Build back better

Last April, our hot water heater failed catastrophically, drowning our formerly finished basement in many, many gallons of water.

Professional help was slow to arrive so Seth, Ryan and I sprung into action. Together, we pumped out all the water and removed most of the carpet and padding.

The insurance adjuster told us we did an amazing job and had saved ourselves thousands of dollars. Despite that, our basement was an utter disaster.

While we were waiting for the insurance money, James asked if he could remove some of the paneling and retexture and paint the walls. I told him it was fine, as long as he got it done before the new carpeting went in.

Guess what we were still doing the night before that happened.

Here's the before.

And here's the after. I swear this isn't the color we picked, but who cares. It's in. No more concrete and orange linoleum!

It looked so good, we were kind of reluctant to put anything in that big, wonderful, empty space. Then Piper christened it for us, and the repopulation began.

The basement makes up nearly half the square footage of our house. We've used the space in a lot of different ways over the years, but mostly it's been the kids' domain.

You know, they don't live here anymore.

Seth and I have spent the last week figuring out the best way to make all that the space work for us. 

So far we have blocked out areas for guests,

exercise...

and - best of all! - my hobby room and photography studio.

This is still very much a work in progress, but I am so excited about the possibilities. After so many months of chaos, I am really looking forward to having a comfortable area to pursue my favorite part of the model horse hobby.