revisiting the basement

Everyone's been posting resolution type posts as of late, and I'm pleased to report we've already fulfilled all of ours.  You see, after the miserable year we had we vowed to begin our year the day we brought Maugrim home.  The day before Thanksgiving seemed as good a day as any to start fresh, and so far, so good.

leave it to the malamute to find the coldest spot in an already cold house...

That said, after several spectacularly fun get-togethers, the restoration ball is once again rolling (or at least picking up speed).  No sooner did the decorations come down and the tree get dragged to the curb than Mount Trashmore was resurrected in it's corner (to the delight of the puppy), made up of equal parts basement and butler's pantry.  The basement has been near impassible for close to a year, so some attention was long overdue.  While there's not much I can do about my ballooning collection of rusty light fixtures until the third floor's finished, much of what was down there were simply things that needed to be sorted into bins after coming home with us from estate sales and demolitions, and their various cardboard boxes thrown away.

and this is only one basement room of four...

We bought some racks to store our salvaged trim, so once I finish demolishing the "keep out" room, those will go up and we'll be in much better shape down there.  Our pile of doors also finally moved under the stairs where they'll be safely out of the way, unblocking an original basement door that has never been accessible since the first time we looked at the house.  There's also a bike, antique sofa and antique fireplace insert that need to be craigslisted.

two sets of salvaged vestibule doors,
just waiting for the magic day we start the porch

It's easy to forget this began as a fully finished basement -
the Bennington doorknobs are a nice reminder however

I'm still finding odds and ends down there, including the veneer face to what I guess was an antique radio, an antique drying rack (after looking for one to buy since starting the laundry room 3 years ago), and one of the original cistern spigots.  The spigot is embarrassing.  We've been wondering where it might have been since buying the house, as it turns out it was in the middle of everything, winterized under a a box stuffed with insulation.

There are a number of other things in the works, so I just need to get back in the habit of writing.  More to come, hope you all had a lovely New Year.