are we supposed to go up the escalator first? We grab a map - yes, a map. This place is so huge and spread out, they provide a map for you, as well as a shopping list and a pencil. I LOVE THIS STORE! So, we ascend the escalator and are deposited near the restaurant and we start to make our way toward the beginning. At this point I suffered from sensory overload, and my ADD really kicked in. I was going back and forth across the isle, couldn't focus on any one thing. Then I saw the chair I have been wanting for forever and a day. The Poang Chair. I take a seat, and just kinda zone while I try to get my bearings. Seriously. I was feeling very overwhelmed by the store already, and we were still in the first section...

Once my adrenaline wore off a little, I was better able to understand their map. And I must say, the way the store is set up is brilliant. It is a one way - you are sent through "showrooms" and as you see things you like, you write on your shopping list the aisle and bin where you can pick it up in the "Market place". Smaller things you can pick up as you see them. We went to Ikea with the sole purpose of buying a gift card and looking around. Thats it. Instead, we walked out with the gift card, curtains, Poang chair, footstool, and cushions, and a bookcase. The chair and ottoman is actually my Christmas present, so under the tree it went when we got home. I can't wait to get the bookcase together so we can start putting our thousands on books on it. Its a good thing I don't live or work close to there. I would have no money.

But before anything can be put together, we have to get the floor in. Good thing that is being done this coming Saturday. Thats right, this Saturday, as in Dec. 19! They came and gave us an estimate yesterday and they weren't available for installation the days we wanted (Dec. 28), and the earliest they could do it was this Saturday, so we figured, why not!? The sooner its done, the sooner we can start to de-clutter the upstairs. Woo hoo! So, this Saturday, we will have a floor! I will definitely have to post pictures of that.

Getting closer!

Today Jon and I went up to Marietta to visit Lumber Liquidators to check out the floors they carry. We are finally to the point that we are ready to put the floors down in the basement. My wonderful parents came up for 4 days again this year for Thanksgiving and they were a HUGE help in getting the basement to the point it is now. My dad and Jonathan cut and hung all the tiles for the drop ceiling, and my mom and I picked out paint for the bedroom and the living room (and let me tell you, that bedroom is cheery and BRIGHT! Well, you will see.) While dad and Jon were hanging tile, my mom and I painted - she did all the trim work and I rolled.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, so we didn't do much but cook, eat, and eat some more. This year Jon and I were responsible for the turkey. Nine people were depending on the turkey turning out well. Talk about pressure. We had bought a turkey fryer, mostly with the intent of using it for Low Country Boils, but what better way to break it in than to fry a turkey for Turkey Day! I just wish I had gotten pictures. Fortunately, my mom as made a fried turkey before, so with some instruction from her, I am please to report that the turkey turned out fantastic. Jon did such a good job cooking it and it everyone enjoyed eating it. I think we may have volunteered ourselves for cooking the turkey for all future Thanksgivings.

On Friday, ceiling tile started going up and my mom and I painted the bright bedroom. Saturday, we got up early to get to work because my mom and I had to leave the house around 6:30 to get to Atlanta for the GaTech vs. UGA game (which was just despicable...). We got the living room painted and the ceiling tiles were finished. My dad and Jon were also able to carpet the stairs before we left. And with that, everything that needed to be done before the flooring was done!

Which brings us back to today (thanks for keeping up, I know I kinda back tracked.) We had wanted to use either Bamboo or Engineered Hardwood (EHW) in the basement. Since we dryloked the floors, we knew moisture wouldn't be an issue, so really it all came down to look and price. The guy that helped us out recommended that we use either EHW or Laminate, not Bamboo ... (Jon just yelled from the living room, "Love you, baby." I responded, "I love you too." Then he said, "Why don't you write that in your blog?" So, I took it as a challenge and did.) ... I think the reasoning was because any moisture, even the vapors that come through the concrete floor and drylok, will cause the Bamboo to swell. Then we noticed the price of the EHW, which was twice that of Bamboo, didn't include cost of the underlayment (for the floating) or glue (for the glued down), and didn't even account for the transition pieces. So then we moved to the Laminate. I have always been against Laminate. I think it looks really fake and it clicks when you walk across it, and I don't want to spend all this money on floors and not be happy with it.

I think I have changed my mind about Laminate (not all laminate, just the 12mm stuff they had). The Laminate Lumber Liquidators had looked so real. It has the foam pad built in, a moisture resistant core, a 30 yr warranty, and did I say it looks real!? Here, see for yourself

See, isn't it pretty? Hopefully we can have it put in sometime either the week before Christmas, or the week between Christmas and New Year.

After we left there, we went to Whole Foods, aka Harry's Farmers Market. I love that place. It really is a good thing we don't live closer to there because I would probably spend my whole paycheck and then some in that store. I feel like a kid in a candy store when I go in there.

So, without further ado, here are a few pictures from the week of Thanksgiving...

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The BRIGHT bedroom

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Jon hanging tile in the gym

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Almost finished painting the living room and the ceiling done!

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Jon and dad almost done with the stairs

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And I can't leave out the furbabies

Whoa

I was in a meeting this morning, and a deadline was being discussed and set for 3 weeks from now. 3 weeks from now is 2 weeks before Christmas! I can't believe its almost Christmas - I can't believe its almost 2010! That means I've been out of high school for 10 years, and my HS reunion is coming up in June. Ack!

In other news... We didn't run this past Saturday like I wanted to. I think Jon forgot about it, but I didn't. But I didn't bring it up either. We had a lot we had to get done in the basement, and I have a head cold. Its not too bad, its all above the neck so I can still run no problem, I'm just having a hard time breathing with all the congestion. Its for the better anyway. My time would have suffered and I would have been discouraged. There is still the 10k (or 15k) on Dec. 5 in Savannah we might do, but even that is starting to not look so good. We are really working hard to get as much done on the basement as possible, and we are having a hard time justifying spending $300-$400 for a 24 hr trip to Savannah just to run ($50 for both of our race entries, $75 in gas, $250 hotel for one night, food...). Its even harder to justify it when we know we have the expense of the wood flooring coming up in the next few months.

I know the race will be there next year, I was just really looking forward to it. I love when Jon and I can complete a race together, and I just love Savannah and look for any excuse to go back :-) There is always a 5 mile run on Tybee we could do in February...

In basement news, we have all the mudding and sanding done!!! (Yes, that deserves multiple exclamation marks, its that big of a deal!) We got the gym and office painted, the stairwell repainted, and everything else primed on Saturday. Sunday we took down all the fans, and on Monday the contractors were here to install the drop ceiling grid. They got to the house at 9 and were done at 4, and it looks great! Granted there are no tiles in it yet, but you get the jist of it. This weekend we are going to put some tiles up and paint the walls in the storage room and the floor as well. Then during Thanksgiving, we can get the storage room arranged and start moving stuff to where it will be permanently. I can't wait!

Unfortunately, all the progress and finished pictures of the ceiling is still on my camera, which is at home. Hopefully soon, I will get the pictures up.

The best In-Laws ever!

I have the best in-laws ever! Seriously.

They live literally 500 ft from us. I tell people this and they groan and tell me how sorry they are. There is nothing to be sorry for! I love them! They respect our space, and always call before coming over. We will occasionally go over for lunch on a Sunday, and they are more than willing to help us our with stuff we have going on.

For instance, Jonathan took this past Tuesday off and had Wednesday off for Veteran's day. You know what he did all day Tuesday? He and his mom and dad put a coat of primer on all the finished walls in the basement! I am so thankful for them, and have been so blessed in the in-law department. I hear so many horror stories and just thank God that I have great in-laws.

On the agenda now is to get the area at the bottom on the stairs (the landing) sanded one last time and the coat of primer on the wall Friday night. There are a few touch up sanding spots that need to be done, then of course a bit of primer over that. We'll do all that Friday night. Saturday morning we will be up bright and early to paint the gym, office, and landing their final color! Then Sunday we have to take down all the ceiling fans so the guys can easily and quickly install our drop ceiling. I will take pictures on Monday to AW (attention whore) the progress.

Unfortunately my running is kinda taking a back seat. The basement is taking up so much time - we did it to ourselves really. We scheduled the ceiling to be installed before we were done with the mudding and sanding. The last 3 weeks have been an all out race to the finish! And, I got sick. Nothing too contagious (and not the piggy flu), just an annoying head cold thats trying really hard to turn into a sinus infection, and I don't have a fever. I will attempt to run tonight, if I can breathe.

Basement progress!

I just started following yet another blog, Young House Love, but this one is dedicated to home renovation. The couple, Sherry and John, moved to Virginia from New York and bought a fixer upper house that was majorly out-dated (seriously, go look at all the before and after pics - you won't believe it). Their house looks amazing now, and it was featured on The Nest, and they even write a column in Better Homes & Gardens DIY magazine. I love their style and their decorating ideas! Seriously, check it out if you are doing any type of home renovation/remodeling.

This brings me to my next topic. Our basement is getting there. Its coming along nicely, and even though we don't have as much done as I would like to have done, I can't complain about the progress. Thus far, the HVAC and electrical are done, all the sheetrock is hung, we will be done with all the sanding and mudding in the next week, and on Nov. 16 we are having the drop ceiling installed! I CANNOT WAIT! I was wanting to have the flooring ready to install during Thanksgiving, but time and money wise we can't. I will just have to wait until after the new year, but the advantage in doing that is that we have plenty of time to get all the walls painted the color we want them without having to worry about the floor.

This past Saturday, we also got the electric fireplace that will go in the main living area. I love it, and I wish I could share a picture right now, but I can't for the life of me find a picture of it online. We got it at Sam's, it is solid wood construction, and it has a space for all the cable/gaming components. It also has doors on the side that swing out and have TONS of space for storing all those DVDs and video games. Another huge plus was that is was a little less expensive that the ones sold at Home Depot or Lowe's, and it was much bigger too. Sadly, it will be staying in the box until the floors are put in.

Alright, I want to share some before and after pics, and there will be more once the walls are painted and the ceiling is hung. I can't guarantee there won't be a ton, so consider yourself warned ;-)

View of the main living area
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Living area after sheetrock
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Office - hanging insulation. Notice the solid concrete wall behind the studs. We Drylocked every square inch on concrete in that basement, floors included. The September flood was no match for the the Drylock!
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Office after sheetrock! You can see a glimpse of our awesome storage area (hint: See the red body bag? Don't worry, its the Christmas tree.)
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Our awesome storage area! I'm rather partial to the two-toned insulated look.
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Almost done with sheetrock in the storage room. Just for reference (and to brag), our storage area is 7' x 20'. Lots of room to further our pack-rat habits.
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Don't have an after shot of this, but just wanted to share the view from the landing into the living area. My dad helped us widen the door so it wouldn't feel so closed in at the bottom of the stairs.
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Proof that I do contribute ;-)
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We have done lots more since these after pictures. The bedroom is done and primed, the storage room is primed, the office and living area is ready for the last sanding and then priming, and the gym is ready for the second coat of mud. The only thing I am concerned about right now is the landing. We still have to build the headers on two doors for the utility closets, and mud and sand the landing. One closet has the HVAC system, the other has the hot water heater and eventually a deep freezer. Both of these closets will have bi-bold louvered doors. I know, I'm not a fan of that style either, but a solid louvered door is $250 vs. $60 for a bi-fold. I'll deal with it for that cost difference.

Back to the grind

I hate going back to work following a holiday. Although, yesterday didn't really feel like a holiday to me. It was my normal Monday off, so I kinda feel jipped in the paid holiday area. Although, I will be getting 8 hrs of additional pay on the next paycheck due to my day off falling on a holiday. But lets be honest, I would much rather have 3 Mondays off in a row than an extra $150.

So how was everyone's Labor Day weekend?! Jon and I worked in the basement All.Weekend.Long. But we really enjoyed it. Come Monday afternoon, we were ready for a mental break from it. Between Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I believe we spent a grand total of 30 hrs working! That does NOT include lunch and dinner breaks, and trips to town for more supplies. We really hit it hard and we got a lot done to show for it. We are getting really close to having 100% of the Sheetrock hung and then we can start to mud.

We're really dreading the mudding and sanding - that will be very tedious and time consuming, not to mention dusty/messy. Considering we have to do 3 coats of mud, allowing at least 24 hrs of drying time between mudding, and sanding between each coat, we are really going to be pushing our Thanksgiving goal to be done withe the Sheetrock and mudding. Slowly but surely. (Just to refresh your memory on exactly how much mudding is involved. Our basement is 1800 sq.ft. There are 6 rooms, and 3 closets. We have A LOT to do!)

I just can't wait until we start to paint and hang the ceiling, and put down the floor (we're using natural bamboo - can't wait!) I need to designate a post just for before pictures and progress pictures.

On the running front, we didn't do the US 10k classic at all. Jon didn't run, I didn't walk, and the saddest of all, we didn't go to Whitewater. Oh well, I would rather have a finished basement than go to Whitewater (don't tell Jon I said that).

Electrical done!

Thats right! All the electrical is DONE in the basement! I am sooo excited! I mean, I feel like we have been just sitting on this, waiting to do something. Jon and I both took today and yesterday off from work (hello, 5 day weekend!) Now, all fans and lights are up, each room has lights that turn on independently from each other, and there are plug-ins. Before, there was 3 plug-ins in the ENTIRE basement. 3 for 1800 sq. ft. Not enough, especially when you have tools that need to be plugged in. Now, there is 36. I purposefully had them put in more than what code calls for. You can't have enough outlets.

In the gym, we put two white, harbor breeze ceiling fans, both on different switches. One day we might put up a wall in the middle to create another bedroom, but for now, it is a 15' x 30' gym.

The office and bedroom have the same fans, Hunter Westminster. The blades are reversible and the base is bronze, but its actually closer to black. The color on the blades will go really well with the furniture.

The center room, or I guess its a living room, has my favorite fan. Its actually an outdoor fan, but we wanted the tropical-esque style fan, but nothing too over the top, that would go with the subtle tropical theme that we will be decorating with. It is a Hunter and the blades have a rattan design on it with bamboo running the length of the blade down the center. The glass globe has leaf impressions in the glass. I love it. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a picture. I will look for it and post if I find it.

Four can lights went up in the back of the living room for light above the ping-pong table, and so its not like a cave. A dome/globe light was put up over the double doors that go out to the back yard. Two sconces will go on the wall outside the bedroom. For now they are just bare 60 Watt bulbs, but eventually they will be stained glass sconces. My mom is in the process of making them (stained glass is her hobby and let me just say she makes some amazing pieces), and I can't wait to see how they turn out. Eeek! I'm so excited!

Next step, air conditioning. We are going to get some sheetrock and insulation up between now and then Hopefully, we should be done with that type stuff by Thanksgiving. Maybe we'll even have enough money in the budget to get the flooring done too! One can dream, right?

Brief moment of panic

Just call me butterfingers. Aside from the fact that I can't seem to hold on to anything lately, I am also victim to typing slips.

I was watching 5 - 10% off Lowe's coupons on my addiction, eBay. There was one minute remaining and someone outbid me. So, I go to enter in $5.00 into my max bid (when you about about to spend more than $2,000 in stuff for finishing the basement, $5 is nothing) using the One-Click-Bid. If you are familiar with eBay, you know how dangerous this is. It is really easy to get carried away and bid above what you want to pay for it. Anyway, I am entering my amount. Instead of hitting the "." I accidentally hit "3". !!!!! <-- I can't think of a word for my reaction. I just bid $5,300 for these coupons. Crap.

I emailed the person right away, before the bidding was over.

If I had taken and moment and thought about it, I would have remembered that eBay charges you something like 50 cents over the second highest bid. Whew!

So, lesson learned. Be more careful when using the One-Click-Bid. Oh, and I ended up paying $5.51 for them. Totally worth it.

Where did the time go?

OK so, I have totally lost a week... I got to my Tuesday morning meeting and the boss went around the room asking who would be here and who would not be here next week. I was like, isn't that two weeks away? Everyone looked at me like I had two heads. "Uh, no, Ginnie, Christmas is next week." WHAT!! I can't believe it is here already. I mean, when I think about it, it makes sense, and yeah, Christmas is next week. But crap, where have I been? I just got all my Christmas shopping done yesterday, which is totally out of character for me. I usually have it all done by Thanksgiving. Ugh...

So, Christmas is in a week. That is actually really exciting to me. Here I was thinking I had to work the full 5 days next week, but I don't, yay! It will only be a 3 day week, and quiet, since all the contractors will be off.

On the basement front, we got another room painted/sealed this past weekend. We painted the future gym walls and floor, and the guest bedroom floor (refer to pic below for floor plan). This Saturday we will be painting the long center room, aka living area, wall and floor, as well as the remaining floors in the two rooms on either side of the stairs and the landing of the stairs. Then we are done with that! I can't wait to have all the concrete painted. It will significantly cut down on the amount of dust. Jon and I are taking the entire week of New Year's off and we are really going to focus on getting all the studding done with. That will probably be where we stop for a few months, getting more money saved so we can install the HVAC system and all the electrical. So much to do! But its really coming along and it is so exciting to see the progress, as small as it may be. I will try to post some pictures, just have to go take them... Which I definitely should, that way we can look back at everything while we sit in our new complete and finished basement :-)

Very thankful

So Thanksgiving was very productive. Not only did we eat to our hearts' content, but we made progress on the basement. My parents came up Wednesday afternoon and stayed through Sunday morning. Now, I know what you are thinking, but it really wasn't bad at all. They brought their 5th wheel and slept out there. I think that really helped, and they slept better because of it. Our guest bedroom only has a double bed, their trailer has a queen. Come Sunday, I kinda wanted them to stay a few more days!

Thursday morning we got last minute meal preparations done and headed to Carrollton for lunch with Denny (my adopted American grandmother) for a few hours. Then it was off to my IL's. Imagine the dinner table: Me and Jon, his brother and sister-in-law, my parents, his parents, and his great aunt - who is German. Quite comical, especially since 3 of the people at that table all try to dominate in a conversation. But it was fun nonetheless.

Friday morning the 4 of us head to Lowe's for lumber and supplies. Our basement is completely unfinished. All that is down there is Jon's weights, my treadmill and sofa that I had in my apartment, a ping-pong table, and some odds and ends. There are 2 framed walls, but those are there solely because they are load bearing walls. So the plan for the next 2 days was to install a double door and build the wall that the door will go in (this door will be for the future guest bedroom), widen a doorway (located in one of the load bearing walls), and seal the concrete with Dry-Lock on the walls and floors of two rooms. Also, I'm hoping my dad can show us how to go about putting studs up on the concrete walls.

Amazingly, we actually completed all that we had planned. Putting in the door took longer than I thought it would. Painting took MUCH longer than I thought it would. I am so excited about the widening of the doorway. Not only did it go from 3 ft wide to 4 ft-8 in, we were able to increase the height from the standard 7 ft to 8ft. It really makes it feel so open. That is really one of my concerns. I hate walking into basements and feeling like I'm in a cave, due to the ceilings being so low. Because of some of the plumbing work in ours, it looks like the drop ceiling will be around 8 ft high. That's not too bad. That is the standard ceiling height, but it will be considerably lower than the upstairs, which I believe is closer to 10 ft.

Regardless, it will look great! And I think this recent progress had Jon excited. Before, he was just kinda dragging his feet. It is a lot of work ahead for us, and I think that was kinda daunting to him. I just tell him, slow and steady, which is kinda ironic since I am the antsy one that wants it done yesterday. Now that we completed so much in 2 days, he is excited. He has already made plans for when we will work on it again. Hooray!!

Here is a drawing of the floor plan. Next I want to make a drawing that shows where all the furniture will go and what not. I wish I was artistic, or had the skills to make a drawing of the room like the designers on TLC or HGTV do. It looks like the room is about to jump out of the paper.

I'm hoping to get all the concrete walls and the floors of 2 more rooms painted by the time Christmas rolls around. I just can't wait to get it done! I need to win the lottery...