I’m super excited to show off some more of our house renovations! We have finally finished the basement great room and have some “befores-and-afters” to share! (Here you can see the living room renovations with before and after photos.) This project has taken us the most work and the longest time to complete.

One of the things I liked about this house was the finished basement with large windows, a door to the backyard and the quirky mid-century indoor grill built right into the brick fireplace. I planned on this being where we watched TV, where the kids would play and where we would hang out with friends.

In the beginning, I was certain it would just need some updating, but it quickly turned into a major renovation.

As we finalized the sale of our home, we realized we had significant water issues along one wall to deal with in the basement. Unfortunately, that was the wall the bathroom and kitchen were on.

The 1960’s custom cabinetry needed to be ripped out, along with the whole bathroom, to allow access to the wall when a waterproofing company came in. The only part of the kitchen that we could save was the base to the bar. They jackhammered up my basement floor (three times, actually), put in drainage tiles, waterproofed it and added a sump pump.

So, we basically felt like we were starting over with our basement.

The next thing we had to work on was removing carpet and wallpaper. The room was covered in a thick grass cloth wallpaper that took forever to remove. They had even put it on the ceiling of the stairwell, which was not fun to remove.

I then had the lovely surprise of finding another layer of wallpaper under the grass cloth layer. When we got to the book shelves, we decided it was easier to re-wallpaper then chisel anymore at the walls. We went with a design that had a “retro 60s mod” feel.

While I liked the idea of gray tones similar to what I used upstairs, the brick fireplace called for warm, earthy tones for the rest of the space. And since the fireplace was central to the room, that dictated how we decorated everything. The look I wanted was a “mid-century modern.” I like orange, so this meant that it was a natural choice to accent with.

Flooring options for basements are a bit limited. We didn’t want carpeting, tile seemed too cold, and wood isn’t an option in a basement. So, we were left with laminate. This was my first time putting in a floor (the upstairs living room was a lot easier after this!) and it turned out “okay.” If I was to do it again, I would not choose a smooth wood laminate. Also, I worry too much about the kids getting it wet. I do like that it’s a light color, though, as it bounces more light in the room.

Chris suggested not putting the kitchen back in, but again, that was one of the things I liked about this house. We also talked about doing a smaller kitchenette without a bar, but I felt like having the full kitchen and bar would make it more fun to entertain in the basement and on the back patio. So, we reconfigured it a little differently, but kept the same basic idea of the original basement entertaining kitchen.

The two biggest differences we decided on were the open shelves and the bar. I decided that putting upper cabinets back in might feel too “heavy” for that corner of the room. Instead, Chris constructed shelves to use for dishes and to display things. For the bar, we made it a bit deeper to allow seating. Also, I thought it would be fun to pull the copper color from the fireplace and indoor grill into the kitchen area.

I decided I wanted a penny-top bar.

We looked at a lot of tutorials beforehand, most missing the main steps of actually applying the epoxy. We took a lot of photos and video, so we plan to make a tutorial post on that soon. The short version for here is that it took a lot more pennies than I thought and that it was easier to do than I expected it to be. This was a fun project and the colors look amazing together in person.

Since we already had copper tiles with our built-in 1960s indoor charcoal grill, we continued that look with the backsplash in the kitchen. I then used copper and oranges for decorating and dishes on the shelves.

We have a framed copy of the 1960s sales brochure from the company that sold the indoor grills. They were pretty fancy back in the day! We have used it a couple times and it certainly works, but cooking on a charcoal grill in your house isn’t something you want to do very often. We like it more for the mid-century decor that it gives the room.

And here are a bunch of “before and after” photos to show you where we started and what we’ve done:

Edited to add note from Chris: “I’m not sure the “before” pictures paint a true picture. What you can’t see, or smell, is the mold and mildew under the carpet, the crumbling drywall, the 2 inches of rotten wood we had to cut off the bottom of the bar or the mud and sand that filled the floor vents. A lot of work and way more time went into this project than we could have ever imagined. Now it’s FINALLY time to belly up to the bar to celebrate. Cheers!”

The Cedar River experienced its second highest river crest in the river’s recorded history on Tuesday. While Cedar Rapids is still in “major flood stage,” by most accounts, the efforts of the city and hundreds of volunteers can be considered a success.

Nearly 10 miles of earthen berms and barriers and about 250,000 sandbags have held most of the water from the Cedar River out of the city’s downtown that was flooded in 2008. Underground systems are still stressed and potential remains for floodwater to enter through the storm sewer, but the river is going down. It should be within its banks and a return to normalcy by the weekend.

Our kids are out of school for the week because the school district canceled classes due to the flooding. They were happy to volunteer filling sandbags. They loved being able to help their community and it made them all feel good knowing they were “doing their part.”

My son Leo is six

We walk along the leaf-strewn path, and without making eye contact or missing a step, his warm, soft fingers grab around my wrist. I know what will come next. He often does this to steady my arm so he can place his little hand in my big one.

He doesn’t care that I just scolded him five minutes ago for being pokey. He knows what he needs to feel happy, safe. He doesn’t care if I seem distracted or stressed. And as a mother of four, I’m always too distracted and too stressed.

He doesn’t know that his mother has quietly suffered through depression and anxiety, with days where any physical touch literally makes my skin crawl, or his bubbly, incessant chatter can rattle my nerves.

And why should he? He’s only six.

Leo is my youngest, my last. I’m glad to be done with middle-of-the-night feedings, diapers and potty training. Parents of grown children tell me to enjoy this stage of childhood while I can, that the time is fleeting and once it’s gone, I’ll miss it. But as a mother that is distracted and stressed, I sometimes think I wouldn’t mind my kids already being grown.

Even at six, Leo is my child who needs the most affection. “You love me best, right?” he’ll ask. He laughs at my jokes. He still needs kisses when he gets hurt and wants to sit on my lap to listen to a story. Sometimes, he’ll stop in the middle of what he’s doing and come stand before me, arms stretched wide. “Hug?” he’ll ask.

At bedtime, he can’t fall asleep without first being tucked in with his blanket and stuffed cat, then hugged and kissed. He has rules, he says. He’ll wrap his arms so tight around my neck, threatening to never let go. He always holds on until I have give him a little tickle and can pry his grip loose.

But already he hides the big, pink, stuffed cat that he sleeps with, because he’s six, after all, and it’s a big, pink cat. And already he’ll say “Mom, stop!” as he rolls his eyes because maybe my jokes aren’t always so funny. And he doesn’t want kisses from me on the playground or to be walked to his classroom, preferring to give one final wave and go into school alone.

He is six. He will never be little again. He won’t always fit on my lap. And I don’t know how many more times he will reach for my hand. Because you never know when the last time will happen.

Because you only know it was the last time after you look back and it’s already over.

He reaches for my hand as we walk on the path, and so I take his and hold it tight. While I still can.

Because he’s already six.