Cord Progress

The two black thingys around the cords are velcro--attached with an upholstery tack, just as Zooza recommended. It's brilliant. The tack is long enough to hold well and the head is big enough for me to whack at odd, cramped angles. I did about 10 feet of these two cords: (one's a three prong for the washing machine, the other a simple two prong for my lamp).

The thick white cord is the wiring for the dryer and goes to its own junction box (which it shares with the stove) on the other side of the basement. It's a different voltage of wire, just so you know.

As you can see, it's a nasty, dirty, rotten job, but I'm so grateful. Thanks Zooza.

Anyone know what we can do with that insulation peeking around the top edges? It's all the way around the basement. Keeps us toasty, I imagine. And can I paint the grey "patches"?

Changes

Here are the photos of the work my husband and son did yesterday.
I was hoping they would convey the incredible sense of space and freedom I feel, but they don't. I have uncovered a heretofore undiscovered hatred of black furniture, however. (Which means I don't think I'm painting the coffee table/trunk black, even though it would make the most sense). The black Ikea dresser used to sit where I've put the "handsome" dresser. They take up roughly the same amount of physical space, as you can see.


But psychologically, it feels much more spacious in there. It's indescribable. (The bottom drawer is being glued and clamped at the moment).

Moving the handsome piece freed up the area under the window behind the clothesline (which I haven't yet decided exactly where to move.) I hemmed a set of those new IKEA curtains and hung them up. (You can barely see the area in the before shot. It's behind the clothesline. Green sheers. I'd thought I'd taken a better one, sorry.)


I've got the baskets lined up on top of the short dresser (moved from beside the freezer in the before shot) to sort the winter stuff.

Here is the biggest change, though:



A better shot:

I will be removing those clothes. Once I figure out how to attach the mounting hardware for the curtains, the plastic will come down and they'll go up too.

I think the wood is destined to become a doghouse


And so, that's how we begin Week 3.

So Good...

--Prime patch in back entry way
--Unstick drawer in pine dresser
--Move out black dresser and drawers
--Fix stair edger in back entry
--Remove "excess" shelving by excercise bench

This was the to-do list I left my husband when I went to run errands today.

It's all done.
Taking down shelving and removing storage pieces--like a dresser, feels a bit like paying off a substantial amount on your credit card--except the space is tangible. But it's the same sense of release, of freedom.

He's shop-vaccuming the area now, or I'd get pics. I'll update and post some later.

Ikea has their "BRIT" curtains on sale right now, $7/pair. I put a pair up on the living room windows by the fireplace last week and realised they'd be perfect for the basement. So, I bought five pairs today (the husband said he wanted some in the workshop. In the workshop? OK.) I put up the first pair and I'm going to have to hem.

I am so thrilled.

Cord Issues: For Zooza

added later: Zooza's most elegant solution here. Well worth checking out.
As I mentioned, we need to re-wire. We have, at most, three outlets in the basement.

This is one of them:



The black cords are connected to our television cable--which we do not currently have hooked up. The wire coiled on the hook is from a tremendously long extension cord for the phone that went all the way up the stairs to the bedroom. We pulled it up, but left it here.

You can see that I have a power bar plugged into the outlet. It's over to the right, just propped up on some nails.



From here, I have a fax machine and a light plugged in: but the cord for the light (an extension cord) goes UP to the rafters and OVER the ducting and down the other side. Like this:

(I took each picture facing the ducting, that's why it looks so wonky in the middle.) Having it go UP and OVER is a new thing: it used to hang below and catch in my hair. But it still needs taming. (PS. Using those small pipes to hook things onto is a no-no. They're natural gas pipes. I had an empty coat hanger slung over one of them once and got a BIG lecture from a furnace guy. So, they're of no help at all.)

There are phone cords here:



(For future reference, those square thingys are phone jacks. For land lines. Only the top one currently works. It's connected with a cord to the REAL phone jack (somewhere else, I don't know where) which then connects us to the outside world.

And then there is this.
I love this:


I'm not sure there's anything we can or should do to this. And the long green wire, bisecting the photo? What's that you ask? I have no idea. Those coloured wires don't actually go anywhere: they just hang there in all their spidery glory.

Thanks, Zooza. I hope your idea will work for at least ONE of these monsters.

Reality Check: Goals for Week 3.

I went down to the basement tonight after reading Wende's and Zooza's comments about possibly being side-tracked from the basement project to list what I still needed to do and think about why I am feeling stalled.

Of course I had to do something, and while doing that thing I broke a huge piece of glass in a picture frame. Fortunately no one was hurt and the print inside the frame wasn't damaged. I just loved the picture (print actually) and had wanted to use it again, somewhere, someday.

But this is the danger of living with an unliveable basement. I should have stored it properly when I put it down there, but I couldn't reach any of the spots where it could have gone to be safe.(for example, the top of the wall o' shelves, where the print and mat are now). To lose an expensive (or even cheap but time consuming to replace) piece of glass because of an envelope, or coffee can and jam jar collection is utterly ridiculous.

So, as for my entry way, I'll sort and purge the stuff in hanging baskets, hang a towel rack and scrub, but new flooring and a paint job will wait for another cure, another day.

This week, I'll focus on more clothing (there's still a large box) and indoor/outdoor and camping gear.

I'll have the husband fix that stupid sticky drawer in the handsome dresser and move out the black one. Having it emptied but still sitting there is discouraging. I need to see progress! Maybe he can even rip out the shelving.

No. Probably not.

Thank you so much for keeping me on track. There are things down there I just don't want to face--but some of it must be done--just so I don't ever have to face them again.

Week 3: Introducing the Back Entry Way

I actually have a back entry way.

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.

Week 2: Progress report

I'm not likely to do much tomorrow, so I'm posting a bit early. Same format as before.

Short Version:
Unpacked, emptied, sorted, put away, bought stuff, gave stuff and shuffled stuff around.

Got rid of 235 lbs
Like this:
90 lbs: donations
80 lbs: garbage
65 lbs: small fridge


Long Version:

Sunday
Caught up on some Week 1 tasks:

Took out the counter-sized fridge. Hooray! My mom wanted it and now she has it.

Took a chair out to the curb. I really did. Wonder what will happen to it? (I'll give it 24-48 hours and then I'll put it in the haul-this-crap-to-the-dump pile in the backyard.)

Brought home an end-table from Mom's for the livingroom.

Monday
dropped off 90 lbs of donations.

Shopped.
Living room:
Got a nice napkin (to help cover a pillow. The dog has chewed a corner out of it). $3.50
Got a pillow. $10.00
Bought a fabric table cloth. $7.00
Bought a lampshade, finally! $25.00

Bedroom:
pillow: $20.00
new duvet cover: $15.00 (As Is at Ikea.)
2 new pillow shams: $8.00 (As Is)

Basement: full sheet for curtain project: $4.00 (As Is)

Tuesday
Basement:
Cleared and washed a the pantry shelves. My daughter helped me for the first 15 minutes which was very good of her. In the words of a seven year old, "the basement makes me creepy."


Started measuring for the floor plan.

Discussed removing shelves by the excercise bench.

Galloping Curitis:
Washed out microwave.
Washed top of washing machine.

Wednesday

Washed top of dryer.

Started cleaning out the area under the stairs, by the "I have no taps!" laundry tub. I keep spare boxes, here, and important ones like the computer box and so on. I've been through this area many times over the last few years, so it's no longer painful. (Can you believe I once worried about throwing away empty boxes? There's nothing so useful as an empty box!)


I got rid of all except the box for the monitor and for the scanner. Those I do need, just in case I ever have to mail these away for service.

Now I have a big empty hole, there, honest, right behind the 2x4, and I just want to fill it up with something!

Man--do we have cord issues!
(We also keep some of the recycling and empty cans here, in the old Ikea trash can.) When my husband saw these pictures, he said, "What a dump." I think that's a good thing.

However, I've misplaced my box-cutter---


(and we missed putting out the garbage and recycleables for pick up today.)
Handwashed my Ikea fuzzy orange blanket in the bath tub. The only fun part was taking the "perfect" picture:


Later---I found the box cutter, and flattened everything. It was getting so I couldn't walk through there to get to the all important Wardrobe Therapy laundry!

Then, I ran some errands and bought a broom. Yep, nothing but one excitement after another. Between taking pictures of boxes, garbage, and filthy blankets, we're having a gay ol' time.

This is the haul from this week:

80 lbs!
I can't believe we missed the garbage truck!
(PS: I took these outside. Yes, that is snow.)

Galloping curitis: cleaned two shelves in the upper food cupboard. (I have three upper cupboards).

Thursday
Tackled the sentimental clothing I've kept that I thought could be sold on consignment. Let go of 10lbs, (not counted) but I wasn't able to get rid of some truly sentimental dresses. Would photographing them and scrapping the memories be enough? I don't think so. The pictures will never show how tiny my waist was when I wore some of them.

Friday
Finished taking measurements for the basement and began the floor plan. Moved out the bench (that I removed from the living room during the fall cure) so we could lay down and flatten the wood for the faux fireplace facelift project. Haven't tried the hot water trick yet, but I will.

and so we've gone from this.........to this.................to this.

Drew floorplan.

Cleaned most of my son's room.

If you are eating: don't look.

Turn away now....

You've been warned.


Gum.

(This was the worst of it).
And so, that was my week.