It's about Time!

The home we live in is the home I grew up in. It was built well in 1985. I was 7 years old when we moved in. In fact, we moved in the March Break, and I was the first one to have a birthday in this house! But my youngest brother takes all honour as he was the only one born here after we moved in.

Just a little history:

My family, the 7 of us, lived on the main floor while my dad ran the landscaping company from the basement. Well, he ran it from the kitchen as well with the business phone and two-way radio there.

When we as a family moved in, the business was smallish, but under God's blessings, grew and grew, to the point that there were 7 offices, a meeting room and one bathroom. It was time to build another office. And so that was done and the offices and all the paraphernalia, as well as all the guys/gals moved out.

Fast forward to 2007. In 2007, we kicked moved my parents out of the house so that we could move in, now that Nathan was running the business.

When we moved in, there was no talk of kids. We in fact had put that to rest many years ago, thinking a) it would never happen and b) we weren't interested in adoption. That left us with a 11 bedroom, 4 bathroom home for TWO people.

It didn't take long though to have the walls ripped out, all the way to the studs, due to major leaking. That left us with a demo job - getting rid of everything from the wires, to the lights, to the drywall to the insulation and flooring. That left us with a very bare naked basement. For the past 6 years, the only reason we went down there was to check on the sump pump and empty our dehumidifiers.

That has left us with a very large space to work with. But first things first, we had to fix the leaks, which was done using this black stuff down the walls into the floor where pipes were put in that lead to the sump pump (I *think* that is how it works. Either way, it works!!)

This is just half of the basement. Yup, big project! The sump pump is behind that door off to the left. You can see the black "bubble wrap" down the walls.

 

Johnny, anyone?! What's left of our 4th bathroom. I am sure I will need to check this toilet for "residue" once Mr. Lincoln is trained :o) I also do believe this is the cleanest this bathroom has ever been! What - you can imagine what it would look like after 30+ guys were using it. Oh, the poor female secretary.....

And ta-da, no more leaks!! That's pretty good considering we live in a region which is known as a swamp (no, it's not glamorous like the Florida swamps. No alligators swimming about here. Polar bears, maybe...:o).

Fast forward to 2014. My, how things have changed. We are no longer just the TWO of us, but 2 rugrats have joined our family, a blessing that is beyond measure. But with kids comes kids' stuff. My, oh my.  And all that stuff was upstairs! Toys, toys and more toys (I know, first world problems). All in the front hall, which was their playroom. And of course, the toys never stayed in the playroom, but would be strewn throughout the house as the day went on, which you can imagine I just loved.

Well, enough was enough. The breaking point was one Saturday when we were to host my family. That would be 10 kids (2 weren't able to come). So that got us busy! We spent the morning cleaning, sweeping, picking up junk, coughing out dust, sweeping some more, raiding the Walmart shelves of foam mats, coughing out some more dust, and lugging most of the above stuff pictured downstairs.

And we couldn't be more happier!! And neither are the kids! Not only did it work really well for that Saturday afternoon with my nieces and nephews, it has worked out well with my two munchkins. They don't mind being down there and will play well.

 We sectioned off just a bit of the basement for the playroom, leaving the rest all open. We realize this isn't really what is meant when we talk of a "finished" basement, but this will have to do for now. We do hope to finish off the whole basement one day, but a friend suggested to leave this space open for the kids when they are older, that way they can roller blade, play hockey, etc.

And our front hallway looks a whole lot neater as well!  (while that is our front door, it is very rarely used. So rare in fact, that one time last year, we looked out the side window and there were boxes stacked up! A UPS had dropped the boxes off a *week ago* and it should have gone to the office)

And me?! Well, I am left with the question:

why didn't we invite my whole family over 2 years ago?!