In the depths

After spending parts of the last seven years speculating about refinishing our basement and/or our attic, both of which are huge and unfinished, we are finally going to do a home improvement project.  Or, I should say, our fabulous contractor is going to do one for us. 

We're going for a very partial finishing of the basement - replacing the windows, adding walls, and then laying down some heavy-duty carpet.  It's nothing that requires any permits, for tax reasons, but will just make it into a more comfortable storage and play area. 

Also, it will add square footage to our house when we sell it, which is a huge piece of the motivation to do this and which could be sooner or later depending on when this short sale thing plays itself out.  However, one thing we do know is that the basement work is about to happen right now.  Our contractor had some time suddenly open up starting in a week, so we jumped at the chance to get this project going.

However, this means that we have to completely move out of the basement in less than a week!  Both of us love to purge our stuff and we regularly make large trips to Goodwill, but we still have a lot of things stored down there - kids' clothes, an extra bed and bedding, TONS of toys and kids' books, our financial statements, and on and on.  We've spent part of the last two evenings working on it and wow, it is kind of overwhelming.  I think it will get better when our POD is delivered tomorrow and we can start actually moving stuff out.  Still, the moving out seems like just as big a project as the construction will be!

Oh, and did I mention that we're driving to California at the end of next week?  Perfect timing in terms of being gone while there's construction going on, but not ideal in terms of getting the basement ready while also prepping for the car trip that will last for an eternity.  I'm sure it will all turn out fine, though, and we're looking forward to enjoying our new basement for either a little while or a long while, depending!