Yesterday was the muriatic acid day. Kay, you were right, it wasn’t so scary. The scary part was the shit that came off the walls, OH MY LORD, yuck. Like black dirt, ew! I like things clean. I may be messy sometimes, but underneath the mess? Clean. So today we went at it with the drylok and it soon became clear that the four gallon buckets we bought were not going to be enough. I had to patch with a quick setting cement patch while Taylor started to paint. I look over after about a half hour and started freaking out, “Taylor! What the heck are you doing?!?!” He had flung paint all over the place and his brush… and handle were completely covered in paint. I got some drop cloths out and we went back to it. My mom showed up and like whipped through a can so I had to go get some more at Lowe’s. So I got my four more cans of drylok. I also loaded up on a thick nap roller, some dryloc caulk stuff for the intersection of the wall and the floor and three more cans of quick patch. By the time I got back my mom had already whipped through three more cans (you think I’m joking, but I’m so not) and we were putting this coat on with brushes! Don’t tell me to roll it because I looked it up everywhere and the first coat has to go on with a brush to get into all the pores of the concrete.

Anyway by about five we had finished almost everything up with the first brushed coat, and we needed more drylok. I took Taylor home, went to Home Depot, got dinner and came back. My mom and I worked for a while, then Sciarrino showed up (“hello my bestest buddy in town can you please please come help me!”) to patch the holes in all the moldings around the windows and doors and everything. My mom stayed until eight and Sciarrino and I until nine. And when we left it looked like this:

The ceilings are all going to be textured, and they will have a molding around that top bit. There is going to be a cabinet straight back to hid the mess of pipes, and the floor, well you’ll just have to wait and see. This paint makes it look so much less scary down there! And we cranked it out just in time because tomorrow I meet with the electrician. We only have one set of grounded plugs… in the whole house! Grounded plugs are the three pronged kind. Not having these is a pain. Oh, and there is only one regular plug in the whole basement. It was powering the stereo today (thanks Brent!). So more work tomorrow. I’ll take some more pictures in the daylight.

What you’ve been waiting for:

And on the back side: Pre-staining one side of the fence (Bj and Bill did this) because it will be impossible to get to once up (we’re not taking down Morris’s fence). And were is this going to go?

Karen helping out. We took all the remaining hardware off the doors/cupboards/drawers and got to work stripping. Now some say I’m anal to do this. I don’t care. This will make the whole house look clean and fresh. And when I clean up those glass knobs they will really pop.

In the basement you see my dad appreciating the Bud Light I have stocked in the fridge. Quite a transformation down here. They ripped out every last gross board. Started framing up the new wall, replaced all the beams, and added a three foot wide door into my storage room (behind my dad, the door is around the corner to the right of the stairs). I love that they took that wall off behind my dad, it totally opens up the corner. I’ve decided to leave that and just put a railing in it’s place. My neighbor Tracy loved the difference. She said she and an old renter use to joke about which weird room in the basement had a body in it. Ew, we didn’t find a body, but we did find the remains of something else:

Fire! This had been covered a long time ago, and could be the reason the ceilings are taking so many coats to paint nicely. That’s the worst part above, and no structural damage thank goodness.

Dave the carpenter says, “Those posts aren’t going anywhere.” And he’s right. They were sitting on little bits of concrete, but they sledgehammered that out while the house was jacked up (not as risky as it sounds I found out). Then this plate is bolted into the concrete floor, a little lift is put in (to keep the beam from sitting directly on the concrete and thus avoiding moisture problems in the future) and then it’s bolted to the beam. It’s also bolted to the big beam at the top. I think this looks way better too (added bonus!).

So what now? Oh just a million little things. Before the carpenter comes back next weekend the electrician needs to come. But before he can come I have to dryloc the walls (so the conduits don’t sit on a moisture trap), and before I can do that I have to patch them, before that muratic acid them, and before that wire brush them. So I start with the wire brushing tomorrow. In great news Sciarrino volunteered to power wash the exterior of my house. Um, gee, I don’t know, YES PLEASE! So things are coming along, and I feel good about everything. My budget is staying on track thanks to all these wonderful helpers. I LOVE YOU GUYS!