the river house #7: momentum...

 Oh, there's so much I could blog about right now.  There's so much on my mind I could share.  About adoption. About race.  About alopecia. About the sweetness and the chaos of life with small children.

But for now, how about an update on the River House?

Because it feels like we've finally turned a corner on the basement this week.  And that's HUGE.

One of our new neighbors who has lived on the block for twenty years gave us a TREASURE when she gave us these two pictures she took of the River House in 2006 before the previous owners began renovations.

Wow, right?  It's so hard to believe this is the same house... 

...as what we started with this year.  You can tell the previous owners had started something really special.

This was a BIG week in our basement reno!  Finally, we turned the proverbial corner.  And now it's a race to see if we can finish in time for our new RUF intern, Audrey, to move in when she comes to town in August.

This week, we sealed the brick walls and concrete floor.

And that piece of paper hanging from the header?  A passed inspection on framing, plumbing and electrical!

Which gave us the green light to move along to insulation and drywall- yesssssss.

Take a last look through the closet into the bathroom because you'll never see it again...

Houston, we have insulation.

I never want to hang insulation again.  I start itching just thinking about it.

(And somehow I keep finding these kind of pictures on my phone... I wonder who the culprit could be...)

At times this River House project is so large that it takes up our entire block.  

This week the gas company worked hard (under a tent in the road, no less) to get the house connected to the gas line.

And checking in on the side addition, it's beginning to take shape! 

Back to the basement...

So, if you're going to pretend you're Joanna Gaines and redo a house with the show "Fixer Upper" as your inspiration, you know you've gotta put shiplap somewhere in the house! 

I decided I wanted it in the basement bathroom.  But the problem is... there's no shiplap sold anywhere in my town (can you believe it??  Travesty.).  So if I wanted it, we were going to have to make it. 

We bought a bunch of 1x8 boards from our local big box store, and our contractor's son routed each one out to make them more like the original tongue-and-groove shiplap.  

I sanded off the rough edges, and using a level, we hung the first board, starting at the top.

Continuing down the wall, we used nickels as our spacers between each board.  (thank you, Pinterest tutorials)

And by the end of the day, the "shiplap" was up!  (I decided to prime in the grooves before we hung each board.  That may have been overkill.  We'll see.)

It's going to look soooo good when it's painted!!

On the right, you'll notice we're creating some small built-in shelves between the studs that will be next to the vanity.

Batgirl meets drywall.

 I love how the kids are beginning to take on this house project as a family.   They help out here and there, but each day they love seeing and hearing about the progress and I think they're amazed to see something finally beginning to take shape.

My beautiful gal

 Caroline liked learning how to mud over the screws in the drywall.

Cute guy concentrating with tongue out

Jameson just likes to bang stuff and play with tools, pretending he's hard at work.

A couple of afternoons a week, I let the kids watch a movie on the laptop in the basement.  That buys me a little time to help out on the house.

So now we've hung the sheetrock, and we have walls!  Sheetrock is a game changer, for sure! 

Three coats of mud on the seams, and we'll be ready to begin trim and paint next week!

To be continued...