No Marriage Counseling Needed

Our basement remodel is finished (well, aside from the stairwell and some paint touchups but I’m calling it). What began as a three month project over Labor Day weekend last year and quickly took over our lives for the past nine months has finally come to an end.

The main reason it took so much longer than first anticipated (other than the fact that ALL house projects do) is we decided to include a bathroom and legal bedroom and that meant pulling permits, drawing up plans and inspections from the city. Because as much as our overnight guests said they didn’t mind crashing on an air mattress in our living room next to the dog bed and walking through our bedroom to use the bathroom, we realized we weren’t college students anymore and should probably make some upgrades if we were going to stay in our little bungalow much longer. And we wanted to stay put. I love our little house but with a growing family we needed to add some space.

First let me express how proud I am of Jason. Aside from the plumbing and some electrical he did all the work himself. I helped (he may use a different choice of words) when I could but it was pretty much all him. Although it didn’t stop me from saying things like, “WE need to finish the drywall this weekend and start the mud and tape if WE’RE going to wrap this project up by your brother’s wedding!” After cutting into the foundation, digging through rock for the window well, going to five different places to order the custom window for the egress, and installing it only to have the city inspector tell him it was two inches shy to pass as legal (even though multiple sources and contractors said it would be fine), he was kind enough not to throw me out that egress when I asked him why he didn’t measure it first.

Overall, we didn’t run into too many major road blocks, just a few things we’ll chalk up as learning experiences. Some parts even ended up working out better than expected.

I’m looking forward to reclaiming our lives on the weekends, going places and doing the things we enjoy. At least for the next six weeks until Little Miss enters our lives and that starts an entirely new kind of project.

So now comes my favorite part: The Before and After Home Makeover Recap! Next week I’m pretending this blog is run by HGTV and each day I’ll be taking a room, showing the before and after pics and talking about all the details. Nate Berkus may even make an appearance. So be sure to stop in on Monday – the first room will be my home studio.