The Leichty household has been busy with various projects around the house so far this winter.  We’ve cleaned up our basement, put on a new roof, and redecorated our dining room.  It feels good to have all of it finished…especially the new roof, since we’ve needed to have that done since we purchased the house in 2008.

It was also exciting to get the basement cleaned up since the boys now play basketball down there on a daily basis.  We still have some work to do (paint, lighting, etc), but having the floor cleared of junk has helped tremendously.  Jon built me some lovely shelves to hold all of our clothing bins, as well as paint cans and supplies and that made the clean-up so much easier.

Here’s a picture of Conner “helping” his daddy build the new shelves…

I love having a place to put our clothing bins.  Before the shelves, I had them spread all over the basement.  This helps me feel much more organized, at least when it comes to stored clothes.  In other areas?  Not so much.

I just like Conner’s outfit in this picture: Crocs, long-sleeved Tshirt, and Lightening McQueen underwear. It’s how we roll.

Back in November, we hired a company out of Sidney, OH to put a new roof on our house.  We had an asbestos shingle, so we talked with several companies to figure out who could remove the shingle properly and safely, as well as give us the best price for the job.  We were very happy with the crew that were sent to our place and they got the job done in less than 4 days.  It was cold, messy, and complicated because of the odd line of our roof, but they were great.  I was a nervous wreck watching them walk all over the roof with plywood over their heads and heavy shingles over their shoulders, but it would appear that I was the only one feeling anxious.

This picture shows the old asbestos roof, as well as the cedar shake he was removing with his pitchfork.  They had to go all the way down to the wooden slats, which they then covered with heavy plywood.

They removed the shingles and shake incredibly fast.  It only took them about 2 hours to get down to the wooden slats.  Their speed was amazing to me…and frightening.

Sheeting…

And here’s a picture of the new shingles. We love how it looks, but what we love even more is the fact that we no longer have any leaks in our roof.  What a relief!

And last, but certainly not least, our dining room.  We hadn’t done anything in there since we bought the house and I was tired of looking at the ugly wallpaper and wishing there was a cleaner look to the room.  Here is a picture of my dad with Conner and Ellie  that shows the general idea of the original decor.  Blah.

One day, I decided to tear all of the wallpaper off and face the reality that work needed to be done to make the room more comfortable.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures of the wallpaper/painting process, but here is Jon putting down the new rug and you can see the new paint in the background.

I love the new rug – it made a huge change in the overall warmth of the room.  And it helps hide food a little more than the off-white one we had before.  That was not a bright idea, but it was a choice made before we had children.  We’re so much smarter now.

The hardest part of the redecorating process was keeping the boys off of the rug long enough to be able to lay it down.

I will soon have pictures of the final results, but I’m waiting for one more wall hanging to come in the mail.  But for now, I can look around the room and feel peaceful because I know the worst of the work is behind me and I no longer have to look at that ugly wall paper.

Three more projects checked off the list…