More Basement Projects

There is nothing like a deadline to make us get a project done. And when the deadline involves people we care about needing a place to sleep in our home, it's amazing how quickly and efficiently we can work.

A former student of mine, an absolutely wonderful young woman whom I adored as an 8th grader, is now married, expecting her first baby, and moving to Portland with her hubby and their good friend. These precious heads needed a place to land and we are so jazzed to provide it. The Lord has been so very generous to us. Our home is more than what we need or really use. It wasn't hard to say yes. The hard part came as we began to clean out their rooms!

Before pictures of both spaces...

So, clearly, this room needed some work. This is the room that has been functioning as our guest room. With one twin bed and one twin mattress/boxsprings on the floor, it was inadequate at best. Never mind the fact that often the children would play in here and completely trash the joint. And we've been using it for storage. But it was in better shape than the other space...

Uh...I can't believe I'm claiming this room publicly. We have called this room our seasonal storage room. There are shelves on the wall you can't see. In theory, we store our Christmas decorations there. In reality, this space became an absolute dumping ground. Not good. I was overjoyed to have a reason to gut this room. Yes, I could have done it without hosting three peeps in my home. But I know myself. I would not have. And God knows me even better. He knows I would not have.

So we worked. We pulled all the business out of seasonal storage, taking most of it to my mom's place in Canby. Long story short, her sewing room was in our basement and now it's not. It's a win-win! Almost all the other stuff in that room went to the Goodwill. I love it when the Lord brings me to a place of purging. We have so much and we do not need to keep that which we don't use. After emptying the room, we pulled the one twin bed around the corner, and started work on the other space.

This room also had much that ended up at the Goodwill. The extra mattress and boxsprings are going to a friend. All the extra bedding went away. All the crazy toys either went back to the playroom or into the trash can. It was so freeing to realize that I don't have to keep every cardboard sword and shield that they make. Woot!

With both rooms reasonably cleared, the next logical step was a trip to IKEA. :-)

We have always talked about getting a queen sized bed for our guest room. Sunday, we made it happen. The results are pretty nice, if I do say so myself. Here are the after pictures...

Here's the new guest room. We are so happy with the results and we pray that our guests will be, too.

And here's the former sewing/seasonal storage/every piece of junk I own room. Nice, huh? Actually unrecognizable would be a better adjective.

They are still basement rooms, but they are at least livable now.