The last major unresolved  project (thing we hadn’t even started) just happens to be our entire basement. Other than the wine cellar, guest room, and bathroom, there is a giant open empty room on the lower level of my house. MK has taken the reins on this one. 

(Sidenote: If I didn’t mention it before, we picked rooms the way you pick a basketball team, I got living room, he picked basement, I picked guest room, he got his office, etc. It is hilarious, but so far a totally effective way of solving debates, until we start finishing out the basement, when it’s going to get ugly.) 

He sealed the trim and the windows and air vents and we cleaned the walls and the laundry room. We had to shut off the crappy fireplace and will have to get a new one. He FINALLY let me paint over the nasty maroon walls – since we couldn’t really agree on a final color we used three… One wall that is actually IN the basement living room is white now to match the rest of the basement, no idea why it WAS ever red. The hallway we used leftover grey, it may be temporary, but I like it. I made the upper half of the hallway match the kitchen since we had the paint, why not? We pulled down some wood that might have hung doors at one point and I painted the entryway to the basement living room and the hand rails, which were just plain wood before: 

Better than Maroon!

 Then I drew the short straw or whatever and while he was working on the master bath I had to paint the ceiling. Twice. And that’s only primer, I’ll have to do another coat of paint. The fireplace had made the ceiling really dingy, and with snow covering the windows we need to brighten the basement up! 

It was super painful, my neck still aches, and yesterday I skied with bruised shins, seeing as I kept knocking my legs in to the stupid ladder. I’m a hot mess right now, totally. But I did it, so I rule. 

Beats sooty brown!

 That’s the ceiling. What is that brick? The fireplace! Gross, right? Have you seen the WHOLE thing? Super gross! 

Painting = cheaper than tearing down.

 Today, while he’s out skiing in awesome snow, I’ve been put to another nasty task: 

washing the brick to prime and paint it. 

In case you never knew, DIRTY BRICK IS GROSS. The only thing grosser is THE SMELL OF WET BRICK. Today is not making the top of my why I love living here list.