And he was henceforth known as... MUDROOM MAN

Pete loves doing renos. In fact when we moved to Saskatoon he tried to convince me that we should buy a more expensive house than the one we bought for the sole reason that it had an unfinished basement that he could finish. Unfortunately for him the house we opted for was completely finished... or so I thought. It didn't take long before he had numerous suggestions on what he could do to improve it. Little jobs were easy to find - extending the deck, putting in a backsplash etc. - but I knew he was itching for a bigger job. A few years back he and my Dad helped my brother build a mudroom on the side of his house. It improved their house considerably and was probably the inspiration for Pete's latest project.

Our laundry room is off our garage. It had a small closet that was overtaken by the kids' stuff in no time. The following picture gives you somewhat of an idea (taken in October 2007 shortly after we moved in):



Pete had the fabulous idea that if he took out the closet and moved the wall/door so that it opened into where the closet once was, we would have a full wall to make use of. His project also involved moving the plumbing for the washing machine and stacking the washer and dryer on the far wall to give us added space. We found some great suggestions online for individual lockers and Pete soon turned our vision into reality. He finished installing the baskets and laying the new floor tiles this weekend and we are days away from a finished mudroom. Josh comes running at the sound of a power tool and Pete loves having a right-hand man (I think they are already planning out their next project together).




I'll post pictures of the finished product in a later post.

Here are some more recent pictures to share. We had a great time showing our "Mudroom Man" how much we love him on his birthday last week. We sent him on a big scavenger hunt which the kids are still talking about...




These last 2 were taken last night. The boys were all giggles when they matched their jammies after the bath. I then surprised them with some matching ones I had just bought for Leah...