basement project - part 2

I've taken a break with my blog and this is the reason. We started the project back in August and with only weekends to work, this is our progress. I'm really bummed .... I took pictures after the framing was done and now .... I can't find them. Dang it!

As you come down the stairs. The first door is to our new bathroom and is only framed in at this point. The other door is a small closet for kitchen overflow.

At the bottom of the stairs .... it's the little closet on the right again. Burke really loves those pot lights. We was down here measuring for the floors.

This is directly across from the kitchen closet. The space is under the stairs. We took out some of the extra framing and really opened it up. Burke put in some outlets for my treadmill and a monitor for watching stuff. This will be my treadmill's home.

This space is filled with construction materials at the time of the picture, but it will eventually be the sewing area. The window is wired for a window garden.

Standing in the sewing area, overlooking the family room. In the back where the door is will be a giant storage closet. The dog crate is Nova's (Jackie's dog).

A better picture of the storage room and Nova's cage (who hangs out there when Jackie is working). You can see the kitchen closet there too. 

We're back in the sewing area and looking at the new furnace room.

Looking at the new pocket doors with the french doors. They close off my new photography area. Right now filled with construction materials - some of which is ready for the recycle place.

My treadmill is in the corner while the stairway is being drywalled. But that corner will house my new electric fireplace and TV.

And my big giant closet. Burke wired it up with 2 pot lights. Still so much mudding to do. I think we have a week or two left to continue drywalling and mudding and then on to the floor. We picked out a really cool laminate floor. I'm still trying to figure out what color to paint it. Still moving forward!

eileen's senior pictures

Burke and I started working on the basement and the deadline for submitting senior pictures was fast approaching. So finally, one Saturday morning, Eileen and I set out to complete her picture for the yearbook and then some.

We took a couple near the house but headed over to my work where there were lots of trees and a pond. I think she's a natural.

finishing the basement - the beginning

We built our house 4 years ago and I moved all my artsy and fitness stuff into the basement.  Every time I go down into the basement, I day dream of finishing it, but after 4 years I finally realize that I'll have to do the work myself as $25,000 is just too much for me.

So back in June, I announced to Burke that it was time to begin finishing the basement. He looked at me as if I had turned into an alien and had squids coming out of my head. I told him, "I'll let that digest" and I walked away.

I began with going to my favorite resource - youtube, and looking up anything having to do basement finishing.  There's plenty of resources available. I spent hours there.

I also purchased a Sweet Home 3D from the Apple app store. I found the basement plans and started designing. It's a great app, easy to use and I love how easy is it to get a visional on our plans.

At least we had the foresight to have several egress windows and 9 foot ceiling installed. I consulted with several license contractors about my questions particularly regarding the bathroom plumbing.

After many, many fights with the husband, we sort of agreed on design.

And then it began. I ordered the wood and set to have it delivered. Initially I ordered 130 2x4's and various length of top and bottom plates.

This actually was my photography area. Really, really raw, but effective. You can see the pipes coming out of the floor for the bathroom plumbing. The plumbing was roughed in when the house was built.

It's actually going on pretty well. We originally rented a few power tools to help complete the work. I finally realized it was much cheaper to buy them, so my new framing nail gun arrived in the mail last week. So far, we've spent about $1,000 on materials. Lots has changed since these pictures. The vision is starting to come together. The artist lair is underway.

paper hearts

We recently changed things up a bit in our room we keep for the foreign exchange students. I wanted something different for a design over the bed and I went with this.

Paper Hearts! It was so easy to make and I already had everything I needed, so no additional costs.

And it looks fabulous! I actually found the idea on Pinterest. You can see this idea and others here.

I got out my Brother Scan N Cut and found a preloaded heart shape I liked.

I cut out 10 different sheets of different color hearts.

My husband Burke found this dowel in the garage - so we went with that.

Holly and I hot glued the hearts onto ribbon I had in my craft stash.

And I literally just tied the ribbon to the dowel. Burke hung it on the wall using some leftover tacks we had from running electrical in the basement.

So easy .... took a couple of hours to complete and we used existing items in the house. It really gave the bedroom some cool color additions.

paper mache painting

My work place is soooooo gray. Everything is a cool gray which is a great color - I'm not discriminating against gray - but some color would be nice. So in thinking about an office inspired painting, here's what I came up with.

It didn't come out like I expected but it looks ok and fills the wall with some color. My hope was to see more of the paper behind the acrylic but color choices made it more difficult.

It started with some mod podge.

And some printed copy from our company's blog.

I used the mod podge and coated both the backside and front of the canvas. The paper did wrinkly up some - but I thought it might add to the texture of the painting. It also might have helped to have a better weight of paper.

You can see here it bubbled up pretty good - but once it was completely dry it looked way better. I put a total of 2 coats on it.

I painted over the mod podge with acrylic paint, but my first pass on blending colors was terrible. So, I let it dry and tried again. My second attempt at blending was better but the paper mache became less noticeable. But .... it's still there for those who want to look closer.

My husband says I ruined it by painting the tree but I really felt it needed something. I had planned to outline some of the words with paint, but with the paper being so faint - I took a different turn. Well, here it is .... good enough for a back office wall somewhere.

As my husband always says .... I'm my own worse critic.

flicky soft thing

My grandson received something very much like this when he was born as a gift. He absolutely loves it! It's very soft and cuddly and he sleeps with it every night. He loves it so much that I made one for my niece's new baby boy. It might have a better name - but I call it the "flicky soft thing."

The best thing about it besides how soft and cuddly it is ....is all the ribbons that he can flick. Give a kid a stuffed animal and they will find the label and grab it and flick it.

It was super easy to make. I grabbed some ribbon I had and even some spare scraps to make my own bindings. Then I cut out a 10 x 10 square of some soft cuddly material.

Here's how to make some binding. Fold in each side and then fold in half.

I did a basting stick around the edge to attach the ribbons and bindings. Then I went around and double stitched each one to make sure they don't come off.

Sew on the top piece of soft and cuddly material. Leave an opening to turn right side out.

Then do another stitch around the edge to close up that opening and add another layer of security. Now it's ready to go to your favorite little munchkin!

bag for baby

My niece gave birth several months ago to a beautiful baby boy who is so happy and lovable. I feel bad that I hadn't gotten her anything but I was preoccupied with my daughter's wedding. But now .... it's time to focus on getting some cute things made for her.

So I started with this bag. It's made from flannel fabric that I had left over from a baby quilt.

It has a flannel outer and a light blue cotton inside for the lining and a zippered top.

I used this pattern. Simplicity 3822 and it was real easy to follow and put together.

The fabric was this block style already so I added batting and then quilted the existing pattern. Super easy.

I embroidered their last name to the pocket on the front of the bag.

And added a brown belting which I usually make myself but this time I purchased. 

I added the zipper with a cute ribbon for easy pulling. The whole thing took about 2 hours to make and turned out super cute. It's a nice smaller bag for grabbing some diapers, a bottle, and a small toy or two and off you go!

I hope she likes it.