Basement project

Mom & Dad Christensen took the girls for few days for some summertime fun, and Chris and I stayed home to dive into a big project - cleaning and finishing the basement!

Before...and this is actually AFTER a really big cleaning in December!

Totally clean in just one day!!

Chris installed the carpet and pad himself, including 3 cutout areas.  It's so soft and warm!

AFTER!!!  We turned the workbench into a TV stand and toy organizer.  We moved two couches from our front room into the basement.  (THAT was a challenge).  And I brought down some of the toys from the front room, the kitchen and play food, the legos, etc.  We bought the TV from Sam's, and hooked up the Wii and a DVD player.  We have an extra cable line, so after we re-route it to the basement, we'll have cable down here, too!

We still have a lot of work to go.  To the left of the kitchen stuff is the pool table...which is covered in bins and boxes.  As soon as we go through those, we'll get to play pool and ping pong!  And behind Chris in this picture are a set of storage shelves.  They're decently organized, but could use a little more cleanup.  It will be the only storage area in the basement.  We also have quite a bit of carpet yet, and will run it to the stairs so that everyone's feet will stay warm!

New arrangement of our front room!  This view is from our front door.  The only furniture left over was a big chair, and a rocker/glider from Megan's room, so we angled them into a seating area til we can pick out something that matches.  But doesn't it look so much more open without the monstrous couches crammed in there?  I love that there's enough room to set up the beautiful glass table, too.



Another view of the front room, standing at the blue chair.  This is the new art and homework area.  Wish me luck in keeping everything to this corner!

 The girls screamed and squealed when they got home and saw all that we had done!  They thought we were going to work on their bedrooms and/or the gardens, so we really surprised them!  They played in the basement all tonight!

Chris and I didn't just work the whole time, we had some nice dates, too.  We went out for sushi, a bike ride, dinner at a new restaurant in downtown Rochester, and dinner at a fancy place in downtown Birmingham.  We did a ton of walking to and from dinner, too.  (it was soooo nice to walk without any whining!)  He had to work Thurs and Fri, so I got a lot of bug work done those days, and got some long awaited school/birthday/shower/grocery/card shopping done all by myself.

Thanks, Mom & Dad, for treating us ALL to a wonderful long weekend!!