Toasty

Get you all pumped up for the basement framing and follow up by telling you nothing. Keeping you in suspense. In the dark. So uncool. Well enough is enough. Tonight is the night that I welcome you to our pink basement.

Ta dah!

We had two guys come help on Saturday. Amazing. Thank you Mike and Don. Your hands were a huge help and extremely appreciated. Josh (obviously) and dad were also there and between the four of them all the rigid foam got up and half the basement was framed Saturday during the day. And yes, I did show up. I believe I stayed long enough to put up 5 mmmmaybe 6 pieces of rigid foam, do a little taping, snap a couple pictures, bbq some hamburgers (in the rain, just saying) aaaand... nope that's about it.

As if that wasn't wonderful enough, later that day these two gangstas showed up. 

There are a couple funny stories that could and should be shared here, but I need to get permission first.

On a less hilarious note, with Curt and Josh's help, we (and I am including me this time) got so, so close to finishing framing I'd basically consider it done. We got almost all of the top half of insulation up (we need some electrical done on the bottom half before we can insulate). We got ready for the electrical to be done. And I spent another moment attempting to defeat my white whale... the bumpy wall. I would call the day a success!

If you refer to the picture above, of Curt and Josh, you can see a before picture. Here is an after.

Pretty decent right? The rigid foam (all the pink stuff) took sooo long to put up. But our extra arms and legs diligently finished it. (Did I say thank you? "Thank you!") Our ceiling is just short enough that every piece had to be cut down. And then the joists are all awkward and such, so dad spent a lot of time cutting small pieces to put in between every one... tedious to say the least. I know, because I then spent time cutting pieces of the insulation to cover the rigid foam. I almost finished. My face got really itchy.

Our basement is already warmer than it was before, which is wonderful. The only thing better than seeing your work, is knowing it was worth it. Toasty.

On a main level update, I think I picked out all of my light fixtures. I've exchanged a couple of times already, and I had a few that I hadn't even thought about. You know what, I just lied. I still need a ceiling fan for the living room, but I can't find one I really really like. AND a light for the pantry. And not to deceive you but I don't physically have the bedroom lights either.... I want to go to Ikea for those. But technically I have picked out what I want for those two. Light fixtures have not been easy.

My light fixture problem occurs with the whole open concept idea. Combined with having a lot of different light locations. Our house will be bright if nothing else. I have two lights in my kitchen, which I chose track lighting for. We're putting a chandelier of sorts over our table, which will technically be in the kitchen and living space simultaneously. The afore (it's telling me 'afore' is not a word. Blogger is an hater of Old English) mentioned ceiling fan for the living room. A hallway light. And last, but not least, a side entry light. The two track lights in the kitchen are the only ones that are the same... I thought about making the hallway light and entry way light the same, but dad mentioned it would be extremely difficult to change a bulb in any light fixture that doesn't hang down in the front entry, and a light that hangs in the hallway would be a hazard, so that didn't happen. Now (well not really "now" now... but eventually) if you stand in the door way to the kitchen, beside the chimney, you will be able to see 5 different light fixtures. This will be a true test of my decorating skills. 

Back to the basement.

Pink Panther

Dad being his wonderful self, patiently putting up small pieces of rigid foam between every joist.

You can see our half insulated work.

 Discussion!

Working hard.

On a different note, still related to my life (because really, that's what blogging is all about... right?) Caed stood by himself for... 30? seconds. Amazing. He promptly fell with a crash (more a scare than any pain) afterwards, so he may never do it again, but it was crazy. Crazy cool. Crazy unbelievable. Crazy he's growing up really fast. Crazy. 

I never got why parents always said that "growing up too fast". I didn't feel like I grew up too fast. Those first 18 years kind of seemed to take close to forever... I'm sure I felt every second of it (not in a bad way, I had a wonderful childhood). I mean my birthday's didn't come fast enough. And Christmas... was that really once a year, or did we skip it every other year? But we did. We all grew up too fast. One minute we're helpless and completely dependent and then we walk, which is just the beginning of "I have nothing to wear" and "Why do I have to make my bed? I'm just going to mess it up again". And soon, so soon, we're crying and saying goodbye. (And then hugging and saying hello again, because we need our laundry done.) But I can't think about that. Instead I'll focus on training so I have the endurance to keep up to a running toddler. 

Speaking of running, everyone was saying how busy it's going to be when he starts walking. I asked Josh how much different it could be, he's already into everything and going everywhere, where else is there to go? Josh - "Up." Which is probably true, that's something to look forward to.