soccer mania

i thought that this being the next to last week of games i should probably bring a camera and document some of the action. the first few shots are from noelle's tuesday night game, their first win of the year (1-4-1) with one more to play. noelle's team wears the red jerseys. the next 4 are from tonights game. alaina's team (4-1-1) wears maroon. in most cases, one of the blondes closest to the ball is mine.

information overload

decided to give my gentle readers a break from the basement finishing play-by-play. recent pressure from friends and family prompted me to finally create a facebook profile where you can, among other things, write on my virtual wall, see who my other facebook friends, etc. (requires an account). in addition, i am also using the probably already obsolete flavor-of-the-month app twitter, which allows me, and millions of others, to post what we happen to be doing at a given moment in time. example, "skip is organizing his sock drawer", or "skip is removing pocket lint", etc. you can also post texts directly from your mobile, which i haven't configured yet. we'll roll with it for awhile and see how it goes. i also added twitter as an app in facebook so that twitter will also be my current facebook post. got that? if maintaining a blog wasn't enough, these new features will allow you to track my daily comings and goings like never before. it also means i am probably going above and beyond in contributing to the ever growing problem of internet clutter.

day 10

the major and most dramatic parts of the basement are done. i've included a before and after pic below to give you an idea of how far we've come in the last month. all that's left is a little touch up, some hardware installs (lights, fixtures, faceplates, etc.) and the final inspection. we are almost ready to start moving in the furniture we don't have yet.

off topic

for those who may be in the market, you can get a refurbished 5th gen 30 gb video ipod from woot (today only) for $129.
thats what i paid for my first shuffle.

day 9

well the paint is on and i know it's a little tough to see. there are many things working against me here in trying to show an accurate representation of the paint color. one is, i took the pix on my low-res, low mega pixel cellie, two the lighting is still not great, and three, exact colors seldom translate perfectly when publishing a photo to the web.
in picture one, i tried to show some contrast with the white ceiling. picture two is the standard shot i've been showing for days. tough to even see the green paint - it's subtle at best. picture three is my mac at work displaying my fenway park wallpaper.

grassland green

for those tuning in expecting to see my freshly painted basement - here's the deal. i got home too close to dark last night so there was not enough natural light to take any pics. the lights had been covered up while they were painting the ceiling so turning them on gave off about as much light as a faint candle. i can assure you that the basement is now one coat of grassland green. they are applying the second coat today. i'll be sure to get a pic or two online tonight while there is some light down there. carpet still scheduled for tomorrow.

day 8

today the stain was applied to the woodwork and doors. as you can see, it's got sort of a burnished walnut look. i spoke to the painter today and he will be applying the paint to the walls and ceiling tomorrow (two coats). the next time you see the basment it should be grassland green. i also learned that the carpet could will be laid as early as wednesday thursday. assuming the final hardware and inspection are done soon after, we are talking a pretty darned close to finished basement by the weekend! yay!

day 7

as you can clearly see things are progressing in the basement. the trim is on and will be stained tomorrow and the painter comes monday. i think once the walls are painted it will really start looking like a finished basement. for those keeping score at home here's the finalist among the paint, carpet, and stain contenders.
we are going with sherwin williams "grassland" #sw6163 (eggshell) for the paint, burnished walnut sw 3119-k for the stain, and vrooman, 151 (f) oak for the carpet color.
yes, there have been other things going on in my life besides "project basement finish" but nothing particularly blogworthy. still in full-on soccer mode but getting a bit of a break next week as the wife and kids take a week off and go to the cabin in michigan next week. i'll man the home front and manage the household, work, and make last minute decisions on the basement.
more soon...

day 6

today was all about tape and mud. tomorrow they are coming back for the 2nd round. i suspect there is a pretty specific skill involved in doing this properly and to my untrained eye it looks pretty darn good. the next step(s) are sketchy because i have't got the agenda in front of me but i'm pretty sure it involves one more layer, another day to dry, and then the sanding. there are currently several large fans running at full blast down in the basement to aid in the drying. we have got the paint and trim nailed down and are weeding out the winner from the last few carpet samples we obtained today. more to come.

update - the drywall guys came and left this morning. oh, and they also sprayed the ceiling and applied the knock-down texture today (saturday).

r.i.p, marcy

we could sort of see this coming and she hung on for as long as she could but our beloved (by some) guinea pig, "marcy" passed away sometime last night. i have to say that i was probably the least attached to this pet but it's always sad when someone, or in this case, something passes away. there is a short memorial service scheduled this morning and then she will presumably be laid to rest in the back yard near the garden.

day 5

drywall?...check. i'd say we are officially past the halfway point with the basement now. as you can see the sheet rock is up. another couple days for the mudding, sanding & taping and we'll be ready for the painter. speaking of, for the paint we are leaning towards something called "softened green". and possibly a mocha, cappuccino, or some other coffee themed carpet color. of course that could change without notice so let's just wait a day or two on that. we have not "officially" selected anything yet. either way it should be looking like a real room in the very near future.

July 4 2008...

happy federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, day!

the natural...