Saturday, September 29, 2012

Finished the Basement

Yesterday, I remembered that it been awhile since I've written on my blog.
I finally, finished cleaning up the basement, and boy does it look so much bigger. 
Remember what it started out as? 
 
Really messy work bench.
Really messy scrap storage
 
 Really messy rest of basement.
 Well, I got to work and in a week and a bit, here's what happened. 
I sorted all the screws and nails and put them in labeled glass jars.
Added some shelves for storage, and found one of the old kitchen cabinets that we saved 
and added it here as well. I hung up my trouble light so it's aiming down at the table instead of at the wall. Added a nail for my tool belt, swept and swept and swept again, and then used the shop vac to
clean the floor and the ceiling. I hate spiders and their webs. Many innocent spiders lost their lives that day. Found my old stereo from Bible School days, dug through the huge box of cables that Jeff had collected and found a cord that fit and worked. So I now have music down here when I'm working. The cardboard pieces did get moved after I took this photo.
 The other side got a good going over. You can see the cardboard behind the printer. The corner where the office chair is, now houses a new shelving unit. On that shelving unit is all the computer stuff Jeff wanted to keep. The chairs are a future project. The wooden office chair will be refinished. The green kids chair will get a better paint job than green with a big red tomato on it. The chair is too wobbly for the kids to use, so it may get put outside in spring with a planter on it. If I can just figure out a way to seal it so if it gets wet, it won't get wrecked.
 My new scrap storage - this made the biggest difference. I got a bunch of big brackets and added them to the wall. All my long trim is up off the floor, my smaller mdf pieces are on shelves. I even made a 2x4 platform for my big pieces of wood and drywall to rest on. You will notice that everything is up off the cement - our basement floods if we get lots of rain, so everything gets off the floor. I want to get the freezer up onto 2x4's yet at some point, but I need stronger people than the boys to help me with that. The drawer is what is left from C2's old built in bed, and on top of that is a few random boxes of left over laminate. Which just might find a new home on the floor of my garden shed. Not sure where else I will use it. There's 1 box and a bit from one floor, and not quite 2 boxes from the other. 2 different colours and thicknesses. So I can't combine them.
So far it's been pretty easy keeping it clean. However, that being said, I actually haven't done any new projects, so that could be why it's still clean. 
My list of things I still want/need to do? I want a black board on the one wall, so I have an area where I can write out my DIY projects, or draw out a sketch of a project that I see in my head and need to figure out how to do it. Besides, I like chalkboards - they're fun. I also want to add some plastic to the ceiling, at least above my work area, so that the cobwebs and dust stay in the ceiling and not on me!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

When cleaning the basement is blog worthy?!

It's been a busy week here.School started on the 6th, Sunday was our Church's fall kick-off, and Monday I spent the day with my boss meeting clients. (almost 7 hours on heels! Not a good combo - I may have to invest in flats for future meetings).
 

 
I haven't started any new projects recently. So, today you get to see my "cleaned-up" basement work area.  Decided it was time to clean up my catch all of a work bench and the overflow. Our basement isn't very big (it's like a rectangle - one long side is made up of the laundry room, stairs from the upstairs and furnace room, the other long side is one open space - which has our deep freeze, my mountain of Christmas decor, my work bench and junk... lots of junk...) It's not heated very well or even insulated very well, so it's a cold unfinished ugly basement, it's also very low (which is so annoying when one is 5'11" tall) - so needless to say, it's not an often used area.
I did a small "reno" on the laundry room a couple months ago. Got sick of the crumbing cement walls.
 
 
I covered the walls with cardboard and then painted them. It sure brightened up the space and made it look a little better. Not much, but a little bit!

Anyways, I think I'm rambling....
Where was I? hmmm, small basement, overflow... oh yes. My messy work bench. It was so messy, I was able to use the photo for my photo group. The word was "hidden", my work bench fit it exactly. 
 
 
See, quite a mess. 
First up in this photo is my pile of still usable trim, mdf, plywood pieces, drywall pieces and whatever other pieces of other projects that I've saved, thinking I would be able to reuse them. I have plans for some of them. Some I don't.
Those colourful chairs were part of a Christmas present to Cody the one year. The table has since bit the bucket. A niece (who was tinier than Crispin) body slammed Crispin into it - and the table is no more! Tough little chicky, I like her! :)  
Looking further up in the photo is my workbench (which is the door from the laundry room on my sawhorses) - it works. And on the workbench - is a mess. The teal bin is full of picture frames, tool box is open because it's so full I can't stuff anything more in it or close the lid. There's random tools all over the bench, containers of mismatched nails and screws, some separated, some mixed. Garbage and other junk randomly placed precariously on top. 




 See? It's full. There's even an old chandelier buried in there. Had plans for that for outside. Guess that will be on the list for next summer. The orange cord from the ceiling is my trouble light cord. The basement is quite dark, and I need more light so I hung the trouble light from the ceiling. However, it lit the wall up more than the table. I'll fix that yet. 




Look! Progress was made! First, I swept and used the shop vac to clean up Shelob (she's the spider from Lord of the Rings - the boys like to tease me that she lives down there) and all her minions and their webs. shudder, shudder.....
Then I put the workmate and step ladder neatly in the corner, used some mismatched shelving brackets and added a shelf, added a few screws to hang stuff on - my Grandpa's work belt, the cord for the trouble light - which I tied on it's side, so now it aims down at the table, extension cords (there were 4 on the table - didn't know we owned that many) got hung up. Then I found all the random containers and paper bags of screws and nails. Found some free printable labels from here: http://kaylaaimee.typepad.com/ce_jour/freebies-updated-723.html
They are a little feminine, but then, so am I.  And grabbed a pile of mason jars.  Then I started organizing. Some of the screws were still labeled in their bags (decking 3", flooring 1 3/4"...) so those were easy. The rest I just put into jars according to their size.  Then I did the same with the nails. 
Emptied out the tool box, cleaned up all the garbage - got a full bag, and called it quits. I've got more to do down there, want to add another shelf under the screws.  The wood pile needs some work, but I can't do that till I clean up all the old boxes, which can't happen till I get the Hubby to clean up the random old computers and all that goes with them. And then the Christmas stuff needs to get cleaned up a bit, and then I think I can start cleaning up the rest. Hopefully by the end of the week (wishful thinking? I'll keep you posted), my basement will be clean. 

Well, supper is starting to smell really good. Should probably go eat! 














Saturday, September 1, 2012

A Few Issues and Changes

Well, we had our first company over for supper with the new table. We all managed to get around the table, and there was room at our elbows for even more people if we needed it to  be. So glad that I made the table big enough for lots of company.
Mom W. - sorry for this not so nice photo of you! I think you were talking! 
So what this photo doesn't show is how awkward the bench is to actually sit on, and how tight the corner between Dad and Mom is. 
Issue #1: Bench
- it's too short for the height of the table
- the mattress is wider than the bench seat, which means that when the kids kneel on it (so they can reach the top of the table), it flips up and they slide off
Issue #2: Tight Corner
- Dad had to crawl under the table to reach his seat, because the corner was so tight he couldn't fit through. 
While it was fun for the kids to see Grandpa crawl under the table - I can't imagine any other company willing to do the same. 

So how we resolved it? Mom and I waited till Dad and Jeff left the house, and we rearranged furniture.  And we were having so much fun, I forgot to take before pictures.  
Here's a before of where the buffet used to sit (Taken in November of 2010)
Makes me realize that I should take more pictures of the house a little more often. Between Nov '10 and now, not much changed on that buffet - plants were all still there, just the tablecloth was removed. But that's where the buffet has sat since we got it. 
Now, the bench sits in this location.
We won't use the bench for at the table unless absolutely needed.  The table now has more room around it. Just need another chair for one of us to sit on, guess I will just use the spare office chair till we find another one.
Because we moved the bench under the window, the buffet needed a new home. 
So - it got moved to the library.
So this isn't really a good shot of my library before, but I will try to describe it as best I can. This is my antique sleeping bench, it used to sit under the window. There was a bookshelf to the right of it, and a magazine rack to the left.  Here is what it looks like today.
We moved the sleeping bench to the other wall, scooted the bookshelf that was there, closer to the window.  The magazine rack has a new home under the window, the buffet is to the right of the window and we were finally able to add the mirror to the top of it. Couldn't before, because it took up too much window space.  Not much more changed, but it sure makes the space look cozy. DH still has enough room by his office chair, that he's not feeling crowded, and there's still room for us to all sit and read. One little bookshelf (the one that used to be were the buffet sits) had to be removed from the room, but it didn't go that far. And it works where it is now, too. Someday, I hope to have lots of floor to ceiling bookshelves in this room, but with the way I love to move furniture, maybe moveable ones are best! :) 

It's not big changes, but it works for us.