A man-cave fit for a man in a cave.

It's almost been a year since I put the flooring in the basement and I've never really done anything with it. Just a friendly reminder of what it looked like when I moved in:

 

And then I did all that work last winter so it looked like this.

And yesterday my electrician came out and configured all the plugs so we wouldn't have to run an extension cord from the dryer area to the finished portion of the basement. And now it looks like this:

It's starting to look like a real room! It needs baseboard and window trim but it's getting there! I grabbed the painting from the reveal that used to be over the living room mantle.

But don't look over there; when I do I get the theme song to Sanford and Son stuck in my head.

The boy and I have an agreement, stolen from a very smart friend, that we will keep everything we own for the first year of living together. So we have two beds and lots of duplicate kitchen gear that got boxed up and stored in the garage and basement. The last thing you want to do after a relationship ends is to have to buy a new bed (or a new cheese grater, or whatever) because you got rid of yours when you moved in together. So we'll reassess in a year or two or whenever we feel like it and then we can start to pare down our stuff. But for right now we have a mattress in the alcove.

Now I'm itching to paint the wood paneling that lines the stairs down to the basement and replace that nasty carpet.

And lastly, Hall and Oates will finally have to go.

Celebrating

Six or seven years ago I made a new year's resolution to drink more champagne. Not for boozy reasons, but rather in the spirit of celebrating small things. So I have a small number of corks from momentous times (getting accepted to grad school, my reveal, Greg moving in . . . ) and no good way to really display them.

I grabbed an Ikea Ribba frame, the 9x9 one with the recessed mat.

I drew a grid on the back so the corks would be equally spaced.

I put nails through the back of the frame where the grid lines crossed.

Then I put the corks on the nails and labeled the occasion they marked.

I think a different color paper would look better, no? I'm not sure I like it yet but an excuse to drink more champagne is never a bad thing.

Moving day!

The movers left, we ate our victory burritos, and then we started unpacking.

Then a dude in a blue Camaro came screeching around the corner and hit
the back of the boy's truck and took off.

So yeah, his first hour in the house included a visit from the
Portland police. Luckily there wasn't much damage to his car.

Later we drank champagne and all was right with the world. :)

Snow falling on Brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts are evergreen, if you neglect them all winter.

Just, you know, FYI.

My whole house looks like this right now.

It's making me crazy. Where's my hammer? Maybe in the bathroom?

Who knows!

The daphne is blooming!

The blooms are hot pink and they smell like heaven.

I love spring.

Things I'm thinking about

Refinishing the kitchen cabinets. It's not on the list of 2011 resolutions but Rustoleum just came out with a new cabinet system that requires no stripping or sanding.

Maybe a nice unglazed linen finish?

But then I would want to regrout the countertops and finally put in baseboards, and paint the kitchen door . . . and you see where I'm going with this. But it's tempting. Anybody have any great ideas for what color I could do that would go with both the floor and the countertops?