Carpet!!!

Aaaahhhhh..... Finally! Today our carpet was installed. The saw is back in the garage, and all we have left is another hundred feet of 1/4-round, the fireplace, and the A/V rack.

Just another basement weekend

This weekend, we did what every other couple does when they've bitten off more than they can chew: we worked on the basement some more... We caulked the baseboard, we primed the baseboard, we finished painting the baseboard, we installed the casing around the office closet, we finished the casing around the storage room door, we caulked and painted the casing, we installed the window sills, we installed the laminate flooring transition wolding tracks, we installed the remote control and glass for the fireplace, we babysat the neighbors' fluffy dog, we babysat the other neighbors' tiny dog & cat, we entertained guests for lunch today, and we moved everything out of the bare areas in anticipation of carpet on Monday!!! School starts back up in four weeks - all I want is to have everything done and a free weekend in the sun before class begins. At least we had a beautiful sunset storm.

Basement Sofa

Here's the large sofa and the larger window opening...

Basement Progress

This week we received the new sofa for the basement. JP fought for an hour and a half with the delivery guys about getting it downstairs. It was a long, hot day for them, and they did not want to even try to get the pieces downstairs. If JP signed a damage waiver, then they would give it a shot. No thanks - we'll just wait for TP to get home from work...

I got home from work, had a bite to eat, calmed JP down, and then we tried to get the sofa downstairs. The first attempts were launched from the kitchen. We tried big end first, small end first, skinny dimension first, fat-wise first. It finally became obvious that the pieces would not be going down the stairs.

When we framed the windows, I made a special window sill for the office window so that if/when we wanted to get something big thru the window, it would have a better shot. So we drug the sofa outside and tried to slide it thru the basement window. Nope. Again, we tried the curved end first, armrest end first, skinny side up, skinny side to the side, etc. The sofa was 41" and the window 39". So close, but there's no way to shrink a 10-foot sofa down by two inches.

Now what?!? It was getting late and I was hot & tired & sweaty from wrestling with sofa in the window well. Our last option: pull the window out of the house! Of course! Why not? It only took half an hour to remove the siding, nails, & seal to get the window frame out of the house. That gave us the precious two inches of clearance we needed to easily slide the big pieces downstairs. I wasn't going to go thru the hassle of reinstalling the window, but I was so sick of it I figured I'd better, because it wouldn't be any easier the following day. We had everything buttoned up by 9:15. Good thing, too, because we had a humdinger of a storm that night.

Last weekend (4th of July), we installed the double doors for the office. They were primed and had the glass masked with plastic film. We were surprised that they required so much work. For what they cost, I expected that they would have been closer to being finished. Whatever. They look gorgeous now.



Also last weekend, we installed the laminate floor. Just click it together, right? It took 12 hours to install less than 400 square feet. It was a lot more work than I ever thought it would be. We went carpet shopping yesterday and came away with nothing. How can carpet be so expensive?!?

Today we finished the bathroom - caulking, towel bars, etc. Only need a mirror & shower curtain.

Fireworks!

This year the boys had fun, as usual, playing with their fireworks. AJ was here from California and help to keep the boys busy for a couple of weeks. JRO brought us some bottle rockets to shoot out of the homemade RPG. How much better can it get than that?