When a local family of six found out there were twins on the way, they were feeling the pinch.
Not only did the Zacharias family not have the space for two more kids, they didn’t have a large enough budget to complete their unfinished basement. But, with the help and generosity of several local companies, the Zacharias’ basement was finished on time and on budget.
The family paid just under $30,000 for the renovation that totaled over $40,000. Those working on the project donated countless hours of labour and materials including more than $3,000 worth of paint.
“It’s the cost of labour and the cost of paint,” said Joshua Lamoureux, residential painting manager with Cal-Res Coatings Limited, “and in this case we got the paint donated by our sister company that does all of the recycling of paint in Calgary and area called EcoCoat.”
The final touches were completed Wednesday morning: carpet was installed, walls were painted and $4,000 worth of donated furniture was assembled.
It was a challenge to have so many people working in a small space.
“Last minute was getting the painters and carpet-installer gentlemen to coordinate with one another, which is difficult,” said Greg Wagner with Wallace Fleming Design & Renovate. “We had to install all of the hardware, electrical plate covers, lighting. There was a lot of little touches on the carpentry side and then the big thing became furnishing the place and making it look pretty.”
Despite the last-minute scramble, by the time the big reveal took place a few short hours later, the rooms were ready for three of the Zacharias girls to move into.
Shaina Sala owns Showhome Furniture and not only donated the beds, linens and dressers but also included several other perks to make the rooms feel like home.
“Because I have kids, we just wanted to make the rooms fun so we tried to get craft stuff for the eight-year-old and little dress up stuff for the little girls,“ said Sala.
Eight-year-old Hannah is thrilled to finally have her own room.
“We stayed in a very crampy room with a bunkbed and two other beds with all my siblings,” she said.
With the three eldest kids living in the basement, that frees up the upstairs rooms for the youngest child, Evan, and his soon-to-arrive siblings.
It’s a big weight off of the shoulders of parents Janet and Nathan Zacharias.
“It’s a huge relief. It is. I don’t think we would have been able to do it without them,” said Janet. “It’s stressful to have twins coming. It’s a little, ‘how are we going to do this?’ and to not have to worry about where everybody’s going to go is amazing.”
“We didn’t know what to expect when we hired people to do our basement and we’re really impressed with what we got. We’re really happy about it,” said Nathan.
The twins, whose gender is unknown, are due September 6.
With files from Kevin Fleming
