So It Begins: Battle Basement I

Happy New Year, everybody!  I hope your holiday season was a good one!

So yeah, back to normal, right?

And into the cold depths of winter we go.  Man, it is darn Cold here in Chicago.  It will be vicious all week, making it too darn cold to take big Finny boy to the park for both of us.  Thankfully we have enough of a yard where we can run around in the snow for five minutes at a time to work off some wiggles.

Mike did order him a coat* on Amazon the other day though it won't be here for a bit.  Finn doesn't have the super thick bushy warm undercoat that Hailey did, and hey, we're softies.  Feel free to chuckle at us.  :)

That was the easy part, ordering it -- getting it on him?  Yeah, we shall see!  If I can wrastle it onto him, I'll share a photo.

Finn as assistant helper boy on changing recessed can to pendant light day.  So cute.

Right, so this cold precludes outdoor activities, for me especially always being perma-cold.  That meant yep, start the basement battle.  Expungement time.

Aw boy.  Look out.

Although.....I just may get that concrete counter top poured today for the master bathroom.  I wanted to time it with an upcoming Mike-day-off so he can help me pop it out of the form and flip it over.  (Thanks babe!)  I generally have to forewarn him several times over several days if I'm going to need his help with something so he can gird himself.

Somehow I have to get two fifty pound bags of concrete mix out of my trunk, through the snow, up the back stairs, through the first floor, all the way upstairs then down the hall first though.  Hm.

I won't lie, I am terribly nervous about this pour.  I did finally resign myself to the fact that the counter will not be perfect which was a feat unto itself.   That's ok.  Being a perfectionist can sometimes be a ridiculous thing for me, in the grand scope.  In the end, I think the counter will be better if it's not exacting.

But right, basement.  Ah yes.  I keep procrastinating showing you pictures, if you hadn't noticed.  It's embarrassing.

It got worse too as Mike decided we needed a king size bed right before Christmas, so our disassembled queen bed is now all over the place down there too, adding to my organizing dilemmas.

Ooooomg, I am so embarrassed to show you this.  Too.  Much.  Stuff!

(Funny aside, we actually ended up getting the bed at Menards.  He was apprehensive about going in there as I have a tendency to wander off and "surreptitiously" add things to the cart.  Guess who was the good one and guess who was doing the wandering this time?  Mmm hm, the wanderer wasn't me!  I was attempting to be good!)

Bed parts and part of trash heap.  Area where I'm hoping to put a workbench.

Omg.

Seriously.  I am so embarrassed.  *Hanging head in shame.*  Ugh and that paint!!  Ugh.....

The corner I did tidy up.  Sorta.  Maybe.  Maybe?

But here's where I left off after a couple of hours working on two shelf units:

Progress.  Right?  Right??  Omg, still so embarrassed.

I woke up this morning and decided I hadn't purged enough out of what I did do, so I'll go back and rifle a bit more.  It's tough, that packrat tendency, and every time I throw something away I end up needing it shortly thereafter.

Still a train wreck though, yep.  Still want to rip out that chair rail.  Still need to repaint the whole thing.  So. Much. Basement. Work.  But a start is a start and I will commend myself for starting.

Sensing this will be a much larger, longer project than I was wishing.

Came across this though, which broke my heart all over again.

A book?  Yeah.  It's not just a book though.  I worked on a production with Maurice Sendak 11 years ago.  He designed the set and costumes and I did the props.  It was a tough but gratifying gig in that this was not a shoppable show -- nearly everything had to be made by hand from scratch based on Maurice's sketches.  I loved working with him.  He was so cool and it was such a humbling honor just to have met the man.  I was fortunate indeed.

Our last place before moving here, we rented.  The homeowners neglected to mention that they had flooding issues.  Go figure, right?  Uh huh.  So not even three weeks into living there the basement floods.  That's where we stored a slew of our stuff.  All my books.  This book got wet.  I literally wept.

Here's why:

Mmm hm.  Wet.  I did get the book freeze dried by a spiffy, very understanding company in the suburbs, Midwest Freeze-Dry.  The process prevents future mold but the book will never be the same.  Ugh, breaks my heart.

Well anyway.

All righty folks, off to figure out the rest of my day.  Countertop or basement?  Counter or basement?  Or a completely other distracted direction?  Stay tuned to find out!

*The coat we ordered for Finn on Amazon is an affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!