The Large PROJECT

Gary laughed at me every time I brought down the camera. He admits he appreciates it though. Mr. Uncle Sam gave us a nice little stimulus check and so Gary put it toward finishing our basement. Over all it has turned out more expensive than he first anticipated, not me though, I like to think I am smart. I generally figure everything costs more than I expect so I mentally thought about what we had in savings and added that to the stimulus, (excellent head math for me) so I agreed to let him start. Thankfully Gary is a smart guy and all too capable.

When we first got married Gary had a job for a summer doing dry wall. He hated it. Looking back we don't know how he got the job, (I am not being racist here, these are the FACTS) he didn't speak Spanish, and had never done the job before and none of the Mexicans on the crew spoke English. He managed to learn quite a lot and put up with a lot of trumpet polka music and here we are five + years down the road being thankful he had that horrible hot job. He's not an electrician and had no training in such yet he successfully and safely wired our whole basement, smoke alarms and C/O detectors that tapped into the whole house line, 3 way switches, GRC outlets, you name it. It's all up to code. He and his Dad framed it while Olea was in the hospital, a good project to keep his mind busy and not worrying so much about Olea. We did a cool texture and enjoyed picking out paint other than white. :) Gary was able to borrow tools from friends and family and now it's all done. YAY! We are so excited to reclaim our evenings. Since May 17th we have been working on the basement almost every evening since. Ah but "evening" doesn't even cover it usually we have been up till 12 or 2 am. Needless to say we are exhausted and in much need of sleep. But it's done and now I have an art studio and we have a nice private guest area and a place for the weight set. It's all good. Sigh. I still have some organizing work to get all my stuff in my studio where I want it but it's mine and a lock on the door to boot. Which I need with Olea since she likes to play with my art supplies so much.

The best part is, Gary did all of it because he loves me that much. And that's a pretty good example of why I love him so much. We had a friend congratulate us that our marriage was still intact, because he said nothing tries a marriage like a remodel or finishing a basement. :)

The following are progress pictures. I'm not in most of them because I am the photographer, and I think of it. But I was down there working with him when the kids were taken care of or down for bed.

before, nice work-out outfit huh?

framing (May 17th begin)
Plumbingthe bathroom fan ventsheetrockolea helping (yes, I let my 4 year old play with a dead battery power tool, coordination skills, look at all those screws she's sinking!)Mudding
oh the backwards hat is key I think,
A mud dropping, Great pic, I know. These are the things we giggle over though.
This was like 2am, I can't be held accountable for what my eyes do.Sanding, Gary hated this, for good reason.And now lets just mess up that smooth work with Texturing
Scraping the floor was fun. Gary did most of it, because it was a icky hard job and I couldn't do it for long with out my wrists having issues, look at that mess!Paint primerPainting
basecoat Main area Bathroom (it had a lighter base coat but turned out darker because of the glaze technique)Glaze Touch upsOlea helps with Painting baseboardsFlooring (we had this done Fixturesstorage shelving Done!Olea can't believe she can use the toilet down here
Oma and Zurich play in the Art Studio