basement project

Friends, I've been working down in the basement for months. You may remember that it originally had M&M decals, some holes in the walls, a terrarium built into one wall, a bare floor covered in old tack strips and haphazard carpet remnants, and a hammock hanging from the ceiling. Here's a refresher:

So, over the course of the winter, we've been working on it. I've scraped and sanded and patched. Mike took out the terrarium and put in new drywall, and I mudded and sanded that too. I put on primer, and then two layers of a pearly gray paint. The boys worked to remove all the tack strips and all the sticky fibers that were left from the glue. Henry single-handedly removed all of the baseboard trim. We got rid of the sauna and the hammock and the old massive TV and entertainment center that were left behind.

Earlier this week, Liam had an appointment at the orthodontist, and afterward we went to Home Depot, where we acquired 17 boxes of random carpet tiles, 2-foot squares of carpet left over from bigger commercial jobs. We weren't sure exactly what we would get, but we were hoping for bright colors and fun patterns. When we got home with our bounty, the boys had a blast opening boxes and spreading out the tiles to check each one over. The dogs "helped" too.

Mike had to work today, and Liam is in Indianapolis for the state speech meet, so Max and I decided to install the flooring ourselves. It took ALL DAY, but I'm so happy with the results. We still have a long way to go (installing new baseboards, moving stuff, eventually getting new furniture), but it's really starting to look like a place where we'll want to spend some time!

wedding weekend

Max, Henry, and I spent the weekend in Cleveland to attend my cousin Quinn's wedding. We hung out at the hotel with the family Friday night and Saturday morning (Jeffirs hotel takeovers are the best), then went to the wedding Saturday afternoon. Quinn was a beautiful bride, Chris was a handsome groom, and we wish them all the happiness in their life together.

After the wedding, we went to lunch with my parents and Bethany and Joe, and that's where things started going off-course. Henry started not feeling well. He was flushed and nauseated and generally all the things you really don't want to be when you're stuck in a hotel hours from home. To make a long story short, Henry and I missed the reception. Luckily, my parents took Max with them, and he had a great time. Henry felt a lot better by Sunday morning, which was great because that could have made for a very rough trip back home.

Meanwhile, Mike and Liam stayed behind because Liam was competing in the district meet for speech. He and Nathan did well, but as expected, they're not advancing to nationals (state and nationals are on different tracks ... speech is confusing). It was good for them to be able to do their routine more, and since the meet was at home, Mike was able to go and see it, and Barb and Kevin drove in to see it too. So overall, I would say that Liam had the best weekend of us all!