Gym

We've been debating where to put our treadmill.  Squeeze it into our bedroom? Purposely only finish half the closet and really squeeze it in there?  The family room?  All these options weren't ones we were too happy about.  Then we went camping with a huge group of friends, and one friend gave all the kids some boxing lessons.  J loved it.  So much that we decided to get him a big ol' punching bag for his birthday.  We originally thought we'd hang it in his room, but that would crowd things and if we ever wanted to use it, it wouldn't be very convenient.  I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but we decided to turn the small storage room (the one I called our "Zombie apocalypse room" and had thought about mounting a bookcase to disguise the door) into our very own home gym.

I'm not going to go back to find the photo, but last time you saw it, it was a square cement room that Kyle and I had painted white.  It had two ventilation windows and one light and that was it.  Kyle added some outlets to plug the treadmill and an iPod or something into).  He made a pull up bar, and hung our bikes on the wall so we can ride the bike trainer in the winter.

Shelves and outlets.

Flooring started.

Wall mounted bikes, with bike trainer moved out of the way, and J's punching bag.  The flooring fit perfectly.

Punching bag and pull up bar.

Treadmill.

Finally, if you didn't already see it, here's a video of J trying out his new punching bag, with the whole family (plus friends) cheering him on.

Shelves in the closet. Happy thought indeed.

Ten points if you can name the movie this post title comes from.  We've been getting organized around here, then we've been bringing more boxes over from my parents and start all over with the being unorganized.  It's coming along though.  

We bought a spice rack and Kyle installed it in the cabinet. 

It was nice to get that cabinet organized.  Somehow I had collected multiples of several different spices and they were all open.  Now everything is combined and refilled with the extras downstairs in the "Family Store" as the kids are calling it.

Awhile back we bought some shelves from Ikea for this really deep cabinet that wasn't really great for storing anything we wanted to access.  We also found some side panels in the as-is section which made the whole project much easier than it would have been if Kyle had had to create the side panels himself.  I think he's going to write up a post about the whole process but short story is that we went from this:

To this:  (It still needs a couple of shelves in the middle skinny area- it will be perfect for cereal and bags of chips.

Kyle cut one of the original shelves from the previous cupboard down to fit in this one- and created a "mug" shelf.  

I also thought of something to corral all the sandwich wraps that end up everywhere.  

Kyle has been doing a lot of work in our closet too.  He put in a slide out scarf rack.

Several pants holders

And slide out baskets in some of the cubbies.

We also got our bedroom cleaned up.  It feels so much nicer in here now.  We also have room for the kids laundry baskets so we can put clothes in the right basket as we're folding (well as Kyle is folding).

We hung a clock and my jewelry holder in the bathroom.

We hung stuff on the walls in the living room (the watercolor with the gold frame is waiting for our next trip to Ikea to get a bigger matted black frame so it will match some of the other artwork we have in the room- the bigger frame will balance things better too.  The trick with this wall was the awkward position of the thermostat.  

My friends got me this print as a housewarming gift.  

I put the shelves in the bathroom closet and started filling them with my supplies.

I put together these shelves (though we need a few more shelves to finish it up) for our "family store".

Kyle assembled this one.

We put shelves in the closet under the stairs for holding games.

We have a TV downstairs, and are debating whether it is a terrible idea to put the wii down there.

Kyle got the projector almost all the way installed.  He needs a longer cord to finish.

Countertops and more Driveway

Two more sections of driveway got poured today.  I think there's maybe one more big section and then a small section and replacing the sidewalk and the approach.

Kitchen Countertops- All ready for the dishwasher (and faucets).

Island- I'm hoping Kyle hooks the cooktop up tomorrow.

We had the kitchen windowsill be granite too, instead of cultured marble like the others.

Farmhouse sink.

Hall bathroom.

Basement bathroom.

Master bath.

Kyle loves the countertops.

Alice just wants to move in.

Carpet and HVAC (and fridge)

The missing bathroom vanity got installed.  Now we're ready for those countertops, any day....

We were trying to pick a carpet that would go with gray tones in the basement, and brown tones upstairs (although really it's just the carpet on the stairs, in E's room and our closet, everything else is tile).  We picked a grayish carpet that had brown flecks in it, when I saw it outside in the truck the carpet guy brought it in, I thought it was UGLY.  It looks much better in.  

Carpet on the stairs (yes, that is painters tape on there still...).

 Carpet in J's room

Carpet in the family room.  

Return air vent covers installed.

Air conditioner.

Floor vents.

Toe kick vents.

Fridge!  Kyle also put the washer and dryer in the laundry room, but we didn't take a picture.

Ceiling vent in A's room.

Kyle did these awhile ago, but I hadn't noticed them until recently.  These are little lights in the study nook's in J's and A's rooms.  There will be a built in desk with shelves above at some point in the future.

We could not find the cover for this, luckily the HVAC guy found it by the furnace.  This is our heat exchange unit, it brings fresh air into the house and transfers the heat/cold from the old air to the new air.  Or something like that.

Another Electrical Post

I forgot to post this picture of the reading lights in the master bedroom in the last post.

The little fan up in the cooling chimney.

Family room fan.  I don't like the glass shades on this one, so I will probably swap them out at some point.

Kyle put these lights in tonight.  Right now they're on a switch, but eventually there will be a sensor so when someone walks by they'll turn on.  

The lights are all installed in the basement.  I need to finish putting covers on a few plugs and switches, but it's almost done.  We also need to have the drywall guys come back to repair some drywall that had to be cut out to fix a few problems, but everything is working and powered now.  Being able to turn on lights to work is a luxury.

Upstairs there are just a few places we're holding off on lights because we want to make sure we have them centered over the cabinets.