Our Little Project

We've been trying for a while now to fix up our basement for the kids. We have a finished basement and it has been everything from a movie area to a school room to it's current status as store room ;) We had our work cut out for us!

There's two rooms down there. One is a playroom and I was able to get that painted and spruced up a bit last winter. The other room is bigger and we've been up in the air about what to do with it.

One of the things holding me up was paint. The room was baby blue and I hated it. Basements are cold, in my opinion, and the wall color made it even colder. I'm convinced of it! But I couldn't decide what color I wanted. I finally chose a green color but when I brought the samples home I hated it too. Finally I found what I wanted and, with help from my mom, got it painted right before we left for vacation! I knew if we waited until we got home it wouldn't get done at all. There's just too much going on during the school year.

We also have alot of big things down there. Like a ten foot counter top. Couldn't decide to keep it or not. Then it dawned on me that it would be the perfect place for my Little Builders! It's now a Lego table :) We'll be putting up a couple of shelves so they can display their work too.

Here's the half of the room that's done:
Nicky and Megan are sitting at the Lego table. Isn't it great?! We have some of their video games down there too and the perfect place to curl up with a book. That's my favorite rocker :)

Teh other half of the room is still a little messy but nothing compared to what it was! Our old kitchen table is down there for a craft table and my wonderful (lonely) treadmill.

We still have pictures to hang and a few other things to clean out. There are two closets down there that need attention. But I think it's finally coming together! We can start moving more toys down right away! :)

We bought the stools for the Lego table today and Nicky and Megan were helping Todd put them together:

Feeling Inspired (and a bit overwhelmed)

I have been inspired to clear out some of our belongings . This is not an easy undertaking, since I tend to hold on to things way past their time and the rest of my family are total pack-rats! ;) I have found that the more we have, the more we have to pick up and no one wants to do it! My kids groan whenever I mention clean up time and I am not a pleasant person at that moment!

In an effort to be a more peaceful household, I had a garage sale.

It actually wasn't as painful as it sounds ;) There weren't as many toys in it as I would have liked but the kids tried and I applaud their efforts. NOTHING that was in the sale will make it's way back into this house though and I will continue to gather and bag for donating to the local charities. I've been inspired and encouraged by my friends who are also sprucing and organizing and giving everything not nailed down a good long look ;) I feel really good about this and I think the kids and Todd are on board too. That really makes it easier! I have hope that by the end of summer, we'll have made some real progress! I already feel lighter :)

My Sanity Saver

This little project took me by surprise! I hate the basement. It's a perfectly fine, finished basement and I'm happy to have it, but spending time down there isn't for me. It's the dungeon ;) However, I've been thinking about a way to change my feelings about this nice, under-appreciated space in our home and I thought maybe if I paint it something warmer, more cheery then maybe I wouldn't mind it so bad. The space is divided into two rooms, one lager than the other. The smaller room has been trying to be a playroom for a while now, but what it's been is a yucky place for the kids to make a mess! I decided to start there and maybe I could get the toys that are all over my house somewhat under control! I had been looking at paint chips for a while but hadn't really given it too much thought, but it's amazing what being snowed in does to a person! One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I was taking stuff to the basement and just started clearing the room! Next thing I knew it was done.....carpet cleaned, room painted...done! My before pictures don't really show the mess because I had almost cleared the room before I even thought about it! That shows how much this really took me by surprise!

Ugly playroom before:
Much better after:
Art work by Nicholas and Brandon in their fabulous art class! I had been saving them for whenever I got around to fixing up their space now I can show them off!

We're still trying to get more toys in there...just taking our time with it going through them as we go weeding out the ones not played with. When we get all that done, the bigger room is next!