Why I Oughta...

Courtesy of my friend Adam comes this neat cover of "Christmas Must Be Tonight" - a song by The Band - covered by My Morning Jacket.  Neat stuff.

Thanks to my father-in-law, we got the TV hooked up and mounted above the fireplace in the corner of the basement.  Still no couch, but the beanbags are fine for me for now.  My mancave has begun to take-shape!

There's a new addition to the community of Mantleburg - Frosty's Christmas Tree Lot.  With the Menard's Dutch Auction sale on all Christmas stuff going on, I couldn't help myself with getting this piece for 50% off the retail price.  I've had my eye on it all season and it fits in nicely with a few of the other buildings in their new home down in the basement on the ledge.

The beadboard *should* hold up better than just regular sheetrock when the kids go crazy down in the basement.  We got it up in *most* places and just have to caulk and paint the boards before we're all done.

After a bit of shaving down, the fridge fit *PERFECTLY* into the hole and with the water and power connections set back into the closet behind the fridge, it looks like the room was built around it. It is a 27 cubic foot box, so there's a lot of space in it.  Can't wait to fill it with various beverages! I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out.  A bit more work left to do around the little counter area and we'll be ready to have the party.

Once the floors were finished up, it was time to get the stairs to match.  After two coats of stain, I'm still not satisfied with the final color, but time is short before the Babe's Second Birthday party so for the next few weeks this will have to do.

Just 2 days ago, I posted this photo of the bare floored hallway in our basement . Last night, here's what the same hallway looked like with the new floors.  It is really starting to feel like a finished space. And here's what the main room looks like with the floors installed.  They're called "hand scraped" - which Nat picked out - and look pretty nice installed.  They're a wide board, too, which is different than what I've seen in lots of places.

That red stuff is the fancy underlayment that they put down before the floors.  They're starting in the southeast corner and hopefully by the end of today they'll have most of the floor installed.  The basement will be totally transformed once these floors go in - and will feel A LOT more finished and useable. The underlayment itself is made up of 3 layers and is called the Roberts 3-in-1 Harmony Underlayment .  The bottom layer is a permeable layer that keeps moisture down, the second layer is this thin section of little styrofoam balls that provide some bounce, noise deadening - and most importantly - the ability for any moisture that is underneath to travel through this layer and out the sides.  The top layer is a vapor barrier that keeps any and all moisture out from the bottom of the boards.

There's paint on the walls.  A lot of it.  Nat picked out the color - and it looks nice.  There's a lot of green right now, but that will change.  We're going to put up wainscoting along the lower half of the walls (below the white shelf), but that will happen after the floors get installed. Here's a view of the hallway as you come down the stairs and head towards the main room.

It is now beginning to feel a bit more like a finished space.  We have doors in!  Most of them had to be cut/hacked to get to fit because of headroom considerations or other funky framing decisions we made earlier, but...all but one of the doors is *in*.  The last one will wait until after the party this weekend when we can slow down a bit and catch our breath with the construction.