Progress in the Basement

    The kids have been gone this week, the florist shop I work at is closed for the week and a bunch of my music students took a week off so I have had more time to work on other things. My mother-in-law and across the street neighbor, Sharyl, offered to come down the last two mornings and help me work on my basement. We made some good progress, had some fun and probably pulled some muscles in ways we shouldn't have but I am super excited about that progress!

   Yesterday, we got the two basement windows trimmed. I had been struggling with knowing just how to measure properly for it but I got it figured out in my head and so actually on Friday morning I measured and cut and then on both windows I needed to cut the top trim board narrower so I took it over to my dad and he did it on his table saw (our is very old and I find it a little scary so I was thankful that my Dad could do that for me). Then yesterday Sharyl held pieces up while I nailed them in place. 

  The next big project was shelves and trim in our bathroom closet. We got some done yesterday and I finished them up today. Yeah!

   Both the window trim and the hanging shelves were projects that I hadn't really tackled before and so that made them feel a little overwhelming but they weren't actually that hard. It always feels good to go ahead and do something that seems hard and conquer it.

    Today we also worked in our playroom and that's where some muscles may have gotten pulled badly as we worked to hang a cabinet that was very solid and heavy. Normally it would have been find for me but with my shoulder still in recovery from a sprain it probably wasn't the best idea BUT I got it done and I am pretty happy about that. I did also go to the Chiropractor this afternoon and he didn't chew me out too badly (in fact he was pretty understanding) but thought it would be better if I don't do that anymore until I am totally healed. Thankfully I don't have any more heavy cabinets to hang so we should be good. I am excited to show you pictures of the playroom but that will be another day.

 I also got a shower curtain hung in my bathroom. When I first tiled the shower we intentionally designed it so that it shouldn't have to have a door or curtain. It did work pretty well that way (we have had a little issue of moisture coming out but nothing too bad) but I always needed to water really hot when showering or it felt breezy and cold. I don't like cold showers. So I decided maybe a shower curtain would help trap some of the heat in the shower (because my bathroom is quite large and it is hard to heat up that big space with the steam. So I had bought the shortest extension rod at Menards but it was still too big. I took that back and wasn't sure what to do next.

I remembered that I had some dowel rods. So I cut one just slightly shorter than needed, hot glued some Styrofoam on either end  to allow me to slide it in place without hurting the tile and so that it fit snugly. It works great. I am excited to have a hot and steamy shower tonight. I found the shower curtain on Amazon a while ago and thought it was a pretty fun one for a florist/beekeeper/gardener.

  One other quick (and kind of funny) project was to drill holes in a toilet plunger for Sharyl. She wants to have it to use for washing clothes (it has not been used for it's intended use) should she need to go off grid. She is a prepper as I like to be too. Here is a video on Youtube that explains the system if you are interested.

  It has been a fun week so far. How is yours going? Are you working on any projects?