Out of the Closet

Today we finished up the new basement office by building the closet. Some day, it will be the equipment closet for my basement studio. Just picture two stackes of Marshall's where I'm standing... The office will have a 56" frosted glass double door, and the closet opening is 60" wide. The double doors make the room seem larger than it is, and they allow the light from the window to reach the rest of the area. Next task: the bathroom. This week, we'll draw up the details in CAD and scout out how to do plumbing.

Building Walls

Friday night, both boys went to friends' houses for sleep-overs. This was the first time EVER that we have been w/o kids in the house. We didn't know what to do! Where to go? Menard's, of course! We loaded the Odyssey up with another load of 2x4s for the basement.

Friday nite we put up the north wall of the new office (man cave), and Saturday we added the west and south walls. Sunday's task is to put in the closet.

Lucky Day

On St. Patrick's Day, I was playing ball w/GP. It was a beautiful day - warm, breezy, and Friday. I looked down and saw a 4-leaf clover. Well, it looks like a 4-leaf clover, and it was good enough for GP, especially on St. P's day, so we're sticking with our story - It's a four-leaf clover and we're lucky!

Opening Season

This weekend we added another wall to the basement. This is the one under the laundry room. We rebuilt the silly header over window that the builder built. Three 2x4s laying flat is not the same as two 2x5s lying on edge. The original headers over both windows were sagging.

Today was the first day of spring. 74 degrees, a warm breeze (not wind), and sunshine. All the neighbors climbed out from under thier rocks and wandered over to the deck. We've been shuffling all the crap around in the basement as we move from area to area, so it was a relief to move the deck chairs outside. Much less stuff to shuffle. now.

Back in the Real World

Spending a week in paradise was too nice. When we arrived in Chicago, I turned on my phone for the first time in a week and saw a message from the neighbor: "If you get this in between flights - Call Me!" Called him and found out that the furnace had gone out the night before and Nana & the boys were living w/o heat. Good thing it wasn't zero...

We spent most of Friday troubleshooting the furnace, heat pump, and thermostat. Finally got it working and then it was on to Menards to get materials for another wall in the basement.

We were able to finish the wall that makes the new storage area.

Mexico!

We spent 6 days in Mexico on the Mayan Riviera at the Imperial Valentin resort. Wow - it was better than I expected. Next time we need to plan on staying longer. I forgot how nice it is to lounge around in the sunshine.

We went with our neighbors from across the street. No kids!

1st Day of Spring?

After we got the basement wall complete, we ran outside to enjoy the beautiful spring day. Needless to say, the entire neighborhood had a bit of spring fever.