Hey! You know all that stuff we were doing to our house?

Most of it's done!  I will admit to one crying rant in the bathroom, and that's about it.  It was laborious, at times a teeny bit torturous, but it turned out amazing.

One GIANT bummer is that we are so gung-ho about projects that we rarely stop to take pictures before or during.  Blah.  Whatevs.  You'll get the idea...

Remember our the dark, ugly stairs leading to our unfinished basement?

BEFORE:

 AFTER: {including hand prints on the glass and misc toys at top of stairs}

We hated how dark the stairway was and the metal door was pretty battered.  It definitely wasn't a welcoming side entrance.  Chris found this heavy glass door in the DOLLAR BIN {yay!} at The Rebuilding Center and we retrofit it for this doorway.  

So, the basement... remember this?

BEFORE: {sorry for the blurry image... I told you we suck at taking pics}

 AFTER:

Chris worked in a built in bookshelf underneath the stairs to use up the wasted space.  We used 4 old drawers from a dresser we were tossing out to create 2 long drawers at the base.  Can you tell we're all about repurposing/reusing? 

We now have an extra bedroom which has already been put to use.

Extra space for tv watching {and playing circus}.

Play room {Ugh.  I need to get rid of some of this stuff}.

A new laundry room which is never without mountains of clothes.  Sorry.  Real life here.  I should also tell you that one of the things I am most proud of in this room are the washer and dryer.  See, right after I had Beckett, our hand-me-down set went out.  My mom was literally coming over and grabbing clothes to take to her house to wash.  I had a 2 year old and a newborn and NO way to do laundry.  Impossible. Anyway, we found this washer on craigslist for $100 - perfect condition.  But still no dryer.  UNTIL... late one night I randomly found a posting for a FREE {do you hear me singing hallelujah?} dryer.  I sent Chris and Isaac out at 11pm to go pick it up at the end of someone's driveway.  It came with a sample of ranch dressing inside {wha??} but I bleached it out and it runs perfect.  Bargains make me ramble.  I digress...

Last basement detail... We decided to keep the original beams in our basement, which I love.  Someone over the years had painted them white so we thought we'd strip 'em down but then ended up loving the kinda worn look.

None of this, at all, ever in a million years, would have been possible without this guy:

My handsome extraordinary husband.