A Blank Slate

Don't you love the feeling you get when life gives you lemons, and you turn around and suckerpunch it right back, with a big ol' glass of fresh lemonade? Well, I do at least.

A few months ago, exactly 20 days after our Wedding day, we were dealt a whole bucketful of lemons. Our 75% finished basement was flooded with a city sewage backup caused by tree roots blocking the city line outside our house. In the wee hours of morning, sewer water crept up through our downstairs shower and proceeded to dump 3 inches of standing water from wall to wall to wall to wall. Luckily our homeowners insurance agent was quick and easy to work with. He topped us out at our max coverage and waived our deductable, since it was obvious to everyone that between the damage to the carpet and walls, our unsalvagable belongings and the cost of hiring a clean up crew, we would easily exhaust our $5000.

The cleanup crew at up about half of our insurance money, and luckily for us most of our belongings we had in the basement were items from Mr. Zs bachelor days, or stuff I didn't need/want upstairs where we spend most of our time. 

For a while it seemed like we bought our house and took 2 steps back, losing the major selling feature of a finished basement. Thankfully, one of our good good friend Adam stepped up and offered to help us restore it, even make it better, than it once was. He said we could pay him in beer. Sa-weet!

This morning the boys showed up bright and early to get started on tearing out the damaged drywall, and rehanging new walls. Adam ran a few options by us, drywall, greemwall, and then the magic words - or wainscoting. Yes please! I love love lurve the beautiful detail that wainscoting adds to any room, and since the main room in the basement already had a picture ledge running all the way around, hanging wainscoting below would be a perfect addition. So it was set, the boys got to work, and boy does it look pretty now!

Aside from simply redoing the walls, most of our old furniture needed to be thrown out because the water rose high enough to saturate the material. Since we aren't the type to go buy a brand new room set, we have been collecting big nice "man chairs" as Mr. Z calls them, from Craigslist, for either free or less than $30 each.

Other than this, the room is a blank slate, ready for me to add a personal touch to it. I'm envisioning a clean and sophisticated, bright Man's Cave. Here are a few photos I've collected. I am so excited to really work on putting this room together a little at a time, and then enjoying a little lemonade as I remember what it once looked like. :)