The Basement

After two months, our basement is finally fixed! We have walls (a BIG deal) painted pale green, super-soft carpeting, and now we’re putting everything back where it goes.

Except...

The teen who uses the basement doesn’t want the walls filled with posters that she doesn’t like. Understandable, except...

She seems to think she’s in charge of the basement since she picked out the color of the walls and the carpet.

It’s also the only place in the house where the husband can hang his Star Wars and Phillies posters that don’t fit in his office.

So the two of them are bargaining—who gets what side of the basement (it’s divided by a half wall that’s architecturally pleasing but in reality, a pain in the butt to work with furniture). Dividing the basement in half doesn’t really work since they both use the whole area. He uses it for exercising every day and she uses it to hang out with friends and for messy homework projects. It’s a great space for both of them. And now that the older-than-the-teen TV has been replaced with a brand new one that offers Netflix at the push of a button (apparently, this is a cool thing—I don’t really watch Netflix, and when I do, someone has to start it for me), she and her friends can watch movies downstairs, leaving the family room free for my use. Works for me! 

What’s not quite working for me is putting back all the books on all the bookcases we have down there. I have a whole new appreciation for librarians. Since I didn’t take photos of what was where before we raced to empty them from the flood and for the carpet installers who were moving said bookcases for us, I don’t have a plan to work from. So I’m trying to organize them by genre and author. Not having any spatial abilities, it requires a lot of putting books on the shelves, realizing I didn’t leave enough room and moving the books to different shelves. Multiple times.

At some point, it will all be reorganized, and the teen and the husband will either tire of bargaining or come to an agreement. And hey, it’s better than a flood!