It is badly neglected, in every respect. Once, when I made an "emotional floor plan" of the house, this was coloured in black angry crayon. I can probably bring it up to a grey angry crayon.
It is so tiny, the frugal husband even mentions building something of an extension to handle things.
Here is the sketched floorplan. The door is a standard 36" or so wide.
And here's the view from the top of the stairs to the kitchen:
There are three Ikea Antonius baskets hanging from chains going down the stairs to help us keep track of mittens and hats and baseball gloves.
On the other side of the stairs is a shelf for boots with hooks underneath for skates and bike helmets.
(That's the furnace behind it).It's awful. I hate it and what needs to be done could easily occupy a couple of weeks. In fact, as I am writing up this post, the husband is sanding this patch by the door:
A friend of my daughter's asked "What's that noise?"
I answered, "That's the sander. It's usual around here."
and my daughter added, "Yeah, my Dad is making it perfect for my Mom."
I doubt we can make it perfect, but maybe we can make it better.
8 comments :
Uh, I thought the idea was not to take on the whole house at once this time?
I love your creativity, but I'm worried that you're using each new project to avoid dealing with the issues raised by the earlier ones.
You're right, I don't mean to tackle the whole house this time.
What are the issues that have been raised that I may be avoiding? I don't want to do that, but it's easy to get caught up in the whole process and wind up doing that by default.
So, I'm asking, 'cause I want to know. (And pointing out a concern like that is an act of friendship, so thanks.)
Well, I don't live your life, so my guesses may be off-base, but some possibilities include --
--The need to let go of things in the basement. You have one of those wonderfully symbolic basements that novelists long to write about. Your efforts so far are heroic, but I thought it was still a ways from being done. Am I reading carelessly?
--Doing WT at all (and you really shouldn't be peer-pressured into it if you're not in the mood), since you've blogged about feeling immoral when you spend time or money on your appearance.
On a loosely related note, I was wondering what you'd make of The Distance Between My Peers (I have about three conflicting opinions). She's a highly analytical evangelical Christian in her early 40s, with a tiny budget, but she's also a fashionista, so you'll either love her or hate her.
I've just had a look back at your post on "Translating AT to the Basement" and also your progress reports. That plan seems very sensible and do-able to me (with the usual AT hard grind!), and I agree with Wende that it's good not to get sidetracked, for whatever reason.
I would be genuinely thrilled for you if you got to the end of the eight weeks and felt you had achieved what you set out to with that original plan. In fact, is this back entrance actually the entryway you referred to in your original outline for Week 3?
Almost forgot - I've also had a brainwave about all those cables hanging down from the ceiling. Could you tell me how chunky/heavy they are? Are they in groups or singles? In fact, do you have a photo? I may have a possible (and very cheap) solution for you based on something I did today...
ooh, intriguing, Zooza. The batteries are recharging for the moment: I'll see if I can post something by the time you wake up this morning.
And yes, this is the entry I wrote about before. I'll review what I said there (I believe it was just to switch out the swnter/summer gear in the baskets).
About WT: guilty as charged. Somehow, I've gained about 5 lbs since the fall and I am absolutely sick about it.
I did find my summer stuff and it's full of shorts and tops I'm too fat to wear and the thought of going through it is awful. In all honesty, I feel to fat to wear anything, though going naked conjures up images even worse than I want to imagine.
A wonderfully symbolic basement? I suppose so. Yes, there's still some weeding to be done--all that kids' artwork among other bits of paper and things. Perhaps I'll reflect a bit more on what I need to do down there. Thanks.
I don't know about avoiding issues raised by things, I just recognize the symptoms of Galloping Curitis (as my case is developing, and I'm seeing it here a bit, too...)
Please don't wear yourself out trying to do too much. Basement, living room, back entry... school, life, um, do you sleep? Do you take Alana-time sometimes? (as one only child to another, I know the alone time is necessary sometimes)... Take care of you, my friend.
(But I also need to say you're doing great things! I don't want to discourage you.)
Thanks, scb. You couldn't discourage me, ever, even if you said "whoa." Me-time? Well, claiming Mondays to run errands has been great.
And Zooza, you've probably already noticed, but I got the pics for you.
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