Basement renovation...phase 1!!

Ok, our house was built in 1979 and nothing had ever been done down in the basement by previous owners. We have lived here almost 8 years now and my requests are finally able to be done! WE are fixing our basement and going to finish it!! Yeah!! We had began to finish it long ago until we realized that we had some serious water issues...and they have only gotten worse and created lots of mold and mildue down in the 'dungeon' as I have always called it. But, we did not have the finances to fix it. We had the Basement Doctors come out and they were very thourough and we were very impressed with them. They pointed out all of our problem spots, but really, they didn't have to.. we could tell. So the work begins on Monday and takes about 3 days to complete. This weekend we have had to take everything out of our basement, and throw some of it away, and other stuff I am bleaching down and cleaning really good... what a mess it is!! I am so excited to get this all fixed and there is a lifetime guarentee, so no more problems and we can have our sports room and play area for emma.

This is looking from the bottom of our steps to an area that will be finished. As you can tell we had lots of water and mildue built up.

This is the area by our crawspace. We are also going to have them fix this and they are going to make the whole bigger so we can crawl up there and actually store stuff in there when they are done. Right now, I can not see in it because of all the cobwebs, yucky!!! They are going to put protective stuff all around it and make the floor so we can move around on it.

This is the area by our sump pump. Our washer and dryer unfortunetly is also in the basement and about where I am standing to take this picture. We obviously are not going to finish this area, but we are going to see much improvement with no water around and the sump pump fixed up nicely. Wow, I can not wait for all of this to be done! It will be so nice! And, no more water or mildue!!

Soccer..or in my thoughts..burning some energy during the winter

For six weeks on Friday night for 45 minutes Elite FC was offering a camp for little kids on beginning soccer skills. I thought why not try it.. Emma's friends Griffin and Camryn were doing it..plus I knew she could burn some energy off! She hates not being able to play outside right now. Well, obviously Emma's favorite part is just kicking the crap out of the ball. She isn't really into the drills and such yet..but I figure it is worth it because they are getting exercise and able to run around and kick the ball alot! It is really well organized and they keep her attention pretty good. Beating the winter blues is definantly the key!

Just a few tidbits since Christmas...not much happening

My grandma's 82nd birthday is actually today but we went up yesterday since Brad and I were both off work to celebrate with her. It was nice. Emma wanted her to have cupcakes, and grandma did not have any bday candles so we took a big candle out and lit it and sang. Emma of course had to help and sing her loudest bday shout out.


In between the Hockey game and my grandma's birthday, we celebrated one of Brad's best friends 40th birthday. Of course I forgot my camera and was very upset about this! We went to Barley's downtown and had a great time! It is a very cool bar with lots of good food and drinks! They had rented the downstairs so we had it all to ourselves with about 50 people there.

On December 30th Brad and I got invited to go to a Columbus blue jackets game with our friends Joni and Jill. What a blast it was!! I have to admit that I don't know a thing about hockey, but picked up fast. We also were blessed with seats in the 7th row! That made for some great entertainment! This fight was awesome and a huge one at that! it also happened right in front of us... sweet!! The jackets even won in overtime which made the night a huge success!! Thanks Joni!!