Summer. It came and went! We are moving. Oh and we have a finished basment ;)

Where did the summer go? You would think that summer means long, relaxing lazy days with plenty of time to blog about all the fun we have had. Well.....it was a fun summer. As far as relaxing, we got to go to Lake Powell with some of our dear friends(not so relaxing for Andy, he was captain of the houseboat!), Andy got to go camping with his friend Justin and I got to go to St. George with Mom and Jess. We had some great family BBQs and got to relax a little. Precious little!

But it was definitely an eventful summer. Right after my last post, Andrew found out he got an interview with the Geneva Switzerland Grant Thornton office. WHA? Yes. He was interviewed over the phone, which went well. The partner decided that he wanted to fly us out in June so we could check out the city and see if the living situation would suit us. We flew over, checked into our hotel, got to walk around Geneva, and then met with the partner at the office. John was very gracious and gave us a good idea of what our lives would be like if we moved to Geneva. I will be honest, we were a bit overwhelmed! We didn't speak French, things were expensive, and it is just different! But, by the end of our trip, we felt like we wanted to do this and we needed to do this. This would be an amazing opportunity to live in Europe, be off on our own, to learn a language, and have the experience of a lifetime!

We flew home and our knees just hit the ground in prayer! We crunched numbers to make sure we could afford to live there, and then just waited. After giving it a few weeks, we felt good about it and decided to move forward.

After announcing to the family and then preparing for Stevo to leave on his mission, we hit the house hard! We realized we needed to finish up our basement in order to rent our house for what we needed to. Yikes! And we just finished and have been enjoying upstairs!

We continued to rip out the old and prepare for the new in the basement. I must say, I got overwhelmed. My husband is my hero, and worked so hard on this basement! I had difficulty keeping the vision and maintaining stamina, but amidst all Andrew had to do, he helped me push through and he worked late nights to make sure we got it done. He framed out the whole basement, including the garage!

My man doin his thang

An extended utility room. Good job framing Sweetie!

My Hero

So....our Game Plan
Our plan is to turn our basment garage into the master bedroom with a walk-in closet. We also wanted to create a hallway going from the bottom of the stairwell into the master and an offshoot going into the laundry room. Rather than having the laundry room and basement bath be separate rooms, we decided to combine the two. Andrew also had the brilliant idea to shorten the length of our utility room and make more room in the family room. We would also make window wells in the family room out of granite rock and make the windows themselves bigger. And the most exciting change of all............filling the driveway and turning the garage door into a sliding glass door! Yay, no more ugly driveway with hedges and water running down into our house!  

bye bye driveway

It was a lot of work. We had many rally around us to help....mainly our wonderful dads. I don't know what we would have done without them. Byron was the master installer of all the baseboards. He also helped Andrew and my Dad pour concrete to level our garage. My Dad helped us form the window wells and tile our bathroom/laundry room. He also jackhammered concrete and helped level concrete in the garage and on the sidewalk. Woof.

My daddy, the tile master

The final layer of concrete for the garage. sooooooo many bags of concrete!

 I can't even count how many bags of concrete we went through. Our moms also helped save the day! Jennifer helped with picking out trees and shrubs, getting rid of the dust and puttying the holes. My mom helped with paint,landscaping, and let's not forget helping me pack up the house and get it cleaned! And Jessica, Jake, Hugh and my Dad saved the day laying sod and landscaping. HUGE THANKS!!!!!!!!!We hired out all of the sheetrocking this time around because of time, as well as electrical and plumbing. Huge props to John Moyle! John is an amazing landscape architect, as well as a great family friend.

John Moyle, the back hoe master

 He busted out our driveway and layed an amazing granite retaining wall. Dave Goaslind, another good family friend, helped us with carpet to give the finishing touch. My friend Laura Merrill also stepped in to help me with touch ups, hanging the banister and the curtain rod.

Yep. It was quite the two and a half months, but we did it! Andrew is a master and made sure we got it done! It feels very nice to have a finished house that we will get to come home to! We are so proud of this little house that we have made our own. Although the idea of moving to Europe is exciting and thrilling, we were a little sad to put so much work into our home and have to leave it for a time. but we hope and pray that good renters will take good care of it. Thank you to our wonderful family and friends for all their help and support! Thank you to such a talented, loving, hard-working, resilient, and amazing husband! off to Geneva now!

Here are the before and after pictures of our house!!!!

Before-Front Shot

After-Front Shot

Before--Front Room

After--Front Room Views

Before--Upstairs Bathroom

After--Upstairs Bathroom

Bathroom View #2

Bathroom View #2

Before--Master Bedroom

After--Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom View #2

Master Bedroom View #3

Master Bedroom View #4

Hallway Leading to Master

Before--Second Bedroom (this picture delights me.....)

After--Second Bedroom

Second Bedroom View #2

Second Bedroom View #3

Before--Front Room

After--Front Room (I love my paneled wall and uncovering that window!)

Before--Kitchen

After--Kitchen

Kitchen View #2 (no more wall!)

Kitchen View #3

Before--Dining Room

After--Dining Room

Before--Basement....terrifying

pheasant and holly wallpaper and paneling

Nothing like a spanish bullfighter etched above the mantle!

Another view

I kind of miss this wallpaper;)



....after we added insulation....

After--THE BASEMENT!!!!

Ahhhhh. Much Better

Before--Laundry Room

Before--Basement Bath

After--Laundry Room....

...Combined with the Bath

Another shot of the Bathroom

Hallway leading out of the Laundry/Bath

Before--The Stairs

eww!

Thank You Jess for helping me pluck out the nails!

love her!

After--The Stairs

Another view (With a Door leading into a bedroom)

Before--The Basement Garage

See ya later driveway!

After--Garage Door becomes Sliding door with a retaining wall window well

Before--Garage framed out

After--Garage Becomes Master Suite

Master Suite View #2

Master Suite Closet

Busting out and filling in Driveway

Complete House!!!!!!!!!!!BAHHHHHHH!

Thank you to all who helped! We love our house so much and couldn't done it without our friends and family! Hope you have enjoyed the pictures. I have attached a video for your personal enjoyment. It kept us goin during the stressful times. Thank you Jacobus!