A New Post

It has been almost a month since I posted and I am tired of looking at that old post.  I had wanted to take some pictures of the finished basement and put them on here.  But I haven't taken any yet.  I will try to get out and take some and post them later.

The basement crew finished and left a few weeks ago.  It is nice to have their mess out of the yard.  Tim, the children, and I have been working on cleaning up garbage in the yard.  On Friday we put some things in storage in preparation for the snow that was forecast for today.  I'm happy to report we didn't get that snow and it has moved north.

The company, Redlin Johnson, who is putting in our windows and doors got started a couple weeks ago.  They put in all the basement windows and built us some stairs leading down into the basement.  Since they were waiting on the other windows and doors that is all that has got done.  While it has been nice having a break from workers being in my space I am hoping work will begin again on Monday.

This past week I have been busy painting the inside basement walls.  Ron had advised that we get a good oil based paint to make it more moisture proof.  So I bought an expensive primer and paint.  Last Sunday my older daughter, Whitney, came over to help me.  We used all of the primer and didn't even get 2 walls painted.  The primer was so smelly that I got sick that night.  I decided that it wasn't worth it to use the oil base paint.  Even though the paint store sold me the paint for concrete walls, the label on the can didn't say I could use it for concrete.  It was made for metal and wood.  So Tim took it back.

Tim went to Fargo on Tuesday to take back to Menard's the left over styrofoam insulation sheets we had used on the outside walls.  While he was in Fargo he stopped at Home Depot and got a Behr brand paint that is specifically made for basement walls.

On Wednesday I decided that I needed to get those walls painted before the workers came back.  Since I needed to put 3 coats on all the walls it was going to take me several days.  I realized that it would make the most sense to take time off from regular school work and do this.  I struggled with that for awhile but am so glad I made that choice.

I painted all day on Wednesday.  I got a coat on all the walls and a second coat on two walls.  I was pretty tired and grumpy that night.  I'm sure glad I had been doing Pilate's and yoga for about a month now as I would have been pretty sore otherwise.  The only problem I have had is that my right hand has been sore and hard to use from holding the roller all day.

Leah and I had appointments to get our hair trimmed on Thursday afternoon.  So I told myself that I could only paint until noon.  That way I would have time to make lunch, do vision therapy with Daniel, and clean myself before heading to town.  I got another coat of paint on all four walls.

On Friday I cleaned my house and then finished the painting in the basement.  I only had two walls to paint so it didn't take me long.  Later that day I cleaned up all the plastic sheeting and garbage I had down there.  Then I vacuumed the floor.  It looks so bright and clean now.

I still have a little section of the south wall that is under the front entry to paint.  It is really dirty and I haven't been able to get it clean enough to paint.  There are six windows that need a cement ledge put in that I will need to paint as well. 

I had time on Friday afternoon to help Tim clean and organize our cement Quonset so we could put the camper and my car in storage.  It feels good to have all that work finished.

Tim got some window wells at Home Depot that he is hoping to have time to install this week.  It certainly would have been easier to put them in before they filled in the dirt around the foundation.   He is having some rock delivered to use in the wells as well on the driveway.  They will do that on Monday.

It sure was nice to have a day of rest on Sabbath.  After getting home from church we enjoyed some precious time with two of our grown children, Brandon and Whitney. 

Daniel and Leah have been wanting to have a sleep over at Whitney and Ryan's for some time.  Whitney told them they could stay over Saturday night.  It was a long day for Leah as she didn't do much of anything all afternoon but lay on the couch asking when they were leaving.

Tim and I took advantage of being alone by going to the movie, Courageous, last night.  It was so good.  When we got there we saw several from our church at the movie as well.  We hadn't prearranged that so it was a nice surprise.  If you appreciate a movie with no foul language or sexual content I highly recommend you see this movie. 

That pretty much wraps up this past week and month.  We will be going to Fargo for Daniel's vision therapy appointment this week.  And we will finish the three days of school that we didn't do last week.  It will be nice to have a another short week of school.

My precious little ones just got home.  They are full of excitement and want to tell me all of what they did last night so I will sign off.