Exciting News! (And It's Not a Baby)

When we bought our house, we knew the basement needed "some work."  We pulled out some nasty old carpet, removed the bird skeleton from the floor, and began attacking the decades-old curtains of spiderwebs that dangled everywhere.  As time passed, useless storage contraptions were removed and the "extra toilet" (picture a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat placed neatly in a corner) was evicted.  We even installed a new furnace and duct work.  Sadly, the better the basement got, the worse we discovered it was.  The "bone dry" basement turned out to be dry only because of all the debris that soaked up the water that managed to invade.  In 2010, Aaron made the decision that it was time to take drastic measures and fix the foundation.  You can go back and read about that project here.

With the outside repaired, Aaron began to turn his attention to the inside.  The basement is divided into three rooms, which we have named by their paint colors.  The first room WAS the green room.  The middle room is the pink room, and the room farthest from the stairs is the yellow room.  Imagine the worst versions of those colors and you begin to get the idea.  Last winter, Aaron worked on getting the green room into shape.  After hours of crack repair, plumbing, cleaning and other nasty activites, the now White Room looks quite nice and houses his home office, my laundry and pantry, and his workbench.  You can see some of what he did here and here.

This winter, Aaron was ready to take on the next room in the basement.  He hasn't gotten to it until now because he has been insanely busy at work, but he declared that March was the month to get moving.  In his logical Engineer's brain, it only made sense for the next room to be the middle room - following a sequence of first, middle, last.  His wife, using fair means as well as foul, took advantage of his good nature and convinced him to give up his logical progression in favor of the last (yellow) room.  His wife (me) wanted the yellow room moved up on the docket because it is the school room, and I have big plans for it!  Plus, why should a storage room take priority, right?  Of course right.

So, what's my part in this whole thing?  I have to get all my school stuff, toys, and collected project stashes OUT OF THE WAY.  The room was pretty neat a few days ago, but organizing all the stuff in order to pack it into boxes has turned it into a disaster zone:

However, it is a disaster I am glad to tackle, as it means that soon the "Yellow Room" will look like a different place, and will certainly get a new name.

Here's a list of things that will be happening, which I am sure will grow as the project does:

Aaron's List:

Demo 2 nasty, moldy, useless closets

Demo a brick barbeque and close up hole

Remove purposeless wiring dangling between rafters

Repair cracks in foundation

Change light fixtures

Change/Remove/Add electrical outlets

Trim out the window

Paint Walls

Dana's (Dream) List:

Paint some kind of cute mural on the wall in the "play area"

Make curtains for the windows

Buy lots and lots and lots of bookshelves to hold all the books we already have and future schoolbooks

Buy 3 more school desks

Bring in extra futon to create a Guest Area

Organize Craft/Project/Sewing/School Administration Area

Display an Alphabet Gallery I have been working on

Install several bulletin boards

And that's why I'm excited!