The Big Basement Reveal

 Well, I said that I was going to do it and I did.  What started as washing the walls of the upstairs great room ended in the redoing of the basement.  Last Monday I washed the sooty/dusty walls of our cathedral-ceilinged living room.  Afterward I thought, "Hey!  I just finished that mammoth task; why can't I paint the entire basement?"  So, I did.  Behold the before and after pictures ...slightly out of order.

 Remember those awful canary yellow and burgundy walls?  And the diamonds, please don't forget that genius of decorating skill.  Gone!  Replaced by a stony-beige-neutral.  Truthfully, I don't know what the colour is or where to use hyphens - so there.  Hannah and Joe picked the colour and Dave seconded.  I went to the paint store, messed up and came home with a colour that amounted to painting the walls the colour of drywall.  Certainly an improvement on the before photos; but more like a genetic reprogramming of the walls back to their original state.  (Can you tell I have been listening to bioethics lectures on youtube?)

 And the carpet?  Where oh where did that come from?  Well, six years ago Dave's mom bought carpet to redo the house of diminished circumstances.  (Recall the cottage on the farm in which we lived for five months).  At the same time that she purchased the carpet, Dave installed laminate throughout the entire cottage as a surprise for his parents.  Except that three huge rolls of new carpet came to languish in our present basement ... until Dave and I decided that we could lay carpet.  And we did.  Well, sort of.

 Bet you want to come over now.  The wonderful thing is that almost every piece of furniture that you see was a gift from someone else.  That painting?  A wedding present from our best man/priest.  That table?  A gift from Jacob's godparents, now refinished in chalkboard paint (the table, not the godparents).  (Who needs paper for tallying Scrabble points?)  The Lazyboy?  A cast off from the in-laws.

 Amazing how 200 applications of polyfilla, one coat of primer and two coats of paint can change a room.  Oh, my aching muscles.  I actually kept Hannah home from school for a morning and an afternoon to help with the brushwork.  Praise God for that not-so-little girl.  The boys protested that they should be allowed to paint.  And then they fought physically over the issue and seemed to quickly understand why they were not that trustworthy.

 Look!  An exact before and after.  The rocking chair?  Made by the brother-in-law of a sister-in-law of Dave's dad on the occasion of Dave's parents wedding over 40 years ago.  Did you get that?  The funny thing is that I noticed that our parish rectory has the identical rocker; obviously made by the same man who, yes, is a parishioner.  Note Our Lady of Tenderness watching over the children with her maternal eye; hopefully encouraging certain boys toward a more civilized life.  I think I will add glow-in-the-dark paint to her eyes to increase her effect.

 I even painted over Sarah and erased her from the photo.

 And replaced her with a chalkboard wall.  This was by far the funnest paint to use.  There's just something to be said for painting an entire wall black.  I got so carried away that I painted one of the very dirty walls of the laundry room with the same paint.  I argued that I could use it to write notes like:  Put your dirty clothes in the basket!!

 And, for those of you who know us well, it will come as no surprise that Dave is now using a stand-up desk in an effort to counteract the physical effects of sitting for too long.  Surprisingly, it's actually quite easy, if a little odd to behold.  Also, I lost my coffee table.

 I can't seem to move this photo into the correct line-up; so, here it is for you to ooh and ah over.  Please know that you are very welcome here.  We are so very, very blessed and truly want all our loved ones to share in that blessing.  We even bought a super-duper space heater, Mom.