Saturday, January 3

At 4 pm today, the basement was officially done.

DONE! DONE! DONE! DONE! DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I just have the kitchen and Thomas's room to tackle, but did I mention, the basement is done?

We kept finding things to do, and I thought we'd never finish.

We re-arranged the furniture, so Thomas now has a gaming area. It will be a comfortable area for watching movies as well.

For a "dumpy" basement, it's clean and looks nice. It really needs painted, though.

Bob and I had our first argument today. We've been getting along really, really well -- something that, sadly, is atypical when we work together. (We usually bicker a little.) Today, though, we had words over the futon. See, it's over 15 years old and I suspected the mattress was dirty. Bob just wanted to flip the mattress. He went off to clean the shed (wonderful man, that wasn't even on our to-do list) and I got online and priced futon mattresses. I figured it would be cheaper to get rid of the futon and get a new couch rather than replacing the mattress. Bob disagreed vehemently because our futon is very beautiful, solid oak. It was expensive years ago when we bought it, and its held its beauty and structure.

So I threw a little kid fit:

ME: I am NOT keeping the mattress.
BOB: We'll just flip it over.
ME: Gross. I think it's dirty. I have a gut feeling. I want clean.
BOB: You're crazy, it's not dirty.
ME: Stomping my feet, waaaaah, having a two-year-old tantrum: No!

pause

ME: Let's take the cover off the futon and examine the mattress.
BOB: Okay.

Bob took the cover off the mattress. He looked at it, flipped it over, and that ended that. The mattress was thrown into the dumpster. I didn't have to say a word. I think pops had been spilled on it, and baby juice and milk and it was just old.

Bob is going to buy a new mattress. I am going to buy a water-proof mattress cover and a lovely fitted sheet to cover it. That's one thing I love about futons, you can easily change the look with a sheet. Can't do that with a couch.

So, done! Done, done, done with the basement that once was a dungeon.

I had hoped to start the kitchen tonight, BUT I took a nap, then had supper late. I have supper to clean up and it's already after 10. So tomorrow we'll forge ahead. And we've decided to do Thomas's room after all, so he'll start on his room tomorrow.

Hey, did I mention our basement is done?

Bob's more thrilled with the laundry room, a room where I do most of the work, while I'm more thrilled with the family room. Hey, we found out we have a big air hocky table and a train table. Who knew those cool things were under books and clutter?

When I laid down to take my nap this afternoon, I heard a lovely thing: The air hocky table going, and Bob and Thomas playing.