Friday

I don't have questions to answer today, so today I'm just rambling about random things.

OK, first, Heirs. They just aired episode 10 yesterday. I'm embarrassed to admit how obsessed I am with that show. I love a good twisty love story and Korean drama writers are masters at telling a good twisty love story! It's sweet, it's cute, it's funny, but it's also dramatic, twisty, angsty, a little sad and a lot complicated. Everything I require in a Korean drama! Ten episodes down, ten to go. I hope the second half is as good as the first. If it all goes well I'm hosting a weekly Heirs viewing party with some friends in January. The rule is I watch it first and make sure it's worth investing 20 hours into and if so they're going to come re-watch it with me when it's over.  I'm pretty sure that's happening.

So onto discussion item number two. My basement. Here is the story of my basement. One of the reasons we bought this house was for the basement. Basements are fairly rare in Boise, so if you can find one you're super lucky. We bought this house from my aunt and uncle nine years ago and the basement was one of the biggest reasons we wanted it.

There are two big storage rooms down there that I love, a bedroom, a bathroom and a playroom/family room type space. When my aunt lived here she used it as a quilt room and did crafting and sewing projects down there. There is a formal living room and a family room on the main floor, so it doesn't really need to function as the family room. It's just kind of an extra space that could be used as a game room or a craft room or a playroom or whatever you need an extra space for.

When we moved here we decided that while we had little kids we would use it as a playroom and when they got older we would turn it into a teenage hangout space. We've always had plans for it, but we've been slowly doing remodeling projects on our house over the years and the basement was always my last priority. I kept thinking we'd get to it and we just never did.

When we moved here we just stuck our old furniture down there, with plans to do something better down there eventually. That room functions as a playroom to some extent. There are toys down there and the Wii is down there, so the kids do spend some amount of time in there. It's never been a very functional space though and it's not really a room that we enjoy spending time in. It's unorganized, there are a bunch of old toys the kids have grown of that need to be gone though...it has kind of been in a state of being a half done project for years.

When we recarpeted the house earlier this year we debated on whether or not to recarpet the basement at the same time and we decided that we would wait and next year would be the year we completely redo the basement. It was just a project I wasn't prepared to deal with while we were recarpeting the rest of the house.  So again, we kind of put the basement project on hold for a bit longer.

Then a few weeks ago I was asking the boys what they want for Christmas. They tried to make a list and honestly couldn't come up with much. I know there's nothing I'm desperately in need of for Christmas and Shawn is the same way, so we came up with an idea. We decided that it would be super fun if instead of buying a bunch of presents that we don't need, we remodeled the basement into a cool teenage/family hangout room for Christmas. The boys will have a fun space hang out in and a great place to have friends over and Shawn and I can finally cross that project off our list. It's a win for everyone. Clarissa will still get her regular gifts from Santa because she's too young to care about the basement project and she has a Christmas list a mile long. So many ponies and pony accessories. :)

So now we're getting to work on it. The plan is to move every single thing that is currently in that room out, because it's all old and junky, and then recarpet, repaint and refurnish, all before Christmas. We are going to get it all done right before Christmas and then we're going to put a big red bow over the doorway and no one can enter until Christmas morning, when we will have a ribbon cutting ceremony and spend the holidays hanging out in our new space. Shawn has two weeks off at Christmas this year, so we're looking forward to movie nights, game tournaments and all sorts of fun events down there over the holidays.

We picked out a big leather sectional that will go down there that I'm really excited about. On the other side of the room we're going to put a big TV for games and movies. It will be a fun teenage hangout space. I want my house to be the place where teenagers congregate. I would rather have my kids here with their friends where I can keep an eye on what's going on than have them be gone all the time. When I was a teenager we used to have really fun parties in my basement. I have fond memories of that. I would like to be able to provide that for my kids and give them a fun, safe place to congregate.

There is also a big closet next to the room where we can organize all of Clarissa's toys so that all of her things can stay down there and she can play down there during the day. Right now it looks like a My Little Pony factory exploded in our family room every day and it's driving me crazy. Keeping all of that down in the basement will make my life much easier and keep the main floor of of our house a lot cleaner.

So that's the big project we're going to be working on for the next month or so. The plan is to get it done before Christmas but not too far before because I want it to still be a novelty on Christmas morning. I'm hoping to not have the furniture and things delivered until right before Christmas, but we need to get the recarpeting and repainting done before that. And before all of that we need to clean everything of there, which is going to be a big project. So I'm picking out paint colors and figuring out window coverings and all of that. It's going to keep me busy for a while.

We're excited though! It will be a different Christmas than usual, but I think it will be something fun that we'll always remember. The year we got a new room for Christmas! It will be exciting!