Basement shelves COMPLETED!

So, it's been awhile since I've posted any entries, but we've been awfully busy trying to get everything finished upstairs!  I think last time I posted I mentioned it was nearing completion (were we painting/doing flooring at that time?).  Anyway, flooring is DONE (yay!).  Painting is mostly done (yay!).  Trim is done (yay!).  The reason the paint is only mostly done and not completely done is because we still have some trim to paint.  That's tomorrow's job!  Kyle has sworn me off of any more painting, so he'll be doing the work alone (I don't sound too sad, do I?).  After that, we'll caulk between our trim pieces and in the bathroom, I have one more section of wood-filler to do on the floor since we put up trim, and then we'll clean the whole upstairs and we're DONE with that remodel!

Sounds simple, huh?!

So, we took a brief hiatus from remodeling over the last week due to some church obligations and some Michigan traveling (baby shower and graduation party).  Also, Kyle got a new short-term project when this week started...

BASEMENT SHELVES.  

So, before this remodel began, we had A LOT of stuff upstairs.  A lot a lot.  And obviously, it had to go somewhere...

We put two of the three extra mattresses and some exercise stuff in the office.  This actually has been pretty useful for when I can't fall back to sleep in our bed after waking up to use the bathroom a million times a night.  Also the exercise ball is a nice footrest when working on the computer and trying to keep ankle-swelling to a minimum.

The other mattress, office chair, and bookcases from upstairs are blocking the front door and have made a wonderful jungle gym for the cats this summer.

Oh, and we have stuff that CAN'T go in the basement in the dining room (stuff like Kyle's comics, etc.)

We're also utilizing the folding table in the basement...

Oh and one large corner of the basement as well!

So this stuff is NOT all going back upstairs.  It's going to be a living space, not a dumping zone!  Believe it or not, we had MORE than this, but when stuff was coming out of the upstairs, we made a point to sell/donate/trash about 1/3 of it!  Some of it WILL go back upstairs, but there's a lot that we're gradually transferring over to tote laundry baskets with lids to keep in the basement, where they'll be out of the way forever.  The problem is that the basement floods and is damp sometimes, so we don't want anything sitting directly on the floor, nor do we want to keep everything in boxes (mildew).  We also didn't want to try to screw anything into the basement walls (it's really old and just a little crumbly).  So, after combing pinterest for ideas, I found these blueprints for freestanding, cheap, wooden shelves:

http://www.diydesignfanatic.com/2012/10/diy-storage-how-to-store-your-stuff.html

I showed them to Kyle, and he said, "I can do that."  Music to my ears!  Ours are a little different from the plans because we needed a shelf for the bottom layer of totes so nothing will get wet and also our ceilings aren't as high as theirs are.  We also used recycled paneling from upstairs instead of OSB to save some money.  Glad we did!

He built one set of shelves yesterday and one today.  Here are results:

What the shelves look like all empty (cats were fascinated)

Annnnnnnnd full of stuff! 

Luckily, we also have several pallets that are holding stacks of stuff right now.  We'll keep the pallets, too, for larger items that won't fit on the shelves.  Hopefully between everything that's going back upstairs, all the stuff that will fit on shelves, and everything that goes on a pallet, we can get the rest of our house back!  

By the way...on the shelf packed full of stuff just above?  The purple tote, the four blue totes on the center shelf, and the large tote on the center shelf?  All baby clothes, organized by size.  I have a problem!

All of our DIY projects just might get done yet!  Hurray!

Paint Complaints

I LOATHE painting.  I like to paint the stuff I need painted within the same amount of time, that way I can put off painting for several more years.  We painted our entire first floor four years ago when we remodeled the house, and I'm not ashamed to say that after the last can got put away after touch-up day, none of them ever re-surfaced despite the cracks, scratches, and chunks that gradually appeared after typical wear-and-tear. 

Fast-forward four years.  We have now remodeled the second floor of our house after carefully saving for a long time, and I have had to paint again.  Ugh.  I think I'd rather staple my head to the floor.  The bad thing is that in addition to hating painting, I'm also pretty obsessive/compulsive about how it's done.  I guess I think if it gets done really, really well, then I'll be able to more effectively ignore imperfections...?  So not only do I hate it, but I also don't like to let anyone else (*cough, Kyle) do it because I'm so particular.  In my opinion, it's very rare to have a marriage consist of two people who are good at taping and painting.  

At least Kyle recognizes this.  He did help paint the larger part of the upstairs (thank goodness), but this is only because there was no division between walls and ceilings, so we didn't have to preserve lines.  I also went back and checked his work every half hour or so, which annoyed him to no end, I'm sure.  In his defense, though, he's always offered to help with the painting (I don't know if it's necessarily to spare me as opposed to baby), but I just shoo him away and make him go do the things I REALLY don't want to do, like lay flooring.  He does always demand that I take frequent breaks for fresh air and buys me the little masks to wear.

So, to recap on Phases 3 and 4...since the phases kind of overlapped each other, neither is completely complete yet.  I still have just a tad of upstairs painting to finish and we have the bathroom floor to lay and trim to do, but other than that, everything else is finished upstairs!  Too bad the painting's not over yet.  Let me tell you (complain) about how much painting/polyurethaning we've done and how much we still have to do:

Done:

1) Priming our 625 square foot, vaulted walled, odd-shaped main area (this took seven hours, believe it or not!)
2) Two coats of paint over same walls
3) Priming the bathroom
4) Two coats of paint in the bathroom (plus, I had to paint our exposed pipes! This smallest room in our house took 4 hours per coat to paint!)
5) Two coats of polyurethane over the exposed brick on the chimney (this was AFTER I scrubbed the entire thing with a TOOTHBRUSH)
6) Two coats of paint on the stairs
7) Two coats of metallic paint on the trim of the bathroom shower stall (took 9 hours total)
8) One coat of paint on the bathroom door and doorway (took 3 hours)

So the thing is that I'm NOT a slow painter...so I wish it wouldn't take this long!  So far, I would say we've invested roughly 50 hours of painting/polyurethaning over the course of 9 different days.  

Still to Complete Before the End of Summer:

1) Second coat of paint on the bathroom door and doorway
2) Touch-up paint upstairs
3) Touch-up paint downstairs
4) Closet doors in baby's room
5) Priming upstairs furniture
6) Painting upstairs furniture

We started our Prep for Childbirth classes at the hospital one night a week.  One of the men there complained that since his wife got pregnant, she "couldn't" do anything (he mentioned weeding the flowers, painting the nursery, cleaning the bathroom, make dinner, etc.  Apparently she just sits around and concentrates on growing an infant).  I'm still doing all those things!  Although, I'd have to say, if I could be that woman, I'd give up painting....no question about it!  If I tried to push all those things on Kyle on top of everything he's already doing, there'd be no way anything would ever get accomplished.  And ain't nobody got time for that!