I sat down to type this post with every intention for it to be the first post that's not about Peter. Then I uploaded my pictures and saw some of him that I just have to share.  Go figure.

I drove down to the lake yesterday to deliver Peter to Reenie and Grandpa for the weekend. I don't know who of the five people involved was most excited:  Peter for obvious reasons, R & G for obvious reasons, or Hayes and me for our first weekend at home without Peter since he was born.  Can it be?!  (I won't go into the detail of my list of things to accomplish while he's gone.)  

We sought out fishies, horsies and moo-cows all afternoon, which was accompanied by a lot of grunting, pointing, and squealing.  

Poor thing was so exhausted and so grimy by this point - I was grateful to be able to capture the moment.  It was a good day - even getting tangled up in the phone cord was fun in the end.  Although, he didn't like me taking pictures instead of rescuing him! 

Okay, so the real point of this post.  I want to document the development of our downstairs oasis.  Er, utility room.  We're at the close of Week One and despite the concrete dust that I just cleaned up all over the house, I'm still excited about the project.  Our little corner of the basement at the foot of the stairs is a mess, but it'll be lovely (and efficiently used space!) when it's finished.  

For those familiar with our house - or those who are just plain interested:  

View from the back patio door

View from foot of stairs

There's no pot o'gold at the end of this rainbow... just concrete

Split view from utility room facing out - 

hallway out on left, framing for shower and remainder of bathroom on right

View of bath area from utility room (through shower to vanity area)

View from the hallway of part of the utility room (back and right) and shower (left)

Down the stairs - will be opened up by removing wall on right side

So far, so good - keep our sanity in your thoughts and prayers as we enter week two.  Oh yeah, and a big shout-out to the Bryants for letting me crash at the lake and do laundry.  Six loads in one night.  Big fun, but we're set for a while.  It's going to be a long four or five weeks without laundry capabilities, but something tells me I'll survive.  ;)