Postponed...

Due to everyone's feet dragging (ours and some of the contractors) we have decided to delay the basement for least for 6-8 months. With baby #2 looming soon, and a busy time at the office (and out of the office) for Steve, construction would be too much chaos right now. We are going to clean out the "finished" part of the basement and see how that works as our office area for awhile. Given how much we learned from living in our old kitchen before renovations, this is likely going to change our plans down the road (for the better) anyway. So, no fun pictures of demo are impending I am afraid.

That said, a new armoire for the nursery should be here in a week or two and I hope to get going on painting some polka dots or stripes in that room too. More modest, but changes are still on the way.

Contractors have came...

and quoted (well 2 of 3 of them have)... It has been an interesting experience seeing how different the recommendations and process of the 3 contractors have been - all three are comparable in terms of reputation, standard jobs and all are based in our town. - so I expected somewhat less variance.

Steve and I have also redesigned the layout ourselves about 5 times - adding a 1/2 bath, removing a 1/2 bath, adding a closet, not adding a closet, moving the washer/dryer, not moving them etc. I think we finally decided on a really open, flexible layout. Due to our changing ideas, we have to get new quotes from the 2 that already quoted since we changed our mind on some substantive issues. The third should be back to us in a few days. All three come highly recommended so we will probably pick by their ability to start quickly. One looks like it is going to higher than the others too, so he likely is out.

We hope to have this decided by the end of the week (realistically the end of next...)