So, I have been told that I have been neglecting the blog. Now, I am not saying that whoever said this, and I will not name names (mom and amy), meant it in any rude way. But I will say that I am still awaiting pictures from one of my most favorite days of summer so far...so, it is not really my fault that you have not all heard/read about it. I will admit however there have been tales to tell that I have been trying to forget about so maybe subconsciously I "forgot" to post about them. Since I am still awaiting the photos from my most favorite day of summer so far (mom,email them already!!) I will keep you in suspense and just tell you about the less memorable and completely more dreadful news within the Bellus-Penz household.
So, as you may remember, we are trying to finish our basement. I just looked back at pictures which were dated early February, so it probably goes without saying that I had hoped to be finished with it all by now. Unfortunately, contractores go...more often than they come. And when they do come, some even find moisture in your basement walls/floor (of the bathroom that is the one place that has yet to be drywalled up) which has gone undetected until now, but which seems to be of concern because of some devilish M word...dare I say it...MOLD. So, I now sit in my half finished basement typing about how we have decided to put a drainage system in the basement before continuing...our thoughts are better safe than sorry. But I digress to the beginning. Once told about the moisture problem (it is a small amount of moisture seen between the plastic put up behind the framing as well as darker "wet" areas of concrete on the floor) we decided to take action. At first we decided that we should try some landscaping to get our slope going away from the house along the water affected area...these are the pictures you see below. It was a spur of the moment project (literally we decided Friday to do the project Saturday) where we tore up an in-ground sand box built like Fort Knox, built a window well, hauled and laid 2 tons of dirt so we could change the grade, put down plastic, and then hauled and laid 2 tons of river rock on top (did you know you could order and get things like that delivered same day?! We did not, but we have the greatest landscaper ever who was kind enough to give us some helpful hints before starting the project). We got it done in one weekend and it is sure to help, but we were left with the feeling that once we sheetrock up the basement completely and finish the bathroom we will never truly know that it is doing the job...or more importantly, if it is NOT doing the job. So...on August 10 they will come in, saw and jack-hammer up around our outside walls, install a drainage system and pour new concrete. The good news is that the system we are getting (similar to drain tile) can be put in despite the fact that we have drywall already up and painted. And since we have yet to get to base mouldings there is nothing for us to take up or do...except wait. This extra project and expense will hopefully at least ease our minds each time we have a hard rain! It was the only thing we could do to more or less "guarantee" that we had taken care of the problem. Of course there is no true guarantee, but at least we have done as much as we can...we didn't want to kick ourselves after sparing the time and expense of the rest of the project only to find out that we have bigger water problems than we thought. So, we wait for August 10th and hopefully 3 days later for our bathroom contractor to come in and finish the job, so we can finally lay flooring, put up the doors, and sit on our couch in front of the TV in our new family room!!
On a less dreadful note (at least hopefully...the project has yet to start so I'm sure something will arise)...tomorrow Project Kristin Happiness commences. We are widening the doorway between our kitchen and living room which will hopefully help to open up the cramped space a bit. Then, and this is my favorite part!, on Wednsday a truly wonderful man (I do not know him, but anyone who comes to do this for me is wonderful) will come to tear out my dreadful, awful, nasty, disgusting excuse for a kitchen floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited...did I mention how gross this floor currently is?! Then on Monday they will start with the process of laying our new tile floor. Yes, that is right folks, no more white, gouged, dirty (not for lack of cleaning...seriously!) peeling, white linoleum!!! We will have real tile!! I am almost as excited about this as I am for the basement (ok, I'm more excited ;) I will have to get some before and afters for you all! It should be a wonderful week in the Bellus-Penz household!
I should also mention that we had a truly wonderful family day today. Anna, Steve and I did one of our most favoritest things--riding our bikes to the Farmer's Market in downtown St. Paul. We had a great ride on a beautiful day, bought lots of fresh veggies for our dinner, drank some coffee and played with the puppy sitting next to us (well, we mostly drank coffee, and anna mostly played with the puppy) at the little coffee shop across the street from the market, and then rode home. Once home we all (including Alix) headed to Highland pool for a little swimming. Mostly Anna did the swimming and we did the chasing. This girl is NOT afraid of water. She will toddle around, fall down, go under, "float" until we reach her and pick her up, then smile and do it all again. She also LOVES to go down the slides in the kiddie pool. I am constantly amazed at how fearless she is and how much fun she has in the water. We have a ball just watching her!! Then it was to DQ for a sundae and home for a nap. Tonight it's beer can chicken and grilled veggies from the market...YUM! It was one wonderful day!
Here are the pictures of our landscaping:
OK, this isn't landscaping, but look how CUTE anna is ;)
Before
Tearing out the Sandbox
Our new window well...and we built it ourselves. Yea us!
After the grading, plastic and rocks...FINISHED! One long and unexpected weekend project!
