The basement has pretty much served as a catchall for everything that has gone down in the last year… moving in, ripping the Adorable Red Cabinets out, painting, tiling, flooring, plastering, and moving one extra-tall boyfriend in (and then out again). Then I decided to finish the fireplace room in the basement, at which point I started cramming things in the utility portion of the basement like I was playing some disturbing real-life version of tetris. With my house. Ugh.
But all I really want is a nice little workshop where I can spread all my projects out and the cats won’t eat them and I won’t have to cram them under the couch when company comes over.
There is a teeny-tiny room in the basement, just under the nook, that already had a workbench, some shelving, and some pegboard that could have been hung better by a one-armed, blind monkey. But it was a good start for a work area. The problem is that I need more than one 5′ x18″ table to work on. That, and every time I want to get crap out of my way, it ends up back in my little room. Which is so cram-packed it doesn’t even have a floor any more. Case in point:
Added to which, I’m pretty sure all the crap in the utility room has been breeding in the dark down there when I’m not looking.
Ah, yes… This was taken Saturday around noon. What you’re looking at here is the remainder of my old kitchen cabinets, half a dozen 120 lb. solid wood doors (I only know where about half of them used to go), random parts of a computer and stereo system, all of the crown molding and toe-kick for the kitchen, various scraps of wood with vicious rusty nails sticking out of them– thanks to the contractor who did my kitchen and was too lazy to put them in the dumpster– a punching bag, and enough paint, varnish, and sealer to fill a swimming pool with.
By Sunday night, I managed to get it to look like this…
I spent $20 on the 3/4″ MDF to use as an 8′ counter top for a couple of the old cabinets, and that’s all this project is going to cost me. (Thank god.) The next step was to figure out how to hang those cabinets on the wall and then to cover every available surface with peg-board…
The former was fairly straightforward, the latter on the other hand, I attempted while playing loud music and drinking a glass of wine… which resulted in me trying out my Kung Fu Nailing Skills. You know, like in the Karate Kid where Mr. Miyagi slams the nail all the way in with one whack of the hammer? Well, nailing pegboard into furring strips is not that fun so I said to myself “Hey, I’m a black belt (Taekwondo, not Karate, and believe me, that makes ALL the difference…), Daniel-san’s got nothing on me.”
This is the result of that effort:
Although I did manage to get everything straightened out and hung up in the end…
Wow, Those are some wonderfully clear pictures, you almost feel like you were drinking that bottle of wine with me, don’t you? Ah, well, it’s what I got.
Not bad for a weekends work.
One Response
Wow, what a transformation! I bow to your organizational skills. And that’s a nice collection of paint, you have there. Reminds me I have several cans I desperately need to dispose of. And my garage needs a wee bit of work, too.
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