basement – Suburban Fervor

My Shame

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Katie

We have covered that I live in a townhouse with 4 other people and a dog. We don’t have a ton of in-the-house storage space and for some stupid reason we don’t use the crawlspace. But we should. We really need to. Here’s why:

That’s our basement closet and currently the only place we store any seasonal/large/stuff we can’t think about right now. There are empty boxes, beds, holiday decor, sewing materials, golf clubs, wallpaper rolls and who knows what else in there. I have a bed frame that I just didn’t put back together when I moved in. I know I should just put it together and then my room would look like a semi-adult lives in there instead of a teenage boy. We keep the empty boxes because one day we will move and then we’ll have the box all this crap came in. It’s just our dumping ground.

Ok, that sounds redonk, but I wasn’t the one who decided that. So I’m on a mission to clean it out. So I can put up my Christmas tree. Sometime before Christmas would be nice.

Up and Dusty, Not Down and Dirty

Posted on September 11, 2012September 10, 2012 by Katie

Like I mentioned yesterday, my sister and I decided in all our wisdom that we could replace the dropped ceiling in our basement. We didn’t even research anything which is completely out of character for both of us. Why such a rash decision? Take a look at this:

So we did what we do best. We handled it! She handled the removal of the original tiles while I wiped down the “angles, cross tees, and main tees” aka the metal slats that hold up the tiles. Here is my boyfriend and my sister “consulting” on how to get a particularly difficult tile down.

After cleaning off the nicotine stains as best I could (delicious), I hit those babies with two coats of Kilz primer with a tiny foam roller, the brush didn’t work so great. Trust me when I say they needed it. Oh, you don’t trust me? Well take a look for yourself:

Love that attractive paneling, the color we painted over it is called Bone Folder by Martha Stewart. With sore arms and necks, we were starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here is my sister installing the inaugural tile.

We thought that putting up the new, clean tiles would be pretting easy and we were very very wrong. For starters, make sure you are wearing a mask and safety glasses! This is one dusty project. If we even looked at a tile funny it send dust up our noses. We also learned that you should measure about 80 times before you put up a tile that needs to be cut to size. Once you get the tile up in the ceiling and almost in place and you realize that is doesn’t fit quite right you are going to want to jump off the nearest cliff. Please don’t.

It was an incredibly dusty job, but it needed to be done. The basement is so much brighter! Between the new light bulbs, light covers, and ceiling tiles, there is no way you would know that we used to call the basement The Dungeon.

All(most) done!

Don’t Look Up

Posted on September 10, 2012September 11, 2012 by Katie

This weekend, my sister and I tackled replacing the dropped ceiling in our basement (detailed post to come). Part of that task involved replacing a bunch of burned out fluorescent tubes. Did you know they contain mercury? Good thing she broke one! After we carefully cleaned up the mess we were left wondering how to dispose of the bulbs.

So we got hunting on the internets.

And I found Earth911.com. What a resource! I easily found a bunch of locations where I could drop off the bulbs, and a few other items such as laquer or cleaning supplies.

We aren’t changing the lighting in the basement even though the required bulbs can be hazardous because they actually save energy, we know where to dispose of them, and we don’t have the money/skills/creativity to change them out for something different.