my husband, the perfectionist

I went away for the weekend to spend some time with fabulous girlfriends in Chicago and came home to a wonderful surprise...tons of progress on the basement! Now, to the naked eye, you may think "this looks pretty much the same" but I assure you that lots of work went into that weekend. Thanks to my father-in-law and brother-in-law, most all of the framing is complete. (Those pink walls are insulation...which is key in a basement that could potentially be cold).

Almost all of the HVAC has been re-done to create more head space when we input a new ceiling.

Intricate!

Yes, that's a Donato's pizza box in our duct work...thanks to my brother-in-law. Hilar, but it will be replaced with the real stuff.

How did they frame around those little windows?

The gaping hole has been filled with gravel (and plumbed to perfection). This was due to assistance from Jesse, Smitty and Price.

Walls! Adam continues to work on the plumbing.

He set up a little peg board for his tools. You may think Partee doesn't necessarily = meticulous perfection, but I assure you he is going to eek out every single bit of space out of this basement.

We are about 8 weeks away from baby! Time is a ticking, but I have confidence that we'll make it!

Brothers don't shake hands...

Brothers help build basements! After much toil and debate, we finally settled on a layout. Sometimes it takes awhile to finalize these decisions, but we have something we're happy with and the building is underway! Zach, my little brother, came over today to help Adam frame the bathroom (which is no easy task). See that nice support beam to the right...

For effect, we input the toilet in its proper place.

Note the read: Complete Basements. (And no, he did not pull a Jackass...those who have seen the first movie know what I'm talking about).

Under the stairs! Also tricky.

Love this vanity we found. Lowe's, on sale, nice and large for the space.

Kaye and I went tile shopping today, but those pics will come later when we get to that point.

No Stress

"Fully 95 percent of your emotions, positive or negative, are determined by how you talk to yourself on a minute-to-minute basis. It is not what happens to you but the way that you interpret the things that are happening to you that determines how you feel." - from the book, Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy.

It seems like such a simple statement, but it is SO true. Could we be stressed to the max because we just ripped out our basement and we're less than 4 months away from the biggest life change ever? Yes. Could we complain that everything in our basement is currently taking space in the baby's room? Yes. Could I stress because I come home and see a huge hole in the ground? Absolutely.

However, this gets us nowhere. Instead, we're motivated to finish because when this little guy comes and turns our world upside down, we want to be ready to devote 100% to him :o)

Plumbing. Yipee!

My tub. White. American Standard (love the brand). Deep. Wonderful.

And the toilet. American Standard. Cadet. Space Saver. Elongated bowl (a must for the dudes).

Adam turned the bookshelf into a nice organization station for his plumbing needs.

Door becomes a work table. Notice Yuengling in the forefront of the picture.

He has no idea what is happening here. We are doing quite a job to his mad pooping space.*

Gravel from the hole.

Adam's dad let us borrow his big a$$ air compressor.

2x4's and 4x6's; a must for framing.

*Mad pooping space = when the dog gets mad at us (for leaving the house or some other unspeakable action), he poops in the basement.

weekend progress

The demo is almost done...dude. Adam and my mother worked very hard to knock everything out and schlep it out of the house. Next step after some cleaning is finalizing the layout!

Basement Before

Goo! The black hole known as the basement....

I'm going to get back on this horse...

Because we have some exciting rides in 2012! Our first project that will be tackled this weekend is (finally) rehabilitating the basement. I love our house, but the basement is a large, black (and stinky) hole that we avoid like the plague. Jake enjoys it for his bathroom when he's mad at us for leaving the house. I begrudgingly do the laundry in the area, but hate every second (because it's a hole, not because it's laundry). Adam does his stinky...er, I mean, wonderful, beer brewing in the bathroom of the basement. And because that toilet is never used, it loves to provide a pungent, sewer smell that mixes nicely with Jake's business...you get the point. Operation Basement begins this weekend with demolition. Pictures to come.

You may ask why we are motivated to do the basement after 2 years of neglect...well, we need some additional space since the Partee family is expanding! We are expecting a little baby boy in the Spring (I'm destined to be surrounded by dudes) and we couldn't be more excited! I'm 5 and 1/2 months and outside of some all day nausea in the first trimester coupled with extreme tiredness, I feel pretty darn good. He's kicking around in my belly and it's such a surreal process. Thus, we're getting our act together to provide some play space for him (and Adam and Jake of course) and we need to have an alternative space for guests since the baby will take the guest room (now nursery).

All righty 2012, let's do this.

Ugh, sickness!

So, my grand plan of training went down the drain last week when this nasty sinus infection crept up on me and lingered. Blah, it was bad. It didn't help that I had to work until 10pm Tuesday and then until midnight Wednesday. After a weekend of not moving a muscle and staying in bed (watching Sex and the City and Top Chef reruns), I finally started to get back on the road to recovery.

Tuesday I braved a 3 mile run at the gym (but had to stop after every mile to blow my nose).
Wednesday I was able to spin, but my heart rate was a little higher than it should be, yet still did another mile run.
Today I was able to do 3 miles again (on the treadmill, blah) and some strength.

The key has been rest though. My biggest problem is that I put sleep at the bottom of the priority list. Work, working out, having fun, saying "yes" to everything always takes precedence. I just need to realize I'm no spring chicken anymore and that rest must happen! This week I've been in bed by 8 or 8:30 each night; not always sleeping, but at least resting where I'm usually around 10:30 or 11 for bed time. If I'm going to be serious about this year, I must get my rest! Now, there will be lots of fun too, but I just need to make wise decisions.

6 miles Saturday! I've already talked Hartong into joining me and now I can't back out!