Homeowner adventures

So, Jane Ellen... how have you been spending your spare time lately?

Glad you asked. When we moved in last summer, we very quickly discovered that all the clearing out of accumulated clutter (remember filling the dumpster?) and the downsizing we had done (leaving behind two whole rooms of furniture, not to mention our eldest child) still had not reduced our household enough to make the main floor of our little ranch sufficient living space for two adults (who each need a home office) and a preteen whirlwind.

So we have been working to finish off our basement. We spent last fall and winter laying it out-- rearranging rooms and walls, outlets and light switches-- using painter's tape on the concrete floor and living "between the lines" while we decided what would work best for us: one more bedroom (to be the boy's room, while the upstairs second bedroom will become a guest room), husband's office, family room, laundry and small bathroom, and a sewing room for me-- yay! After we settled on the layout we wanted, some wonderfully competent people with more speed and skill than we possess did a good deal of the basics-- framing and drywall.

Then it was our turn again. First, we painted:

Then we framed doorways and hung doors (my diligent spouse gets all the credit for these; he did a marvelous job) and laid flooring: carpet in the bedroom, and laminate in family room, office and sewing space:

Even though it is a glueless system, the floor was seriously time-consuming-- cutting around doorways and corners is finicky work, and of course the pieces never end exactly where one would like them. It took several times longer to measure and mark on the boards where to cut (my job), than to actually cut them (his job) and tap them into place (we took turns with that part).

But we finally finished-- and it doesn't look half bad.

We still have woodwork to do, and a drop ceiling; and the bathroom and laundry will remain quite raw for a while, until our pocketbooks recover from this stage of the process. But we are tickled with the results so far. More pictures later, after we get furniture and artwork and such into place.