A Home of Our Own (once again)

After the adventure of moving out of Western WA rather abruptly in the latter part of 2020 and house-sitting for my in-laws for a few years, we finally had a house built last year and are grateful to be in our own home once more. The home came with a mostly barren dirt yard with a handful of mature trees on one side in the back and an unfinished basement. We've spent the majority of our available time over this year doing some initial landscaping and working on finishing the basement. First we planted 8 fruit trees and 4 shade trees last spring. Over the summer we worked as a family digging trenches, installing a sprinkler system, and laying sod. Then we turned our attention indoors and pulled down the bat insulation off the concrete walls, cut it in strips, and tucked it in the ceiling. Next we painstakingly removed the metal fasteners from the concrete that had been used for the concrete pour and those used for holding in the insulation. After that we scrubbed all the caked-on mud off the walls (the basement had been poured in late fall and got coated in mud that the builders just covered with the insulation). Then we attached foam board to the walls and laid thinner foam board over the concrete floors with subfloor on top of it. Next we framed in all the walls, including adding "strapping" to the ceiling to stiffen the upstairs floors and give more solid places for framed walls to be attached and later for drywall to be hung. After that we ran the electrical and then put in the insulation. We hired out the drywall - which was so worth it. They delivered and hauled over a hundred 12' x 54" pieces of drywall that were 3/4 inch thick downstairs and that alone was worth it. Then they had it all hung in just a couple days time and they completed the taping, mudding, and texturing in less than a week after that. We then took back over to prime and paint all the walls and ceilings down there. We ended up paying to have the laminate flooring installed because a little more levelling was needed for the product we wanted and the manufacturer's warranty is only fully honored if the product is professionally installed. We have ordered and installed the swinging doors, but still need to do the bi-pass and bi-fold closet doors and the pocket door for the bathroom. We have the trim materials and will be working on that for the next little while, then we need to paint the trim and doors and finish the bathroom. We have accomplished a lot, but we still have a ways to go. Hopefully we'll be able to get our kids in their rooms soon. 🤞 This has been a fun project, but I do look forward to being done with it. Of course then we have further landscaping to do, the shop to build, raised garden beds to build, and our fire pit to complete. One of these days we will be done with it all, but not this calendar year. Maybe by next summer? 🤞