Bombed Out Basement

I write this blog exhausted. We had a really busy day and wore ourselves completely out. Before I tell you about why I'm so tired and the title of this post, I'll tell you about David and I's date night last night. We decided that we needed a date night just for us at a nice restaurant. We went to this place in Brookside called Blue Grotto. It is kind-of a gourmet pizza place and we also had some delicious bruschetta. We didn't take a picture at Blue Grotto, so I decided to steal a picture from my brother's old blog from when he was in Italy. He went to the actual "Blue Grotto," so here it is!...



The restaurant didn't look quite that good. :)

This morning we got up early and went down to Einstein Brother's and had breakfast! It hadn't gotten too hot yet, so we enjoyed sitting outside for a little bit and even walked by the tiny farmer's market. We bought Deuce a doggy bagel too.





We can't pass up an opportunity to pose by a hog. There is one just like this in Fayetteville too.



After breakfast we came home and got to work on the basement. When we moved in to our house, we pretty much just took our stuff downstairs and left it. We haven't really done much to the basement since then. Over the last three years our stuff has become progressively more unorganized, more dusty, and more intimidating to sort through. We ended up re-organizing our boxes, cleaning all the floors, cleaning all the boxes, scraping off all the old paint off the walls, and re-painting the walls with this special basement paint that's supposed to seal it up.

Sooie hung around while we worked. Why do cats love boxes so much?



For the record, I would NEVER put pictures of this dirty basement on the blog unless I knew I would also be able to put up pictures of it looking good. So....

Before...



...and after!



Before...




...and after!





We got done with the basement at about 5:00 p.m. and then decided to go ahead and do the yard. David gave me the job of mowing the front while he edged. I did about four lines and he walked over and said, "How about you do the back and I can do the front?" I don't think my lines were that straight. :) He got done edging and took over all mowing while I pulled weeds eventually. Now, we are relaxing and watching TV. I know that I am going to have a sore back tomorrow and definitely a sore shoulder from trying to start the dumb mower (which I never got started on my own).

Days like today are great because you really end up feeling like you got a lot of stuff done and it was good. The basement is something we have been putting off for pretty much every weekend we've been home for the last 2 years. We're proud of the way it looks and hope that re-sealing it and making it look fresh might add some value to our house. Looking forward to church tomorrow!