Of note

Our basement is coming along, but the changes aren't things that show up well in pictures.  For instance, light switches and outlets and water lines and duct work.  Unless you really, really, really care about those things, they're not worth a close-up shot, and they're not discernibly different from day to day.  When the walls start going up, then it'll be ready for another picture.

Picture-worthy or not, the changes are AWESOME.  For instance, the duct work.  The guy who lived here before us was a tinkerer, and he knew just enough to mess stuff up.  We've known the duct work was a mess for years, since we replaced the furnace.  They told us back then that they could re-work it all for about double the cost of the furnace.  We said no thanks.  But now we need new stuff installed anyway, since we are creating 4 new rooms in the basement.

So why am I reporting this?  Because our house feels a TON warmer now.  I didn't realize how unevenly our house was heating until it was suddenly evened-out.  This is most noticeable in our bedroom, which was previously an icebox, and from the basement into the kitchen, where leaving the door open was the best way to let in a huge draft of cold air.  I assumed those things were just part of owning an older home.  Nope!  Fixed.  It's blissful.

While all this work in the basement is being done, the kids have been living in one room.  It's working out better than I thought it would, and for the most part the kids are taking things in stride.  Check it out:

Looking in from the door

Looking from the edge of Micah's bed

The kids are champs.  Though I do have to say, we're all looking forward to having our space back (and then some).  The basement is so close that I can taste it.  We're ready to start utilizing our increased space, instead of being stuck managing the decreased space.