Sheetrock is HUNG!

Our sheetrock has now been hung up in the basement! REJOICE!
Now we are onto the waiting for the guys to tape and texture the rest. It looks sooooo different down there with the sheetrock up, now we can tell what the rooms will look like. Our basement has: one closet under the stairs, two bedrooms each with a closet (one with a huge closet), a full bathroom, and a utility room/laundry room. I seriously cannot believe that they got this all hung in a day!

I believe I was told the taping/texturing will take just about a week to do. So we'll see how it goes. I now need to mop downstairs because of the sheetrock dust that is EVERYWHERE. Also now watching at Home Depot and Menards (our options in town for building type stuff) for primer to go on sale so I can just buy a 5 gallon bucket of it. Hopefully 5 gallons is enough to cover it all.

Coast 2 Coast - runDisney

Click here to view this photo book larger

Part of my favorite thing after returning from a trip (yes, yes I know this one got WAYYYYY delayed) is creating the photobook. Here is from my runDisney Coast 2 Coast challenge. I ran the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in Disneyland and the Wine and Dine Half Marathon in Walt Disney World! LOVED IT!

Now to anxiously await the arrival of my photobook.

What do you do with your pictures after a trip?
Do you make a yearly photobook?

PINTREST SUCCESS

This weekend we had what I am calling a Pinterest success. I am weird and we sort our laundry as we throw it in the baskets, the whites in one load and the darks in the other load and then things like: cloth kitchen napkins, towels, dish towels, wash rags, etc go in a third pile (of which we never had a basket or anything for) then I don't have to sort the laundry, but can just throw in a load of laundry whenever I have time or when a basket gets fullish. Before this weekend and in the first picture you can see how our laundry baskets were, we stacked, two mis-matched baskets on top of one another and you had to lift up the second basket any time you had something to go in the bottom one. Yes, I know it wasn't that much work but it was a little annoying none the less. I found on pinterest, somewhere and I apparently didn't repin it (oops) but they essentially hung up baskets in their closet, which we have the PERFECT space for.

So this weekend we stopped in at Menards and bought two sets of bracket hanging things, mounted them, and bought two matching laundry baskets at Target (which happened to match one of our other baskets we already owned) and we have a great hanging system. SERIOUSLY WONDERFUL, I now can pull off the wall whichever I want to wash (the bottom basket just sits on the floor) and wash and we can throw our clothes in without having to pick up baskets. {Top Basket: towels and kitchen laundry Middle Basket: whites Bottom Basket: darks}

Total Project Cost:
Brackets and pieces from Menards: $11.23 {plus it is the 11% sale so we will get a little back from it}
2 laundry baskets from Target: $18.01

WONDERFUL project. I am in love.
Took us less than 30 minutes, the hardest part (which really wasn't that hard) was to make sure the two sets of brackets were level to each other and spacing them out as we wanted.

Insulating Weekend

It was an insulating weekend around the Marshall house. We spent our weekend insulating our basement, walls and ceilings (yes, we know that insulating the ceiling wasn't necessary, however, we wanted to sound protect the basement from upstairs and vice versa - so we insulated with R-30 which is roughly 10 or so inches of beauty.). The walls got r-13 except for a couple walls which got R-19 for extra insulation due to the space that they allowed. It was crazy and took quite a while, but we are happy that we did it and are jazzed for the plumbers to be coming in tomorrow to rough in our bathroom. Dakota was a champ. We bribed her with a 99% empty peanut butter jar and every couple hours we bundled up and took her for a walk around the neighborhood. Yesterday, was MUCH nicer out that today, today when I left for work my car read -4 degrees. BRING ON SPRING PLEASE!

BEFORE

Bribery at it's finest

Our truck full of insulation, sheetrock, and a bathtub/shower

He humors me and allows me to take pictures

Taking the plastic off these bundles is like opening one of those
Pillsbury dough cans where it just explodes out of the can
It was fun - seriously we enjoyed it every time
Note how far it expanded compared to Marc

Progress at it's finest

Now we can cross that off the to-do list and next up is roughing in our bathroom and then the sheetrockers will come to hang the sheetrock and then another crew comes to tape and texture the walls. THEN WE CAN PAINT! (oh beloved Mother, who is a rockstar at painting, pack your painting clothes and come on up.) Whoop Whoop. Oh and I suppose at some point we need to figure out what we are doing for doors and flooring. I think both bedrooms downstairs are getting carpet. The bathroom some type of tile or laminate (oh beloved brother, want to come tile a floor for me?! You know you want to....). And then in the main room and the hallway I am hoping for some type of a fake wood type of deal (brother don't you want to also try to do this?!). AND THEN... we can finally move all of our stuff out of the guest bedroom upstairs as well as move our stuff we have crammed into the closet under the stairs (we didn't sheetrock that part for about 12,000 reasons.). IT IS GETTING CLOSER.

Or at least we are making progress.

How was your weekend?
Did you do anything fun?

• Friday we had friends over and it was AMAZING, so much fun with friends. Shepherd's pie and pie for dessert it seriously doesn't get any better than that
• We did watch the Hurt Locker on Saturday evening which was an interesting movie for sure.
• Also my blanket I am crocheting for myself is 90% done and I AM JAZZED and already picking out my next project

           

Pie Day!

• Today was a wonderful day here.


• We found out we are getting a tax return. Taxes make me nervous, I am always nervous that we have to pay in (which would SUCK) - but we do get a return, not huge but a return none the less.


• The weather is above freezing. REJOICE.


• Our basement is coming along. REJOICE.




• today our sheetrock, tub/shower, and insulation were delivered.




• This afternoon I actually got quite a bit done, I needed to do some work for the camp I work for (parttime) and some work for my actual job (proof my sermon for Sunday and make sure that I am ready for a burial tomorrow).


• IT is PI day! Whoop Whoop. 




• We have a group of friends who we frequently get together with for St. Patty's day, however, with one the ladies due on Monday with her second baby we didn't want to risk not getting together. So we gathered and had Shepherd's pie, had pie for dessert, and played some games. Friends are indeed good.

This was a ridiculously random post, but it works.
Hope y'all had a great pi day!

Weekend update

It was a WONDERFUL weekend. WE FINALLY were able to go outside, seriously, long long long overdue. We FINALLY spent some time outside on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night and into Saturday I was on retreat with our seventh and eighth graders from church as well as four neighboring churches at a bible camp not far from us. It is always great to get together with the groups from our area. We had a great time and the weather played along as well, last year at this retreat we got stuck part way home and had to extend our trip a day due to horrible weather. This year we had a great time. The kids got to play games outside and go sledding what more could you really want?! Not to mention they were EXHAUSTED from all the time spent playing outside. Fresh air is a gift for sure.

   On Sunday, Marc, Dakota, and I were able to spend almost the whole afternoon outside! IT WAS AWESOME. It was good for the soul for sure. (We gave in and bought new rainboots for Marc and I, due to our new living location, and the need and desire to get be able to slip shoes on and run to doe stuff outside without having to worry about getting our shoes all muddy, when mud season finally arrives.) We started chipping away at the ice that is nearly a foot and a half thick on our drive way, it took us quite a bit to get a bunch of it chipped away. The problem is we still have a LONG ways to go. We were only able to get so much chipped away because of how hard the ice was. We did get some of it done though and were able to chip into some of it in places so that when the sun shines hopefully it will help to get it melting faster.  I also started chipping away at the ice on the deck, which is also obnoxiously thick. Marc scraped away the snow and ice at the door/front entryway so that we can finally use that door without falling on our bums. Dakota thought she had died getting to spend so much time outside. Although there was still a serious challenge in running around in the snow.








How was your weekend?
Do you still have snow on the ground? (we still have a TON of snow on the ground here)
Did you do anything wonderful this weekend?

The dog and the man

Seriously, February has been a rough month in our house, It has been obnoxiously cold all month. No exaggeration, we literally only had two days this month that were above 15 degrees. I kid you not. Anyways, my days have been filled with movie watching, book reading, crocheting, and working on stuff around the house. In the midst of it our dog, Dakota, and my husband, Marc, have found a bond on the couch. I hate to admit how many different pictures I have the two of them snuggling on the couch, but here are two of my favorites for your viewing pleasure. Please note that Dakota is UNDER the blanket with Marc in the one that he is laying down and note the position Dakota is laying in in the photo where Marc is sitting up. How on God's green earth is that comfortable, she laid like there for at least 45 minutes. Strange strange dog. This weather is getting to us all.






Please tell me if you are in warmer climates than we are that you are spending every possible minute outside that you can!

Dear mother nature,
   You have proven your force and your ability to create extreme cold. You win. I am over this winter. Please begin sending spring, however, please be careful with how quickly you warm us up, the feet of snow that we have sitting around here makes me nervous, it must melt slowly or else we are in TROUBLE.
Love,
   All of Minnesota