Basement progress.

While we're lucky to have a finished basement, we haven't made much use of it. But thanks to this:

and this...heat!  (since there is no heat source in the basement...future project/problem to solve), we've found ourselves using the basement a little more.

I've said before there isn't much "fixing up" needed in our house.  We got totally lucky.  But the first place I could identify that needed a little more work than anywhere else in the house was the basement.  First, it has strips of wallpaper.

Literally, strips.  Whoever hung this wallpaper had some serious patience to hang that many pieces vertically.  Well, it's peeling and has tons of holes in it.  I've tried to understand why there would be so many holes clustered together...  So as soon as summer comes (not fast enough), it's coming down and we'll paint.

But for now, there was one other thing in the basement that I never did like.  And also kept me curious...

This shelf bolted into the beam.  What could you really put up there anyway?  The conversation between Louis and I went something like this:

L:  Maybe we could put our kid's trophies up there someday?
J:  Trophies?  Jeez, what place are they getting that their trophy can fit up there?
L:  How about a collection of skulls?
J:  NO!

And thus, the end of the shelves.  (Louis didn't really like them either; he just likes to humor me.)

It was a fairly simple deconstruction process.  And since it's the basement, with a low ceiling, I hardly needed the aid of the stepladder.  Armed with the trusty power drill, I switched that baby into reverse and pulled the screws out.  Easy!

And the remains:

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Ah, so simple, but so much better.  I plan on painting the beams (both the horizontal and vertical ones) whatever color ends up on the basement walls.  Right now I'm leaning towards a warm taupe or maybe light blue--something to keep it bright down there.  I picked up some paint samples today.  Now all we're waiting on is warmer weather, which I guess will keep me waiting another 3-4 months?  Sigh.