Our Brilliant Basement

Remember how our basement flooded? Well, it took some time, skill and money, but it's back together and beautiful!

Here's the photo journey. The colors of the stripped wall were gorgeous, but too hard to save.

Kudos to Jason for pulling new electrical wire through these scary cavities. But the end result was totally worth it! The room only had a few outlets before, but now is fully wired for success. From a safety standpoint, upgrading from the knob and tube wiring seemed like a great idea too.

Eli was a major help to his Dad.

Grandpa Charles's assistance was indispensible as well. I couldn't believe how quickly they got all the sheetrock hung!

Plus, it was nice to get the insulation out of the living room.

Charles even brought down the carpet that used to be in Christy's room. It made the room so much nicer while Brooklyn and Talia were hanging out there over Christmas. Zion definitely approved! Plus, Charles can brag that hanging onto the carpet for all those years was worth it.

Next step--framing in the windows and spackling. Jason even leveled out the ceiling. 

His spackle jobs was so beautiful that the walls looked like they had already been painted.

Meanwhile, our hallway and bathroom and garage were mighty crowded with an absurd amount of junk that had been moved out of the room.

At last, carpet! The carpet pad was pretty, but we decided on a lush gray instead. I'm tired of beige.

Moving back in. We had to empty out the hallway in a jiffy so that carpet could get laid there as well.

Worth it!

Next up, painting day.

Gorgeous!

Moving in the furniture. In the end, we took out one of the closets so that we could have more space and orient the bed a different direction.

Eli's wardrobe is far less expansive than Brooklyn and Talia's, so we even moved out a couple of dressers. There are still a couple of finishing touches left, but the space is back together and looks great! After so many years of sharing a room, Eli is thrilled. Good thing he likes to share--the space is so nice that I'm looking forward to spending more time in the basement as well.

Charles, Eli, and most especially Jason, thank you.  It's exciting to see our home get better and better over the years. While a flood wasn't in our plans, this beautiful room shows how you really can make lemonade from life's lemons. Y'all are mighty fine chefs!

P.S. My contributions were small, but in case you are wondering if I helped at all, I organized the garage. Scary, but done!