Basement update: the rug arrives

Notice I didn't say it was installed, but at least it arrived and my nervous little eyes got a glimpse of it.  I like it.  The wall colour I am not so sure on - sure looks blue more than grey.  But at this point I would settle for a finished basement of any colour.

In-laws arrive in two days... well, one and a half really... no worries... I have faith!

Basement Update: The Carpet

Nothing terribly exciting to report folks, but I DID make my way up to Highway 400 and Langstaff to pick my carpet for the basement.  Our sample piece that we had kept to show the insurance people and contractors had been thrown away - a fact I discovered as I rushed downstairs to get it on my way out the door.  Oops.  No biggie, I grabbed some heavy duty scissors, pliers and screwdrivers (leverage) and yanked and slashed a piece from the stairs.  I guess we're doing the stairs.

The designer I met with pulled this one (above) out almost before I had shown her the old one.  I liked that it was a bit darker (the old one shown spots super easily) and had a tighter weave.  I am hoping the tighter weave conducts the heat from the in-floor heating a little better than the plusher one did.  I looked through a handful of other samples, but this one worked for me.  I was also distracted by grilling her about her background and how she got into interior design (she had a background in marketing and no formal schooling).  Sadly, there were no extra samples to bring with me, but I left feeling pleased.

Of course about 11:30 pm last night I couldn't sleep worrying that it was too dark, too grey, too muddy.  I only had my iPhone photos, and around midnight I got out of bed, went down and interrupted the DVD Chris was watching to check the photos against the pictures of the former finished basement.  He was less than impressed.  Then today I sent my mom the iPhone photos and she reassured me that it would look fine and reminded me to trust in myself.

Jeepers, how long will it take before I get to be confident in my own decisions, and not always second guess them?  Or is that simply my nature?  The bigger the commitment, the more I stress (just ask my husband). Anyway, I put together a bit of a moodboard on Olioboard with the new carpet and a new paint colour, plus a few new accessories to go with the 'warm, cozy' vibe I was hoping the new carpet would bring.

The carpet here is a screen grab from the manufacturer website, which (incorrectly I hope) shows the colour I picked as being much darker than I had in my photos.  But maybe if I add lots of textures (anyone want to get me some Mongolian fur pillows for Christmas?  Or maybe I'll try the fake ones from Amazon...and yowza, that throw from Anthro!) and a beautiful warm kilim carpet it will make the place more of a cozy den.  I have my darker David Hannan painting (similar to the one pictured here) and the sepia photos of Prague from an old calendar that I framed.  And Dad made me a gorgeous full length mahogany-framed mirror (or rather made it for himself and I stole it) ... But... I just liked how the light carpet reflected the light from the pot lights and made it feel less like a basement.  SIGH.  Stupid tree.

Amazing how I have no problem making other people's decor and design decisions, but am completely stymied by my own.  Never-the-less, there are supposedly people coming tomorrow to start fixing the drywall, so maybe it will be done in time for the in-laws after all!  The sooner the damn carpet is in, the less time I will have to stress about it.

Basement down the drain

First of all, thank you all so much for the Steven and Chris love and support - talk about amazing! I was really quite touched by how many of you reached out with congratulations, and I am so grateful to have so many friends out there.  MOOAH to all of you!

One of the things I heard the most about was the basement - since I had never properly blogged about it or shown it off.  I was all set to do a post about it today and tell you the tale of how we got it looking so sweet after starting with this narsty, asbestos-filled, unfinished basement:

Blurry blackberry(!) shots taken at the open house

It was a lot of work and a lot of fun, as you can imagine, and we certainly did not do it ourselves.  In the end, we expanded our liveable area by 1/3 and created a really cozy spot where I spent a LOT of my second maternity leave.

Last night I was down in my newly improved "office" area doing some actual paid work (amazing) and heard some weird gurgling coming from the shower area in the bathroom.  People - when the drains gurgle, sputter, cough, or make so much as a peep - please call a plumber.

Because I am a kind and decent person, I will spare you the more graphic images of what I came down to this morning (and immediately texted my poor husband), and show you only this one.  The shower is one of three drains we have down there, the other two under the dryer and in the furnace closet.  Grossness was spewing from all three.  (Sorry, not often I get to use the word spewing and it is such a perfectly disgusting word, don't you think?)  So, a bit belatedly, I called the plumber (apparently the plumber Mike Holmes uses!).  Bob The Plumber* did not mince words, and, sadly, neither did he use the word spewing.

Blog buddies, I trust you remember this scene, in which we were attacked by our neighbour's tree, narrowly escaping the loss of one son, and burdened with expenses for removal and repairs?

It turns out this was just the first chapter in our "Nasty Dealings with Neighbouring Trees" - which hopefully ends after two (expensive) chapters.  This time, having been perhaps inspired by its ally Neighbouring-Tree-To-The-West's surprise air attack, the Neighbouring-Tree-To-The-North deviously tunneled underground with its roots, harpooning our defenceless clay pipes, and strategically blocking our sewage outflow.  Well played Neighbour's Trees, well played.**

My beautiful basement now looks like this.  Please note how much bigger the water stain is on the concrete than it appeared on the rug!  Luckily Bob the Plumber had me call Chad the Clean-Up-Guy*** and my basement has been cleaned, bleached, and disinfected by a fine crew who just left at 8pm.  The heaters and fans are running as I type, and the place smells like the YMCA.  Next up, digging up our recently-landscaped-with-patio-stone front walkway and the possible removal of our concrete front steps to replace our outtake pipe.

The moral of this story is, never show your house on National television - hubris is a bitch.

*not to be confused with Bob the Builder
**duh, of COURSE I am drinking wine - wouldn't you??
***not of the Pulp Fiction variety

Home Office - My New Happy Place

I have started a contract working one day a week from home (so far) and I love it.  It is so much fun to work with some old friends a project I feel so comfortable with.  I feel like I am dipping my toes in the water of working part time from home and so far I am all over it.  Unfortunately I didn't really have a space to work.  We had visions of moving the boys in to the same room and turning Cam's room into an office, but it doesn't look like that would be a great idea at the moment.  We did have this little nook in the basement where we had stuck an old home-made table (we got the plywood in an alley and added some Ikea legs).  We had put our old not-really-working-anymore sounds-like-it-might-explode computer there and it is where I have been doing my sewing.  But mostly it was just a place to dump things we had no other place for.

The bookcase was just loaded with books and photos and pictures and jars full of sewing stuff.  I had velcroed some fabric on to the table to try to cover the disaster of cables and the two plastic rolling drawers crammed full of MESS, but it made sitting there and doing anything a little awkward!

So a couple of weeks ago I tackled it with gusto.  I threw out a tonne of stuff we hadn't looked at in years, weeded through the books, and boxed up our poor old computer.  Then I hit Ikea and Staples.

I ended up just getting a couple of Ikea drawer towers to hold the same piece of plywood, since it fit so well.  I may eventually paint it white, who knows.  I was going to put a shelf under the window, but decided cork boards would be more useful.  While the results are not too exciting visually, organizationally this new space is rocking my world.  It is clean, streamlined, organized, and mess-free.  I am in OCD heaven.  Sadly (lighting-wise) it in the basement - here I am doing this photo course and posting terrible photos.  However, it is actually nice and quiet to work down there; this little nook is so cozy and tucked out of the way.  Plus we have a heated floor in the basement - enough said.

The bookcase now holds my sewing and craft supplies, a couple of magazine racks, and a file folder, along with an inspiring assortment of books (can you spot the Encyclopedia of Beer?).  On the wall, I finally hung the three prints my dad and I got at an auction and Avril Loreti's awesome tea towel.

The other side still has the studio shot of my grandmother and dad, I think I may add some more old family photos here.  You can see a double frame on the windowsill that has photos my grandmother and grandfather when they were kids. (They grew up in the same town, which is also where I grew up.)  And of course no office would be complete without some kid art - a valentines drawing to be exact.  :)

The drawers are so deep and hold so much more than those stupid rolling things.  (I put one of them in my closet to hold belts, scarves, and tights;  I was on a bit of an organizational tear.) Add a clear drawer tray from Staples, and Bob's your uncle.

And while I didn't find a chair to suit my needs yet, I did at least re-cover the one that was there which was looking pretty worn and sad (and filthy).

So there you have it: my new happy-place.  How many times did I say organized in this post? I love organized.