UNEXPECTED

by Robert Teancom Thacker

It was dark and cold, there was a flash of lightning on Edalbert Drive, Cincinnati Ohio.  I, Teancom, was at home in the middle of the night.  My dad hadn't come home from work yet, and I was sleeping.  I woke up from the door slam.  I just thought it was Dad, so I went out to greet him, but nobody was there.  I went down the stairs, and looked in my siblings' rooms.  They were gone!  I hastened back upstairs to my parents' room.  Mom was gone too!!!

"They have to be somewhere!" I proclaimed.  Then I looked out the living room window.  There in the walkway was a floating light.  I hurried outside and walked cautiously over to it.  The light was a spark!  Walking to the driveway, I saw Dad's car, but it wasn't actually there, only a figment of my imagination.  "What is going on around here?!?" I asked.  I turned around and the spark was gone!  Running quickly to my house, I tried to open the door.  It was locked!  I peered in the window, and saw my cat with a witch hat on, or was it his Halloween costume?  Then I heard an evil laugh.

Freaked out, I ran across the grass, but I fell to the ground shocked when I heard a howl somewhat like a wolf.  I looked at the moon.  "Full," I said.  All of a sudden the power went out in my house.  The spark reappeared.

I heard another howl, except this time it was louder.  I felt something brush against my leg.  A distant rustle in my neighbor's bush caught my eye.  It was then that I saw the giant glowing red eyes.  As soon as I got a hold of myself and was less scared, it leaped out.  "Oooooooooow!!!" I yelled, just as the creature struck my leg.  In a lot of pain, I fell on the ground and screamed.

"What is happening?!" I shouted in terror.  I stumbled up, but fell back down.  I tried to scream at the beast, but all that came out was a roar.  I looked at myself, and I was changing.  Crawling over to the front steps, I sat down.  The thought that rushed through my head was that I was never going to see anyone again because they would be full of fear.  For as the fiend was so terrifying, I, too, was becoming a wolf just like it.

I unlocked the door with my claw and walked in.  A witch was sitting on a broom she obviously got from our kitchen ready to strike.  She swooped over to me.  My sharp fingers ran into her heart which was completely her fault.  She fell on the floor and vanished.

I dashed down the stairs and looked in my siblings' bedrooms.  There lying in their beds were monsters instead of my brother and sister.  I went to their beds and struck the monsters.  In their place were my siblings.  I crawled upstairs and killed the monster in Mom's place.  She reappeared, so I crawled out.  I wanted to sleep right then, but I couldn't.

Then I remembered I was a wolf!  I ran back outside and looked at the spark.  It had a tube under it!  I soon realized it was an antidote.  A beep made me jump, and I grabbed the antidote and ran inside.  My dad soon walked in the door and into the room I was in.  He screamed.  Although he soon realized it was me, now all my family members were gathered around me.  They accepted me for who I am, I thought.

I live with my family, as a wolf.  I walk with them.  And not only because we lost the antidote.  I like being a wolf.

THE END...

Why We Loved Hanukkah

We've been exploring world religions as a family.  It's been fun, enlightening, and mind expanding for all of us.  We're following this book and we've just finished pre-historic religions.  (Side note: If you want to discuss world religions with your kids, the book is great and I totally recommend it.)  Our discussions centering on the book have led to some fascinating places that we never have explored in the past.  And it led to Miciah declaring, out of the blue, that she'd like to celebrate Hanukkah.

Well, why not?

So we did and it was AWESOME.  Here's what we did.

First, I went to an actual Jewish synagogue (or maybe they prefer the term temple?) to purchase a menorah.  When I looked online for "Hanukkah supplies," I kept being directed to party stores.  No, I don't want blue party plates.  I want an actual, non-lame menorah!  So gift shop inside the synagogue it was.

The old ladies who worked there were super sweet.  I walked in, told them I wasn't Jewish, but that our family had decided to celebrate Hanukkah, and they helped me find a nice, but less expensive menorah, candles, dreidels, and rules for the dreidel game.  And then they invited me to come to Saturday services and meet their very warm and welcoming rabbi, and maybe I should think about being Jewish.  I thanked them politely and very honestly told them that I was currently religiously homeless.  It was a really nice experience.

This isn't the menorah we used, but isn't it gorgeous?!

Next, we invited a Jewish friend over to explain Hanukkah to us a little bit and to talk about how her family celebrated Hanukkah.  You know, put a personal touch on it.  She explained that you light the candles just after sunset, say a very short prayer (in Yiddish or English, whatever you prefer), and eat latkes and play dreidels if you want.  And that's it.  

That's it?  So simple!

5 Things to Love about Hanukkah:

1 - Lighting candles is so calming.  We'd take turns lighting the candles (with the servant candle - I love that there's a servant candle!  And that it's the tallest one!) and then we'd all just sit and look at the candles for a while.  The stillness.  So much calm love.

2 - Christian tradition is an offshoot of Jewish tradition.  I've always wondered why we, as Christians, didn't celebrate Jewish holidays.  I mean, the Old Testament is claimed by us, too.  Shouldn't we be all about Passover?!  I realize, now, that Christians were looking for a way to differentiate themselves from the Jews, etc., etc., but still.  

3 - Saying prayers in unison as a family is a beautiful experience.  Normally when we pray, we take turns.  But saying the three set prayers together was ... I don't know how to describe it.  It was just beautiful.  It's changed how we all look at prayers (like, can prayers be rote or not?), and how we say them.

4 - Setting aside time for 8 nights during busy December to slow it down.  For serious.  Who doesn't need more of this?!  And since so little time is required, and so little is expected, the celebration didn't add to our stress levels.  In fact, it helped decrease stress.  Brilliant.

5 - Learning about different cultures / traditions is fun!  The old ladies at the gift shop were kinda surprised when I told them that I'd been to a Passover meal, that I'd eaten unleavened bread for almost a year when I was a teenager, and that I love matzo balls and soup.  I guess that curiosity mixed with respect is the tradition that was passed on to me by my mother and it's one that I hope gets passed on to my children.

So, yay for Hanukkah!  We're already looking forward to next year's celebration.

2015

As this year wraps up, I have been thinking a lot about what this year has been, what it's meant to me, where I'm at now.  It's a lot to contemplate.  But mostly what I settle on is how darn grateful I feel.

This year Rob and I celebrate our 15 year anniversary.  Most years we've celebrated the number of years.  You know, "Wow, 10 years.  Think about that!  An entire decade together."  But this year I'm grateful to even have an anniversary.  Forget the number of years, I AM STILL MARRIED!  After a year like this, that's something to celebrate in and of itself.

This year I officially left the Mormon church.  I'd been taking a break, like a vacation.  Now it's a permanent separation.  And you know what?  It didn't kill me.  I'm not a puddle of sorrow.  I didn't lose my morality, purpose, or sense of self.  AND I still have friends!  What's not to celebrate about that?!

This year I realized that I need to work less hours.  This Spring was really tough with Rob's travel schedule and I found myself thinking, "You know what this family needs?  Someone who manages 5 people's schedules, makes meals, goes shopping, drives the kids around ...  Oh wait. ..."  Not that I wasn't doing that already, but our family was so stressed that it suddenly dawned on me that I just needed to work less and that if I did, our family would run smoother.  So I do work less and it did have the desired outcome.  Did and done.

This year Rob got some kick ass bonuses.  He's had an exceptional year and I can't tell you how much this has helped ease our minds.  With all the other craziness going on in our lives, all the other stresses, finances was not one of them.  So grateful.

This year I dropped out of BYU for good.  This one is harder for me to feel grateful for.  Wasted time and money on this last go round.  But it does mean that I now get to study what I want to, when I want to.  I have the mental time and energy for myself and my family.  On top of that, I get to now think about a whole new direction for a bachelor's degree.  And that makes me happy.  (There's this opportunity in a year or two that might be opening, and I'm crossing my fingers for that.  I haven't been excited about a bachelor's in a long, long time.  I'm hoping that it all comes together.)

This year I started the gardens at our house.  You guys have no idea how happy this makes me.  So, so, so, so happy.  I'll take pictures in 2016 and post them. 

This year I found my strength.  For so long I've thought that I wasn't as strong as other people.  I just didn't have it in me and I knew it.  No shame in that.  But I was wrong.  Do you know how empowering it is to realize, after years of thinking it was impossible, that all those things you wanted for yourself, YOU HAVE THEM.  They've always been yours.  I wouldn't trade what I've experienced in that last year plus for anything.  It's like I was living, before, with a shadow of myself.  Always reaching, never attaining.  Having found my new, improved, empowered self, I refuse to let me go.  I was worth the pain.  I'd do it again a thousand times if I had to.  Except I don't have to and I don't want to.  Goodness, let's stop the pain!

So, thank you, 2015.  You were beautiful.

Rebuilding

I've rebuilt my life several times, but never with my kids.  It's weird to have them along for the journey.  The stakes are higher, it's hard to guide someone else, things can feel very overwhelming for everyone.  But at the same time, I'm grateful to have them with me.  They bring new light and understanding to everything that we do.

In the reality that is our current religious (or non-religious) situation, it's important for us to build a family space that accepts and nurtures us all.  This hasn't been taught to us in church and is a whole new building sort of process.  It's scary, exciting, wonderful.

As we all figure out where we each individually stand on topics like God/god, religion, rules, Jesus, etc., we laid out a ground work of family values.  It's a framework that's meant to guide and support our individual journeys while keeping us a cohesive unit.

And so I present:

Thacker Family Values

As we journey through life, we recognize the need to live by values that will guide us to be good, moral people.  These values include:

Hope
Love
Respect
Forgiveness
Peace
Compassion
Trustworthiness
Imagination
Wisdom
Joy
Truth
Courage

We know that we can support each other in living these values, regardless of our individual belief structures.

...

Moving forward.  One building block at a time.

What Would You Do with a Pumpkin?

Every year we buy pumpkins just after Halloween when they're on sale for pennies.  This year I told Rob we should buy one for each person in the family and then we'd each decide how to use our pumpkin.  It broke down pretty interestingly.

The Pumpkin Report

Rob - Decided he didn't need one.  0 pumpkins purchased.

Tamra - Mine's in the garden, ready to rot!  Two years ago, quite by lazy accident, we figured out that pumpkins are super fun to watch rot.  So the tradition continues.

Miciah - "Whatever, Mom.  Do whatever you want with it."  Yes!  2 pumpkins rotting in the garden!  (For those of you who are surprised that my craft-crazed daughter didn't do something more fun with it, you should know that we already carved and painted pumpkins.)

Elijah - He baked it.  Made homemade pumpkin pie (with enough pumpkin to make 3 more pies for Thanksgiving!).  By himself.  Then roasted the pumpkin seeds.  And there was enough pumpkin to make a homemade pumpkin soup, too.  The kid likes to cook.

Tank - "Let's burn it!"  Do you know how long it takes a medium-sized pumpkin to "burn" over a fire?  Hours.  And it doesn't even really burn.  Just slowly, slowly, slowly disappears.  He was fascinated.  I was fascinated.  We are pyros.

...

When it was all said and done I couldn't help but feel that this was some sort of Pumpkin Personality Test that I had somehow failed.  But at any rate, the results were fun and worth documenting.

So, what would you do with a pumpkin?

A Love Letter

Dear Mormon Church:

I have loved you.  You were my hope when I was down and out.  My light in dark places.  You were my direction and guide book.  I planned out my future with you in mind.  I took no steps without consulting you.  And man am I glad for it all.  Look at my beautiful family, my amazing husband.  I have a great life, and Mormonism led me to it.  I thank you.  Where would I be without you?

Do you remember when my oldest was baptized?  What a spiritual moment that was.  So much love, support, confidence, and hope.  I was moved to tears while watching her take that huge step of faith, knowing that her faith would lead her on a path of happiness towards God.

Or how about when my husband told me something totally devastating and instead of reacting with fear or anger, I was moved by the Spirit to respond with love and hope.  It was a love beyond description, and I knew it was from God.  I'd read about these things in your scriptures.  I knew what you'd always told me was true.  Here I was experiencing a scripture-worthy moment in real life.  I was changed from that moment on.  

But something happened.  For all the messages of love and hope and enduring to the end, there was one message that I just couldn't figure out.  It seemed not to be a big deal at the time, just a political difference.  I supported gay marriage.  And you told me I shouldn't.  You told me to pray about it, to allow myself to be directed by you as I have been so many times in so many other situations.  I trusted you.  And I did as you asked.  But my prayers weren't leading where you told me they should be.  And still I trusted you.  Still I followed you.

Until I couldn't any more.  My insides were aching.  I stepped away.  It was hard, but I was confident I'd find you on the other side of my journey and we'd have an even stronger relationship then.  We'd understand each other deeper and love each other even more.  How could the end result be anything different?

Do you want to know something crazy?  Maybe it will hurt you, but it's the most honest truth that I know.  When I stepped away from you I found myself.  I became an even better version of myself.  Love was easier for me to find.  Happiness was simpler.  Truth was more obvious.  And I knew then that it was better that you and I keep our distance.

But oh, I have loved you.  Even as I kept coming to more and more realizations about myself and my own mental / emotional / spiritual health, I still honored you.  I held on to what parts I could.  I kept your name and chose to honor the path that has led me to where I am.  My past is with you and you are beautiful.  Nothing can change that.

So it is with deep regret that I remove my name from your records.  Your new policy regarding my LGBT friends is not something I can live with.  For the first time since starting my journey away from you, I actually wished you harm.  I wish harm on no one and nothing, so this was killing my soul.  It came to me in a flash that a simple solution existed:  I no longer needed to be Mormon.  This policy doesn't have to be mine.  You don't have to claim me and I don't have to claim you.  Easy.

And yet, still, I have loved you.  I deeply honor, love, and respect our past together.  But I can no longer continue my future journey with you.  We won't meet up on the other side.  I am waving good bye and moving on.

I wish you well.  I hope that you will find peace on your own journey.  And I hope that you can wish me the same.

Love,

Tamra

I Love My Kids

End of school year update on the kids.

Miciah

Rob and I went to an awards ceremony for 7th grade.  It went for an hour and a half, starting at 7:30 am.  What the what?  I can only say that I'm glad that it wasn't all 3 grades.  Anyways.  A day before this awards shindig, Rob asked Miciah if she was going to win all the awards.  Without any cockiness in her voice, she said, "Probably."

And that's exactly what happened.  She won top academic honors in every single class.  They give out 1 award in each class, and she won every single one:

Advanced English

Advanced Social Studies

Social Studies

Advanced Math

Science 

Orchestra

I've been saying, "I will win all the awards."  And Miciah will say, "I didn't say it like that!"  Too funny.  She really is very humble and sweet.

And then she won a special award that's given to a 7th grade girl in orchestra.  It's given in honor of a young lady who passed away shortly after High School and who went to Miciah's middle school.  The candidate is supposed to be a well-rounded person who is good at her instrument as well as academics and is also a nice, kind, involved human being.  When the orchestra teacher informed us that Miciah would be receiving this award, I said, "Really, it's true.  Miciah is all of that.  She's an amazing human being."

It was fun to hear Miciah honored for all her hard work and achievements.  A few people congratulated us as parents, but we don't do any of it.  Miciah works really hard and is motivated on her own to do what she does.  We just provide the means and give her rides when she needs it.  Then we get out of her way.

...  After the ceremony was over, Miciah and her best friend, Rachel, walked around for a while and Rachel was truly excited for Miciah.  I felt grateful that Miciah has a friend who is so supportive and not jealous or mean.  I asked Rachel is people in their classes get upset that Miciah does so well.  She said, "No.  We all just know that she's going to win."

So, in conclusion:  Way to go, Miciah!  Keep on being awesome.

Elijah

This school year was much easier on and for Elijah than last year.  Actually, I think I could say that for every school year we've had to date.  Elijah is having an easier time figuring out himself, school, teachers, friends, and his place in all of it.

He got some very positive feedback this year from many of his teachers.  He was chosen as Student of the Week several times (it's a once a year thing per class, but several teachers chose him).  Elijah grooves on positive feedback, so he ate it up!  He also just in general seems to be getting the idea that if he follows the class room rules he'll get rewarded, and he likes those rewards.  And we're talking rules like Do your homework and Listen to the teacher.  That's hard stuff when you've already got it all figured out!

He also rocked out a piano piece that he composed himself and submitted to 2 separate competitions. The first competition was one where he had to not only play the piece but also commit it to paper.  It took quite a bit of work and time, but having it written out was well worth it.  The second competition was PTA Reflections, where he was probably one of like 3 kids who submitted a music composition.  Anyway, his piece won at the State level, and he got some awards and a congratulatory free lunch in Columbus for all his hard work. 

You can check out his piece on youtube.

He also worked really hard on a few pieces for the big piano recital that they do every year.  I'll post the links to those when they get uploaded by the teacher.  He didn't compose those ones.  :)  But he is working on another composition.  He works on them for hours at a time over months and months, getting them just how he wants them.  Hence why we love our digital piano with head phones.  I'm a much more supportive mother when I can say, "That sounds great, Elijah.  Now please use the headphones."

Teancom

Tank is a sweet kid who can't do poorly in class to save his life.  He is a People Pleaser and he can't handle it if he doesn't make things right.  (Seriously, I worry about this.  It's a great trait, but it can be a lot of pressure when you want the world to be happy and feel obligated to take care of that single-handedly.  I am not a people pleaser by any means, but I'm married to one.  There are some serious downsides, trust me.)  As a result, his performance at school is top notch.

He has a take home folder that he brings home every Monday.  Maybe I've said this before, but it warrants saying again anyway.  He brings home papers, homework, tests, the like, and we have to look them over and then sign his folder saying that we've seen everything.  Well, all on his own, he organized the folder into two sections:  Good Grades and Bad Grades.  What really kills me, though, is that Good Grades was ONLY 100%.  Everything else, even if it's 99%, is a Bad Grade.  When I found out that he was doing that, I talked with him and told him that everything he brings home is a good grade (because that's true.  There was never anything below 90%).  He finally stopped calling them bad grades, but I couldn't convince him to stop separating the papers out like that.  ...  Crazy.

He also worked really hard on piano and did an awesome job performing his pieces in front of a large crowd.  I'm proud of him cause I know it's particularly tough for him to do that.

This year he was also in Student Council and seemed to love that.  He told him he's going to try for it again next year.  He's a good fit for it because he's very well liked (did I mention that he's a People Pleaser?) and is kind and sweet to everyone.  

Oh!  I found out that the kids in his grade have been calling him Tinkerbell because he's so small.  I asked Tank if he liked that.  His response just killed me, and it's classic Tank:  "No, I don't like it.  I told them that if they really want to call me that, call me Tankerbell instead."  Love it!  I think it just says so much about Tank and who he is.

And now it's time for summer!  I'm loving my extra time with these 3 awesome kids.

Mormonism and Me, an Extended Separation

I announced on this blog back in, what, August 2014 that I was taking a break from the Mormon church.  I had intended, after some time, to put the pieces back together and "figure things out."  However, shortly after that break, I had a complete paradigm shift and my religious life was changed forever.  I think it has changed for the better, but I know not everyone agrees with me.  And that's okay.  We don't all have to agree to get along.  Right?!  ("Right," I answer myself, imaging a friendly, upbeat world.)

I have just a few things to say about this.  Nothing scathing.  Just a few honest, vulnerable things that I want to put out there.

1 - In early 2009 I started a second blog called Random Tamra.  I probably never said why, but the reason why is because of a Facebook post back in 2008.  I publicly declared in that post that I was pro-LGBT rights, and specifically pro-gay marriage.  I said in this post that I wasn't going to be afraid of saying that out loud.  That I believe the world is made up of people who deep down want to get along with each other and I don't want to be afraid anyway, so I'm saying what I believe.  And I got some pretty great FB responses to that, from religious and non-religious people alike.

I also got called into the Bishop's office for it.  It was a terrible experience, even though the meeting itself went well, and it messed with my religious life for about a year.  Before I'd been called in, Rob was called in and told to "talk to his wife" to try to bring me in line.  Rob said two things to the Stake guy delivering that message to him:  1 - Tamra wouldn't appreciate this meeting we're having right now.  She'd find it very insulting.  And 2 - YOU try bringing my wife in line.  Ha!

So I decided, fine, I guess my life DOES need to be segmented.  I guess I DO need to be a little afraid.  I guess we can't live and let live.  And I started a separate blog where I could write whatever I wanted.

For a while that was perfect.  That separation made me feel safe.

But those days are gone.  I refuse to even pretend there is a separation.  I either have something to say about a topic, or I don't.  I either want to say that thing publicly, or I don't.  At this point being called into the Bishop's office isn't a worry that I have.  What would he say to me anyway?  "Tamra, I already knew everything that just got reported to me..."  :)  And what would I say to him?  "Yep."

I will no longer be afraid.  THIS IS MY VOICE.

2 - My "break" from Mormonism is going to be extended indefinitely.  I have no intention of picking it back up in a practicing religion sort of way.  It wasn't making me happy when I was in the middle of it.  I've found peace and love without it in my head, and I'm happy to stand where I am.  And where is that exactly?  Nowhere in particular.  It's a floating sort of place with more grounding than it seems possible to explain.  I'm fond of singing part the popular song in reverse order, "I once was found, but now I'm lost."  :)

I like it out here.

3 - I'm done at BYU - dropping out yet again.  Even thinking about continuing with my on-line bachelor's degree while all this religious change has been going on inside me, even THINKING about that has been wearing me down.  So I'm done with it.  It's a little sad, but not really.  I'm happy to put it behind me.

4 - I am grateful to the people who have made this journey with me and haven't insisted that this be a simple, black and white issue.  It's been hard for everyone, including me.  It's harder when I get negative feedback that insists I'm a lousy person because I've had an experience that someone else hasn't had.

5 - I still intend to attend church on a somewhat regular (but not every week) basis.  I like to imagine a world where we love and accept others because that's what we want to do.  So that's my little claim:  That I can show up to a place where I belong, where I can love others and be loved.  That it doesn't matter what I do and don't believe.  That it doesn't matter if I am or am not fill-in-the-blank.  I can still belong here.  With the people I love.  That there is strength to be had in our differences.  That I can build you up and you can build me up, and that process doesn't have to center on what we do and don't believe.  That we can respect and love, and maybe someday understand each other, without focusing so much on rigid belief structures.

I'd like this place I envision to be in the Mormon church still.  My family has figured out how to exist in this space.  It's not easy sometimes.  But it's possible.  And it's my dream for Mormonism.  Someday that dream may have to end.  But as of today, I'm holding on to it!  It's a dream worth dreaming.


Love to you all!

Basement Pictures - Family Room

Family Room

The gem of the basement is the Family Room.  This is where we watch movies, where the kids play, where art is done, and just our general media gathering spot.  Upstairs is non-TV space (though with laptops and Netflix, any and every space can be TV space), so the basement is where Loud happens.

Before, as Miciah's room / craft room:

When we first moved in, this was a woodworking room.  We cleaned layers and layers of sawdust from the walls (and the guy who did the woodworking died years before we bought the house!).  For quite a few years it was a grab bag sort of room.  We put a desk in in for a while.  It was a project-type of room where we stored lots of random stuff.  

Then we put a bed in it and pretended it was a bedroom.  For a few more years my uncle slept there during weekdays and all three kids were upstairs.  In a life-changing moment that ended up being really good timing, even though I was heartbroken about it, my uncle was let go and Miciah moved down to the basement to take over this space as her own.

I showed Miciah this picture when I was prepping for this post and she said, "Oh my gosh.  I used to live in that?!"  Yep.  I asked her if her new room was better and she gave me that teenage incredulous face and said, "Uh, yeah."  Which is kinda funny cause when we told the kids we were going to re-do the basement, and we told Miciah that she would have less space and very little storage, she was mad!  We didn't let it stop us, obviously, and we told her lots of times, "Just wait.  It'll be awesome.  Really."  

During tear-down:

During construction:

This picture is from the bottom of the stairs, looking into Miciah's doorway and the boys' doorway (behind the pole). And this is the other pink pole.  This one didn't have a place to go between walls or anything.  I kinda wanted to leave it as a pole, but they convinced me to cover it with a column.  I'm really happy with how that turned out.

This is looking into the room itself from the "hallway" portion of the room.  It's all one big open space, of course, but the layout lends itself to two separate sections: hallway and room.

Now, as the fully realized Family Room:

From the bottom of the stairs looking at Miciah's room (door on the left) and the boys' room (behind the pole).  Entrance to the laundry space is in the front left of the picture:

From the bottom of the stairs looking into the Family Room space.  Art table, covered in kid stuff, in the bottom right corner:

From Miciah's room looking into the Family Room space:

From the boys' room looking towards the stairs:

There are still a few things about the Family Room that I'm not in love with.  The couch will be replaced soon, for instance.  And I'm not in love with the game and toy storage that we have going on.  It's just old bins and the wardrobe from Miciah's old room.  Not ideal, but workable until I care to figure out a better solution.  

Basement Pictures - the Boys' Room

The Boys' Room

Even though the dimensions aren't the same, the boys' room is now where the toy room used to be.  I posted this diagram of the old and new layouts, so you might want to reference that again to get a good feel for the spaces I'm talking about.

Before, as the toy room:

Oh, oh!  You can see the ducky shower curtain in the second picture!  See?!  Isn't it great?!

Anyways, the toy room, as you can tell, was kind of a grab bag of stuff.  It worked well for our needs at the time and the kids loved playing down there.

During tear-down:

The basement had 2 pink poles (the previous owners loved pink) that were covered by really thick walls.  Apparently the previous owners also had a thing for do-it-yourself concrete walls that weren't properly secured to anything.  Those crew guys are tearing out the concrete wall in this picture.  Anyways, in the new plan, this pink pole went into the framing between the kids' rooms.

Also, in this picture, the back wood paneled wall is the wall between the toy room and Miciah's old room.

That same wall without the wood paneling, but with the wood framing.

During construction:

 The wood framing you see is the doorway to the boys' room.  The rest of the framing is that metal stuff.

This is the corner of their room and the outline of their closet.

The window in their room was cut from nothing.  Here it is, half cut out:

This is the picture I told you about where you can see the I-beams added to support our bowed wall.  They're the darker beams, not the metal framing for the walls.

 All the way cut out!

Window fully installed, with dry wall up.

This is the pile of dirt that was created from digging out the window well.

A side story:  This window caused us some grief.  When the basement was water-proofed, they didn't do the drainage on this side of the house because we told them that a window was going to be installed.  They said they'd come back after the window was done and finish the job.  No problem.  Or so we thought.  It turns out that they had to do a bunch of other work that they hadn't mentioned before, and blah blah blah.  They started doing some of the remaining work but didn't finish it.  In the meantime, it started raining.  A lot.  And the drainage wasn't fully connected all the way around the house.  This meant that nearly ALL of the water was draining into newly-dug window well outside Miciah's room.

Rob called them and they, of course, could do nothing for us.  SO many phone calls.  But we still had to fix the water issue.  All that new work, and we didn't want to have water rushing into our basement.  So Rob was out there, in the pouring rain, digging a trench from her window well out into the yard, just to give the water a lower spot to drain into.  Then we rallied one of our neighbors who said he had a pump.  Rob hooked up this pump to siphen off the water when it got too high and literally SHOOT it into the backyard.  One night it was driving rain all night and Rob had to go out there twice to make sure no water came into the house.

The whole thing was ridiculous and cost us (but mainly Rob) a lot of time and headache.  The plus side is that 1- they fixed it all up in the end and 2- they gave us our service contract for free indefinitely (a $75/year value).  We got gyped on that deal, for sure, but hey, our basement is now dry and we've nearly forgotten all about that horrendous rain storm where one or both of us were perpetually covered in mud.  Distant memory.

The closet getting dry walled.

Now:

Again, the closet doors had come off.  They're now back on - thanks, Rob!  The boys never keep the doors closed anyways.  They also never keep their closet organized.  This drives me batty, but it's not my room, so I don't care too much.  In fact, the level of dirty captured in these pictures is about average for them.

The space works great for a bunk bed.  When they're bigger, if they no longer want a bunk bed, we're going to have to figure something else out that's better.  ...  Or just make them keep their bunk beds until they move out at 18.  Hmm...

Their room has not been problem-solved yet, in terms of furniture and storage.  My guess is that we will do some of that this summer.

Basement Pictures - Miciah's room

Miciah's Room

Before, Miciah's room was part of the large laundry area.  But part of it was a food storage nook with lots of shelves.  We loved it for that and it worked really well.  But to create enough space for 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, it had to go.  We don't have any real Before pictures (I don't think).  Though I wish I did, cause we put a shower curtain up as a divider/door into the storage room.  A ducky shower curtain.  I loved it.

During the tear-out phase:

 You can tell from these two pictures that it wasn't a very wide space.  Maybe like a large closet. Initially I thought it might work as a closet space for a bedroom, but ... nope.

This is looking into the same space, but with the walls gone.  And if the wall looks bowed to you, it is.  No camera trick.  That's why we water-proofed our basement.  We weren't a fan of that wall eventually caving in.  After this picture was taken, they came back and installed 3 I-beams to brace the wall.  I don't know why we didn't take pictures of that.  Though the beams do show up in a later picture of the boys' room during construction, so you'll be able to see them.

During construction:

Miciah's room had a window in it, but a tiny one.  This one is big enough that she can crawl out of it if there was a fire.  Window well and window size are all according to code, so these could be counted as actual bedrooms if they weren't, you know, in the basement where no one cares.  :)  Rob insisted on the windows, which were about $1,000 a pop (one in Miciah's room and one in Elijah's room).  He was right, they really make the space livable, nice, and safe.

Now:

Not sure if you can tell from this picture how crazy the slope is.  I mean, *I* think it looks like it slopes up in the back corner, but maybe that's because I already know it does.  Anyways, Miciah also is now the lucky one who gets to sleep on a queen sized bed.  We bought it this year so when a couple comes to stay, we can kick Miciah up to the office and the couple can sleep on her queen.  It's worked pretty well so far.

 The closet door had fallen off and it's tucked away by the entrance to her room.  It's now fixed - thanks, Rob!  Her closet also has a nice storage system inside it.  It's pretty nifty.

This is Miciah's sewing/craft area.  When I post pictures of the family room, you'll see her old room and the intense amounts of crafting space she used to have.  This is a MASSIVE downsize for her.  But it's reasonable now and she's happy with the amount of space she has.

Also, soon I'll be working with Miciah on her room.  She has too much stuff in it.  Too much furniture.  A filing cabinet, a dresser, a sewing table, a small bookshelf and a large bookshelf...  Some of it's gotta go.  She agrees, we just haven't tackled it yet.

Basement Pictures - Bathroom

Bathroom

The bathroom in the basement was created from nothing.  It was a section that was previously part of the open laundry space (and hence we have no before pictures - we didn't see a need to take a picture of nothing).  There was no plumbing for a bathroom or anything like that, so it all had to be installed. On top of that, the floor had to be leveled.  There's probably a 5 inch difference in floor height in our basement (which you should be able to see when I do pictures of Miciah's room.  Actually, I think we did a video?  At least we did a comparison shot with Rob at both sides of the room), and apparently that kind of slope is no good for a bathroom.  Really, it's no good for anything, but leveling the floor would have been an unreasonable cost to incur, and they probably would have just leveled it to the highest point, making the entire basement 5 inches higher.  No thanks.  There's not much head room as it is.

Anyways, the point is that the bathroom was a from-scratch kind of thing.  The wall behind the washer and dryer in the previous post?  That's all the piping and stuff they had to install, mainly for the bathroom.

Here's as good as a before picture gets for this space:

Where he's standing is where the washer and dryer were, on a raised cement block.  You can see the water pipes along the wall.  The larger black pipes in the front right of the picture are where the toilet and shower from upstairs connected in.  So it clearly made sense to put the bathroom on this side of the house.  Water pipes were already there.

During construction:

Here's the new, now-level concrete.  Check out the height difference against the back wall.  Crazy!

I kinda liked the green walls.  :)  It's moisture-resistant dry wall.  In this picture you can also see the new window space they created.  It was an old, gross window that needed replaced.  The size didn't work any more for the bathroom space, plus half of it was venting space.  So they completely redid that, too.  (You can actually see the old venting in the first picture in this post.  A big, huge dryer duct went out that window.)

Now:

The bathroom was the bulk of the cost of the basement project, but it's been worth it.  The basement space wouldn't be nearly as nice without it.

Basement Pictures - Laundry and Storage Room

Laundry and Storage Room
As I've mentioned, the basement is now in an entirely new setup than before.  Before, the main area was basically like a huge open laundry room.  Cause that's useful.  We don't have any pictures of this area pre-work.  It was a boring area that neither required nor invited any pictures ever.

We do have a picture of the now-storage-room space.  We called it Cleo's room.  For a while, in 2010, it had our desk and computer in it:

The red bassinet was Cleo's bed.  So adorable.

However, this space is now AWESOME and totally useful as a combination laundry/storage area.  The bulk of the downstairs was given to the family area, with only a small portion devoted to laundry and storage.  That's how it always should have been anyway.  Here's the space in different stages of demolition and building:

And here it is now, with all the storage room totally organized!:

The storage area is the only part of the basement that didn't get new flooring.  We pulled up the (mostly broken) tile and cleaned it really well and left it as bare concrete.  Because, who cares, it's a storage room.

As you can tell from the last picture, you can stand in the laundry room and look into the family area.  So I can stand there and fold clothes while watching TV.  Not that I often do that, but I CAN if I want to.  And that feels awesome.