No more Home Depot

Ribbon Cutting

Forgive me as I fumble over my words in attempt to explain the joy, pride, excitement, relief, and disbelief that I am feeling right now.  Last weekend, the carpet was laid in the basement, and we called the basement FINISHED.  Adam equated it to running a marathon... but I don't know of any marathons that last 8 months, where you work alone on tedious, frustrating, and exhausting tasks that seem endless in number.  Adam wore the hat of a designer, framer, electrician, plumber, insulator, sheet rocker, carpenter, painter, tile layer, and ceiling installer. The pictures included in this post do not even come CLOSE to touching the details and labor that went into this project.  I am actually working on a photo book for Adam that will show step by step the process of all his work.  So far there are over 100 pictures.  But don't worry, to give him a break we hired some guys to lay the carpet (didn't want Adam to have to work too hard).  When I would tell people that Adam was finishing our basement by himself people would often question "how does he know how to do all that?"  I would smile, pride steaming out of my ears and reply "I don't know... he is just that GOOD."

The past 8 months of life around our house... Adam working in the basement

     But it wasn't all fun and pretty for the rest of us either.  My usual routine of vacuuming every other day became a multiple time a day habit as sheet rock dust, saw dust, and every other construction related material came filtering thru our vents and were tracked up and down the hall on Adam's feet.  Our garage became a work zone with saws, tools, piles of lumbar, and spare parts.  Our cars were demoted to the driveway for months and months.  Then to top it off,  I had to deal with the Home Depot bills that added up all too quickly!

Jack helping to cut the ribbon

We also discovered that Jack is apparently allergic to sheet rock dust, or saw dust, or general construction materials.  He spent the last 8 months with frequent mild asthma episodes, fatigue, skin rashes, and even a mild case of pneumonia.  The doctors are hopeful that with completion of this project and some new filters in the air conditioner,  that Jack will not have anymore problems.

The playroom, guest bedroom, playhouse

Now that this huge endeavor is done, I can honestly say that the basement outshines the rest of our home.  It has more character, love, design, and better use of space than any other room in the house.  But it must be noted, that poor Adam had to deal with me doubting many of his moves. "You can't do a drop ceiling, those are tacky!"  "You can't have dark stained trim in some places and white trim in others!"  "Are you really going to paint the walls ORANGE?"  But Adam had a vision, and thank goodness he stuck to it! However, in my defense, Adam DID get to purchase a 70" TV, and his dream theater seating to furnish his room.  He also went to the liquor store and spent quite a bit stocking his bar.  I didn't look at the receipt... so I don't know what he bought or how much he spent. Sometimes it is just better that way. He deserves whatever it was that he bought anyhow.

The movie theater side, before furniture

 I am thankful that we were able to pay for the construction materials each month as we went (which made the last 8 months extremely financially draining). I am even more thankful that the labor (averaging 20 hours a week for the past 8 months) was completely FREE.  Except for maybe some cranky attitudes, and exhaustion.  In the end, we financed the big TV at Nebraska Furniture Mart and will be making interest free payment for the next 30 months.  I am so looking forward to some financial relief now that we won't be making daily trips to Home Depot.  In fact, let's not go to Home Depot ( or as Jack calls it 'Home De- POT' ) for awhile... ok honey?

First family movie night in the new theater