In the words of Julie Andrews...

Let's start at the very beginning.  A very good place, to start.  Anybody else love that movie?  

And by beginning, naturally I mean our master bedroom "situation".

It all started on Easter Monday, April 2011.  I went downstairs to put in a load of laundry only to splash my feet into wetness long before I got to the laundry room.  Adrenaline began pumping and I entered the laundry room to find startling amounts of water and "grit" bubbling up through our storm drain in the laundry room.  I called Henry in a panic, started yelling frighteningly loud orders at the kids and started *trying* to block the water from progressing any further.  In vain, of course.  It poured in.  The boys' room, the bathroom, the laundry room, my daycare room....everywhere.  I cried.

Long story short.  It was bad.  Gross. Smelly. Moldy.

We were given the go ahead by State Farm Insurance to hire someone to demolish the space or we could do it ourselves and be paid for it.  We opted for the later.  What started out as a night mare, has definitely turned into a blessing.  With the extra insurance money we were able to put in a new furnace and A/C system, update our electrical panel and waterproof our house.  We changed around our plumbing (and that's a whole 'nother story), updated our electrical and ran electrical for our future kitchen reno as well as outdoor lights (yay for pretty shed lights!).

It was at that time we decided to move the boys upstairs with their sisters and claim the downstairs bedroom for ourselves.  What fun that has been :)  We took out a concrete wall to make way for a large walk in closet, installed a bigger window, so that it was centered in the wall (who can STAND an obviously off centered window that can be *somewhat* easily remedied?  NOT me.) and personalized the room with a plank wall.

For today, here's a look at where we started.....where the water originated ~ laundry room.  Stuff thrown everywhere in the chaos. 

  

Waterproofing process (which we hired out)....loud, dusty, dirty and smelly.  But oh so necessary :)

 

Tearing apart the boys' bedroom.

 

 Dad Sluys taking the old window out and cutting the foundation and forming the support for the new, bigger window.  We still have the old window, as it was only a few years old and will be replacing one of our old laundry room windows.

 

 Old, off centered window.

 

 

New, centered window (terrible picture...it's straight, really it is :)  Makes my heart sing.

Painting planks.  This is what reno-ers do on Friday nights ;)

 Installing the plank wall, which we are SUPER happy with!

This is how we lived for many months...and this was so much better than concrete walls and dangling electrical wires :)

The beginnings of our closet.

Exciting things are happening.  After 3 headboards, 4 sets of night tables, countless duvet covers and blankets...we've pulled our room together and we love it!  Carpet is coming and we are more.than.ready. to step out of bed onto soft, shag carpet instead of dirty, cold cement.  Hopefully I can show you the whole room very, very soon!