before and in-the-middle-of...

renovations. Our basement is a mess, but not for long, thanks to Matt's awesome Uncle and his brother, Chris, with his plumbing expertise. So here are a few pics...okay, a lot of pics, of some before's and during's:

The Hallway before Now: with a closet...YAY for storage!
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Before: the BEAST...that would be that despicable mess of a fuse box on the wall, and the ugly utility stuff. That white pipe, that's the outdoor sprinkler system that went THROUGH our basement ceiling.

Now: the sprinkler pipes have been removed and we have all of our electric updated. oh yeah, and a wall to hide the ugly utilities. It's not a full wall. I didn't want to deal with trying to figure out how to put a door in this awkward spot and the pipes stand out from the wall at least a foot. ***

Before: our old place to store all the crap we collected and where we hung some of our laundry.

Now: the second bathroom now resides...and it has been a pain in the behind all around with ducting that hangs low and some plumbing issues needing to be addressed. But it's coming together thanks to the pro's who know what they are doing.

And our dryer died during all of this too. Luckily, we have connections and it was replaced the next day. Our furnace had decided to take the past two weekends off and we had all been sleeping in one room with a space heater. I guess with all the dust from construction, the heat sensor had enough. Again, family came to the rescue to fix it...Thanks Chris!

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Before: the storage under the stairs.

Now: the bathroom wall. We opened up the wall on the other side of the stairs in the new storage room. It was really, really nice not to have to move all of those boxes. The dark concrete on the floor is where the new plumbing was connected for the toilet. We REALLY, REALLY need a second bathroom.

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Before: The family room and storage room. Now: with the walls up and painted and doors. That's Jeff over in the corner, he's our painter friend who does a really, really good job.

and this is the room after the paint (we chose the color STONE by Ralph Lauren and it's a really awesome, calming color. LOVE IT!) We cut an opening from the hallway into this room because the hallway is so narrow. We wanted to open up the space and couldn't widen the entrance to this room. It really like how it turned out.Here is the before of the other end of this huge room.

And how it looked before being painted. The window on the end, we will eventually egress.

We can't wait to use this space. It will be like adding almost double what we have upstairs, which isn't big, so it will be nice to have another place for the kids to play and not drive me nuts. Brinley had been hoarding all the carpet samples we bring home. She thinks they feel nice on her feet and isn't fond of the wood floors we have.

By the end of next week, we hope to start putting windows and doors in...it's all so exciting.