Basement update

We (well mostly Blake) have been busy working on the basement. We've painted the ceiling white. Before the walls and the ceiling were all the same color, which was a yellowish off white color. We've never liked that color and it looks so much better now. It was a pain to paint but definitely worth it. Then Blake moved electrical outlets and surround sound speaker wires around and capped off the water to the kitchenette area we tore out. Lastly, he put up beadboard in the living room area of the basement. It looks so nice! It's far from being finished but we are getting there.

What is left to do?

1. Beadboard in the bathroom and other column

2. Finish all the trim on the beadboard

3. Paint beadboard

4. Paint all the walls

5. Install the hardwood floor

6. Put in the new bathroom cabinet.

Speaking of hardwood. We picked it up yesterday. My mouth dropped open when I saw all of the boxes, 26 to be exact. We made 26 trips up and down the side of our house carrying these 50 pounds boxes of hardwood. 26!! Now I'm thankful we have a walk-out basement so we didn't have to carry them in the house down the interior staircase but I am still sore today! Wimp. I know.

Well, here are some pictures of our basement project.

Doesn't the ceiling look so much better white?

This is the living room area after Blake moved all the speaker wires, etc.

Living room area with beadboard!!

Here is our hardwood just patiently waiting for us to install it. :-)

Valentine's Day photo shoot

Here are some pictures from a little Valentine's Day photo shoot Andrew and I did last week. I found some really cute cards we are going to send out to family. Check them out here - you get six free, plus free shipping!

How cute are these feet?

Andrew's beloved Bongo. Who turns 3 this Valentine's Day. :-)

I heart Mom.

We are a bit bored here today. We've had snow flurries all day and it hasn't gotten over 10. I believe it's negative something outside right now. So, we had a mini photo shoot for Valentine's Day. Yes, after telling Andrew NOT to marker on himself I used markers to make his Mom tattoo. Bad Mommy! ;-) I couldn't figure out if I liked some of the photos in color or black and white so I did both.

He is such a little poser.

Absolutely frigid.

Yep, the flip flops have been exchanged for Uggs. The word to describe the weather today is frigid. It just "looks" cold outside and it is. We've had freezing fog so everything is covered in a light layer of ice. Beautiful to look at and take pictures off. Not so nice to be out in. It's 17 outside right now, feels like 5. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder. Woo-hoo! Yes, I really have grown to like this cold weather but am thankful for those warm days we get in between.

Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland. :-)

My new space!

With all the changes we have going on in the basement I decided to move my scrap room up from there to the main floor so I could have a room with a door I can close. It's so nice! So, I turned Andrew's playroom into my new scrap room. Although Andrew calls it Mommy's playroom.

There isn't a closet in it so I had to get creative with storage. I'm pretty happy with how it all worked out though. I still want to paint but that'll come down the road some day. The basement is getting all the attention right now. I'm anxious to create Andrew's new play area down there. He'll be so excited when he comes home from California and all of his toys are in one spot! I even have a special surprise planned for him in his little closet downstairs. More on that later...

Here are some before and after pictures.

I added a vinyl lettering saying "Today's Moments are Tomorrow's Memories"

That's it!

Cookies & Construction

Blake has been doing a lot of construction in our basement getting ready for us to put new flooring down next month. It's been pretty exciting to see cabinets and a wall come out and a new wall go up. Below are some pictures of the process!

Our kitchenette area Blake is tearing out.

The wall and tile flooring will come out next.

See the grey stuff on the floor? Not good if you want to lay hardwood down.

Blake making room for a half wall. (I wish I had taken a better picture but you'll see the half wall completed in some photos below.)

Time to replace to wood subfloor in the kitchenette area.

I have a funny story. Blake had to lay down in the crawl space to screw something in and there are black widows and nasty stuff down there. He was NOT enjoying himself and obviously busy. So, right in the middle of him doing this Andrew runs up and yells down the hole "Daddy? Have you seen my Dark Knight?" Okay this kid is always losing his Dark Knight and always asking us to help him find. I just thought it was funny he would do that. Maybe it's one of those things that you had to be there to find it funny and if it is. I'm sorry. :-)

Check out the new subfloor!

Here is a view of the room and the half wall Blake put up. You can see where the kitchenette used to be on the far right side of the room.

Okay so on to why I have cookies in my title. Andrew was a little under the weather so I thought I'd make him some chocolate chip cookies. I have been looking for a good recipe and I finally found it!!! I'm sure we've all heard of the Neiman Marcus cookie but have you tried that recipe? Okay so I found the recipe here and I changed it up a bit. I didn't add the ground espresso and instead of the 1/2 cup unsalted butter, I added 1/2 cup Crisco and 1/4 salted butter. Yes, I made them even more unhealthy than they already are. But they are sooooooo tasty! Soft and chewy in the center and crunchy all around the edges.