More of the basement...almost done!

No pics this time around but yesterday I painted another section of the unfinished side so now I have completed 2 out of 3 sections! Whohoo, almost done! I'll post a pic when I am completely finished.

Other than that, things have been semi-quiet here lately. Just puttering away on little projects with the house. Dad came over recently and finished the shelving for the hall closet so I was able to fill that up with my extra towels, linens and toiletries. Tom and I also worked on organizing what we call "the great room" in the basement on Sunday. It is at a good point now where we are both pleased with how it looks. No more cluttered unpacked boxes, everything has a place now and things that could go in storage were moved into the attic. Once I finish painting the floor on the unfinished side of the basement, our next big project will be the great room. We already talking about some ideas for that room and it is kind of fun to think about what it could be with a little TLC.

Had homecoming weekend at PBU over the weekend and got to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while.

The basement, part 2

This actually may be a 4 part series...b/c it is going to take me a little while to finish this project! But at least I am 1/3 of the way there! And it is sooooo nice to survey all one's hard work and take pleasure in a job well done!

Since I had all the work done prepping the floor (ie, cleaning), once I got the paint I was able to get right to it...so brushed out the edges with a hand brush and then rolled the floor.

Tom insisted I wear a heavy duty respirator and I think that was a good idea...this stuff is pretty strong-smelling!
Done! Well, that section of the floor anyway...now it's just a matter of waiting for this to dry completely and then I can move on to the next 1/3 section.

Our basement

So I decided to start the seemingly endless project of cleaning the basement in preparation for painting the floor. Tom and I had talked about painting the floor and we both knew that the floor would need a good cleaning before painting it. That being said, I decided now was as good a time as any to get started since Grandpop was done working on the boiler which has, up to this point, been generating a lot of dirt (see our new little red boiler on the left of this picture!). Grandmom W came over yesterday to help me get started. She has always been a great cleaner...she helped me in cleaning lots of things in our house before we moved in so I knew she would be a good one to ask for directions as to the best way to go about cleaning this sooty concrete floor! So, we decided it would be best to work on small areas as to not track new dirt on freshly cleaned spots...

First, we vacuumed this section, then we got two buckets, one to wring out the mop and one bucket to rinse the mop in when we done with the area. She had me wet down small 2'x2' areas at a time, sprayed it with bleach and mop it up. Then keep spraying and mopping this one small area until my mop wrung out almost clear water. Only then could I move onto the next small section. I worked this way during Kira's morning nap, then again last night. So this small section is sufficiently clean but it may also need to be primed with a special kind of primer before we paint it. I am going to the paint store today to talk to the guy about it.

Why am I smiling??? I actually kind of like doing stuff like this, haven't been able to do as much with Kira so I am enjoying getting my hands "dirty" again. And it will be so nice when it's done b/c I'll be able to take pleasure in my hard work! :-)