S(heat)rock Weekend

Lot's done last week. Not only did we move in, we got tons done on the basement. Of course, it helps when you have someone (else) working everyday on the place, as Scotty was able to do. Even Frankie came by for a couple days during the week to help out!

AND, SBC finally made it to hook up our phone and actually knocked on our door this time! Wonder of wonders! As Jen said, sometimes being a you-know-what can get things accomplished! So now we have phone and DSL! Long live the blog!

And although there were some occasional occupational hazards (see image on right when Scottie sprung a leak) along the way, we managed to avoid any major catasrophes.

Perhaps the most newsworthy item in Chicago this weekend was the convergence of music. Grant Park hosted Lollapolooza downtown, and the Vans Warped tour was intown as well, all while the city reached near-record highs of 103 degrees on Sunday! We managed to beat out most of the US in temps. I think only Death Valley was hotter (129 degrees).

Of course, working in a basement provided a perfect excuse to beat the heat! It was relatively cool considering we had fans blowing air and drywall dust out the windows and door. It was so humid out that our heating ducts looked like water pipes!

Once the dust from Scotty's sanding started flying up though, it congealed into a nice sticky paste. That's okay.. Extra insulation for the future, jay says! :-)

Well, after many long hours, much more than expected, we have a ready-to-paint basement including new stairs (which Jay had been avoiding for some time, but thankfully Frankie came up with some clever solutions).

You can see how we have a small niche under the stairs. This could be a perfect spot for an eventual built in shelving / storage, or a little desk. Jay quickly ran an electrical outlet there in case we need it later. On the backside of this niche is a closet for the "bright room" (so-named due the light that floods it from 10 am - 2 pm in the new glass block window Kenny helped install). We also had a few glass blocks left over, so we put them in the wall of the stairway landing to bring light back and forth between the "bright room" and the stairs. Plus, can you ever have too many interior windows? (joke).

We'll add a photo album later once Jen has a chance to put it together... Jay is photoshop-ignorant. :-)