A laborious Labor Day!

For quite some time now, our basement has been neglected. So badly, in fact, that I have threatened the kids that if they take ANYONE down to the basement, they are in BIG TROUBLE! I have allowed a couple of my friends down because they wanted to check out my new washer and dryer. I did give them big warnings, however, that the basement is a TOTAL WRECK! They assured me that they didn't care. I'm sure they didn't, but I did!

Scott and I tackled the basement today! Of course when you're doing something stressful like messing with people's "stuff" it can get a little hairy, but we both survived (barely!) I decided this time I would take a "before" AND "after" picture.

If you know me, then you know that this mess has been a nightmare for me. Normally I am an organized person and I like things to be in their place. Since having kids, things have changed. However, I still can't stand a HUGE mess like this!

Each year Bismarck has a messiest garage contest. I seriously think we could have won a messiest basement contest, hands down. I would have been too embarrassed to enter though.

This is the room you walk into when you enter the basement, where the washer and dryer are. You can barely make your way back there to even wash the clothes!

Scott and Emma taking a little break.

Here's the after picture!!!! An amazing transformation! We have had this big piece of carpet out in the garage for several months. A friend who was redoing her basement was getting new carpet and asked if we would be interested in this piece they were removing. We will be using it only temporarily, until we can get to the point of really redoing the basement. This will do for now.

Okay, so I can't YET take a picture of the room where the washer and dryer are for the "after" shot because we're not quite finished with it. Sometimes to clean one room means to make a disaster of another one. However, it couldn't be much worse than it already was!

The kids are quite excited about the basement transformation. They are having a blast playing with toys they haven't seen in months. They have both asked me, "Mom, does this mean our friends can come down here?" YES! YES! Your friends can now come down to the basement!