Home updates!

The summer is flying by. And what a crazy busy summer it has been!

Things are moving right a long at Mom's (AKA our new home!).

The deck Demo debris is all cleaned up and almost all of it is gone- one more load for the trash (we had 2 small dumpster loads picked up right after- but the rest we've been putting out in contractor bags)

The patio is sloowly (tediously) coming along!

Our family room is really really coming together! (more on that in a minute!)

 As I shared in the other post- we learned a lot in our years of living together previously. We all agreed that 2 things needed to happen before we combined our households again:

1.) we needed another bathroom (I mean really- our family size has more than doubled since we moved in with her- and soon there will be 5 of us using a bathroom! For every ones sanity we need another on the second floor. Also for my Mom to have her own private bathroom- really! She shared a bathroom with 5 messy kids all those years- she has put in her time of living with fingers under the door and yelling from the other side!

2.) Laundry room by bedrooms. While this isn't an "absolute" we decided it would make all of our lives simpler. The current laundry situation is down in the basement- which means every one would have to drag laundry through down 2-3 flights of steps (Ryan and I will be in the attic), and the stair way to the basement is narrow. It will make all the things so much better and more organized to have the laundry room built in by the bathrooms on the second floor. Thanks to Mom's large walk in closet and being able to move a wall in the girls room (at the back of the house) we will be able to do this.

3) Seperate Living Spaces. My Mom has good taste. She has a really nice "grown up" living room that is very cozy and comfortable. She should get to keep it. When we lived with her before we tried to keep the toys downstairs but it was always a trail of "stuff" everywhere from two busy toddlers. I have learned to lock up as much as I can to limit the trail-making craziness...But still, little kids make messes. So we are turning the finished portion (384 sqft) of the basement into our family room and school area. Her living room and dining room will be HERS. And we are making the eat-in kitchen fully functional for ALL the food messiness (kids are MESSY) to stay in the kitchen!

It is turning out amazing!!! In the last 2 weeks we got rid of 2 pick up truck loads of stuff that had congregated in the basement...I cleaned out and organized the back (unfinished) area of the basement. And then this past week I ripped up all the carpet and carpet tacking (oiye!) and primed the walls and painted them. We will be laying down laminate "wood" floors to give it a very finished feel. We will be installing a light fixture over the school area (where our dining table and chairs will be) and installing some new shelving and a desk/office area in the back nook.

I have some before pictures - but I think I will save to show you with the "after" for the full effect.

This week I will be painting the doors/trim and stairs, painting the drop ceiling in a contrasting color, and installing the new ceiling tile.

Mom will be pouring the "self leveling" concrete to prep the floors for the laminate install.

We are also going to install new flooring in the kitchen (I think?) this week. As well as resealing the deck (as soon as we can get 3 consecutive sunny days).

We are working really really hard to get all the "big" projects done before the school year starts. Our lease isn't up until the end of March but as soon as our family room is finished we will start moving some of our furniture in to make that area useful for when we are over working at Mom's to prep for moving in.

We are in talks with property management about moving sooner than March- we are kind of hoping to have every thing done by Thanksgiving. But if we will lose our deposit or some thing we will stay put until our lease ends.

I am still trying to figure out hiring a contractor for the bathroom remodel. We will be doing a lot of the "finishing" stuff ourselves- but we need some one to gut the bathroom and do all the plumbing, ventilation, and electrical work for us. That project has to be complete before we can move.

So there is the update! Before and after pics of the kitchen and new family room to come soon!