And here is Drews finished room!!

2013 one and only post

Well, not much progress has been made in 2013. Well, there IS a finished bedroom down there and Drew has been in it for approx 9 months now. So there's that!!  I don't know where this year went to be honest. It's the last day of 2013 and I'm trying to recall what happened to make it all go so fast.....

Let's see, there's the hockey season that wrapped up in March where we finished first in the league and won playoffs to win the whole enchilada!! That was pretty cool!

Then there's the fact that we survived one of the most brutal winters EVER last winter. I don't think the snow melted until June! 

Then in April, Drew went to Europe for 10 days. France, Rome and Italy to be exact. I still haven't seen all his pictures from his trip! 

After a most brutal winter, we managed to grow the best garden ever. There isn't anything that was planted that didn't flourish!  

Looking through my pictures over the past year, I think answered my own question!! Where did the time go? Football!!  We got seasons tickets this year for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. That's 9 home games (regular season) one pre-season game, a potential playoff game (which we got!) AND the Grey Cup was held in Regina. So that made 12 games from June till November. Doesn't seem like much in writing, but that's almost worse than hockey season. We went to all these games by bus with a bunch of other rowdy Roughrider fans .......... By about the fifth or sixth game, I had pretty much had enough of that! The novelty wore off pretty darn quick!! It was expensive, it was hot, and then cold, it was exhausting and very time consuming. One game is a whole day - it's get to the bus early, be at the game two hours before kickoff, it's a three hour game, then it's out for pizza, then home..... Usually very late!!  12 times!!  However........... It was VERY cool to watch your team win, lose, struggle (lots!) then come back to win everything - even the CUP!!!  These are memories we'll never forget. 

 My job exploded this year, Kerry's never stopped and we've managed to make a couple trips to see the "babies" (and Tara and Wade). Niki moved out this year, probably for good this time. :(  And Drew is in grade 12.  Seems unbelievable. 

Today, our plan is to spend the day at Niki's house watching Drew play street hockey in a fundraiser in Ogema. It's currently minus 36 windchill with a little snow in the forecast. We take all the bad and intertwine it with all the good - and in that, we have this thing we call life. My reflections over the past year have reminded me that as time flies by, we are making memories and moments that will last a lifetime. We are blessed. So we don't quite have a basement yet, but we have survived without it! 

So where are we at? Well, the plumbing/electrical has proven to take up a lot time as it all has to be moved for the new floor plan down there. We do have some stud walls up that show where the laundry room will be and the bathroom etc.....  We are slowly making progress .... With emphasis on the word slow! 

Happy New Year!! Here's to hoping for more posts in 2014!!! 

Christmas is coming

It's December 1st and our goal of getting Drew into his room by Christmas is looking pretty tight. The room is drywalled ready for mud - then sanding, then painting. The floor is ordered but won't be here in time for Christmas. Well it will be here - but sadly it doesn't come "installed". Then it's just the suspended ceiling and moldings. The closet will need some shelves and things installed too. So I doubt he'll be in it for Christmas. But it will be close.

We have something that resembles a room

Remembrance Day weekend: Drews room is framed.

Baby it's WARM down here!

And here is after he was done. What a difference - it is SO warm down here now!

Now we can actually start building interior walls and framing everything. Can't wait to get Drew back in his bedroom. Poor kid has been sleeping in Niki's pink room for about 18 months now.

Step #953 insulating

Well it's now November and the walls have finally been insulated - but that was a painful process. (Isn't everything?)

We had to move everything ( AGAIN) to the center of the basement and cover it all up. Then we hired a local guy to come in and spray the insulation in. The day he was scheduled to come do it, the foam would not stick to the cement. We don't know if it was too cold or too dirty or what .... But he ended up having to prime it with some really smelly primer stuff which then had to dry for two days. Luckily Drew had a hockey game that night so we were able to air out the house for the evening. (Our team won 13-2)!!

So almost a week later, he came back and this time the foam stuck and he was done in a couple hours.

These pictures are before the spray.

Fall 2012 The Framing

Dricore has been laid for a few months already but another busy summer has stalled the next step. Which is framing. We need to frame the outside walls so we can spray foam with insulation.

Don't you love how Drew works in his pajamas?

The mess down there is the worst part - trying to work around everything. But it must get messier in order to get better I guess.