Our Old Basement......

is the total opposite to the new basement.  As I explained yesterday we have two basements due to the fact a family room extension was added to the house in 1974.  Due to the thickness of the original stone walls in the house, they didn't knock through to the extension, so we have two totally separate basements.  

The old basement was an earthen floor, but was concreted over in 1954; they marked the date in the floor.  This is what it looks like when you open the door to the basement.  The stairs are original and its all dusty down there with cobwebs and the odd mouse!!  Dh is wanting to drywall all this area, just to clean it up and make it even brighter.  We however have to do some repair work to the staircase going upstairs as it squeaks like crazy.  So don't want to drywall that yet.

We have done a little bit of work down there as we blocked up two windows and installed two new windows.  We found a little bit of dry rot so that was all torn out and the coal shoots were also blocked up.  We had to get someone in to do all that and that cost us around $5,000.  Which in a way sucks as it's work other than the windows you don't see or honestly appreciate.  It has however made a huge difference, as the old windows were blocked up with insulation as they were that old and drafty.  So now we have daylight in there.  Plus it was mouse central down there and we had the holes blocked up so they can't get it..........mind you they are still getting in somewhere, we now think under the front deck.

I am in the process of cleaning up this side of the basement.  Nearly all those boxes that you can see is Christmas decorations.  Would you believe I had a huge clean out a few years ago and donated a big pile of Christmas stuff.  I need to go through it all and see if I can get rid of more.  That is the water softener in the back of the photo, by the window.  My old washer and dryer is still down there.  I am planning on putting an ad on Kijiji and getting rid of them by advertising them for free.  They are as old as the hills but work fine.

This is the other side of the basement and that is the oil furnace.  To the right of the furnace just outside of the photo is our oil tank.  I hate going on this side as it's icky.  I would love to whitewash all the walls as that would brighten up the whole basement.  One thing though the basement is dry and does not smell musty, partly because we have a dehumidifier going down there most of the time.  It has made a huge difference and well worth the investment.

I made a start on the baby quilt over the weekend and have got a lot of it cut out.  I decided to do make a Double Four Patch pattern.  Don't know why as I will be cursing it up and down trying to get all my corners matched!!!

I have to have this completed by the middle of March, so need to get on with it.

Grotty Start to Tuesday.......

We spent part of the morning down the old basement, connecting the water pipes from the new laundry room to the rest of the plumbing in the old basement.  To do that dh had to get into "the hole!"


Many moons ago, there was a large concrete/stone container built to store water in the basement.  It has no top on it, and over the years people have just thrown their building garbage in there.  When we moved in, dh got a lot of it out, but there was still a lot more.  So we spend a couple of hours cleaning more out.  I also removed all the old duct work that was laying in there from last year, and put it all in a big pile outside the garage and called "K" to pick it up.  He sells the scrap metal for "beer money."


By the time we had done all that we were filthy, sweating and just feeling grotty.  Good news though we do have water to the new basement, and once dh does all the electrics we can use the new washer and dryer.  I don't think that will happen though much before the end of the month.

So after having a shower and lunch, we then headed out to downtown Toronto.  We picked up my dress for the wedding, and it was a perfect fit.  So my plan for not losing weight worked!!!  LOL

We then headed to Yorkdale shopping mall, it's been a long time since we have been there.  I got to look around Pottery Barn and bought four small bowls that were on sale.  I also looked around Crate and Barrel for the first time and bought a ceramic 9 inch square baking dish which is the perfect size for the toaster oven.  Would have loved to look around more, but we were scheduled to have dinner at the wedding venue for 6pm with dd and fiance and his parents.

The meal was so good and we were stuffed by the time we ate it all.  I had the vegetarian option to try it out and so we all knew what it was, and I think I am going to stick with it for the actual wedding day. So we were really pleased with what dd and fiance had chosen.

So all in all a good day despite the dirty sweaty start to it all........

Now due to the busy day we had, I was not able to pop by your blogs, hopefully on Wednesday night I may get time.  However both Wednesday and Thursday I have a lot to do.......