Before and after...

Steve and I are working each night as soon as Max's nurse gets here to finish the basement.  We had so many awesome helpers do all the hard work, but we still have the piddly stuff like painting and caulking to do.  They finished out our whole basement making a bathroom, closet, Steve's office, a sitting room, and a storage area.  That leaves us a lot of little things to work on at night.  Steve has finally got all of his office things back in his office.  Now he just has to organize and set it up like he wants.  We have nearly finished painting the closet and bathroom, and that will mean I can move our clothes and shoes from the guest bedroom.

We have finally settled on paint colors...I think. I'm pretty picky about colors, and as much as I like doing artsy things, I do not so much like painting walls, so it's a one time deal...which is why I am being picky about the colors.  We left a good amount of walls the exposed concrete, to keep it cool in here and to minimize walls being framed and drywalled, since we were relying on the volunteers here for a week to finish the basement.

All of that to say...we are busy...BUSY!  We work all day, Steve in his new office in meetings and doing his techy things.  And me with Max doing therapy, and doctors appointments.

But, I know I can't keep you waiting!  I mean really, you all want to see how Max's room and lift turned out, don't you?

Here are the before shots I got before we started...oh, and get ready...I have some free time, Max is in bed, and I'm putting everything in one post.  You'll get to enjoy it all in one go with your cornflakes.

Staging area for all the supplies was our garage...which we just got cleaned up today!

We had a skip delivered to put the bathroom pieces in.  We were given 24 hours to get it filled and gone by the city. Our neighbors were  great with it being there, and put it to good use as well!

Max's bath BEFORE.  Max is in the master bedroom, with the master bath since it is the only bedroom on the main floor.  It was our bedroom and bath until he kicked us out for his nurses. 

He had a portable lift that only worked to get him from the floor to almost in his bath. It was quite a back breaking effort. 

The shower was useless to him, and the bath was too short for his long kicking legs.

It was always a nice bath, but never useful for Max's needs. 

We cling wrapped his whole bed since it had to stay put for construction.  Taking that monster apart would have meant voiding the warranty.  

Once all was prepped, Max and I went away for the week and the helpers got to work!

See the small wall next to the Home Depot guy in the orange shirt?  That was about to get knocked down in order to widen the door into Max's bedroom. 

Going...

Going...

And gone!

Now the door is wide enough and tall enough for the lift to go in, and Max's wheelchair to fit through. 

Here is a panoramic view of the bathroom with everything out.   We had volunteers from Home Depot, and friends who gave up their weeks to get this done for Max. 

Once everything was torn up, they put a hole in the center of the floor for a drain.

Then brought in a cement mixer and got to work making Max a huge wet room!

They poured and shaped the floor so it would all drain to the center, no matter how wild Max gets with spraying water. 

Then it just had to dry. 

At night, once all the construction hullabaloo wound down, the metal fabricators came and welded the lift to the brackets they installed into the ceiling. 

Subway tile for the walls.  

More welding at night, but they got it all done just in time for Max to get home.  

Here are our final photos of the finished room.  It all works wonderfully for Max.  And has already saved our backs so many times!  Max loves riding on his "Batman Lift" and we've been so happy to be able to have his nurses use it!  No more carrying him to bed, or struggling during bath time!

Here Max is checking out his yellow Batman room.  

His room is still huge!  What other 10 year old has a piano in their bedroom?

The blue and yellow match all his Batman things perfectly. 

The bathroom turned out to be just what we need for him!  The dark bits around the bottom were some stubborn grout that got cleaned up. It's all sparkly white in there now.  The chair is too small for him,  but we're still waiting on the right one to get funded by insurance...we just requested it in April, so it could be a while still.

The lift brings him right over his chair!

We still have a few minor details to sort out for his room, the trim on his door is a little daunting to us, so we've waited on that.  And we still need to decide on a sink for his bathroom.  Since he doesn't use a sink, we're not feeling pressure.  We had one, and while it looked nice, it wasn't practical with the whole tile bathroom, so we took it back and are working with our plumber for a more ideal fit.  We also have some touch-up paint areas in his room that weren't ready when the painters who donated their time and talent came.  All in all, it's usable and functions well...so the aesthetics have been put on the back burner.

I will do a separate post about the lift, and how it works for those of you curious for your own home, with videos if blogger will let me upload some!  Again, we are so incredibly grateful for everyone who came out to lend their muscles and talents to this effort for Max.  Please know we're not being quiet because we don't like it...we are beyond thrilled with it all!  We are just getting right down to living in our wonderful new space that works so well for us!  We could not have done this without all of you.  Thank you!