One thing I did not count on when we decided to finish our basement was how it was going to affect every single room in the rest of the house. Now that some of the furniture is going downstairs, and all the toys, we find every other room is now looking empty, or shabby, or both.

And we’re also having to reorganize spaces we didn’t think much about during the finishing part. For the past few weeks we have stopped work on the “finished” area of the basement to look at the “unfinished” sections, parts I kind of thought, due to their “unfinished” name, would not require any work at all.

WRONG!

First, we pulled everything out of our storage room. Remember what it looked like before?

Here’s what it looks like now:

I am SO SO SO HAPPY about this. Yesterday I went down there just to do a little happy dance in the middle of the room. Sir Monkeypants worked really hard – and, I have to add, with help from all three kids with minimal complaining – to build these shelves. Then I worked really hard to organize stuff and put it all in bins and put it gleefully on shelves.

And what’s that hiding in the corner?

Why, it’s a beer fridge! Also home to vast amounts of watermelon when we are on soccer snack duty, and an ice cream cake in the freezer. I brought home the ice cream cake yesterday as a sample from Icy Cool Creations, which I will be writing about next month for SavvyMom, and while the kids were playing outside Sir Monkeypants and I tried a piece, and then we very quickly decided that the children DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.

Hidden ice cream cake makes beer fridges the BEST THING EVER, don’t you think?

(Warning about beer fridges: measure before buying. We assumed it would go down our stairs because if it can fit through the front door, it can fit through any door, right? Turns out it BARELY squeaked through the door to the basement – and then we had to take off the handrail to get it down. Guess I no longer have the right to mock my littlest sister for buying a couch that she couldn’t get down her basement stairs. DOH.)

Once the storage room was done, I turned my attention to the work room across the hall. I wish I had a before picture to show you here, but try to imagine 10 years worth of tools and supplies and furniture and random boxes of junk being thrown in here. Every time we had to look for a tool or a container of screws or picture hanging wire or painters’ tape, we’d have to dig through piles of bins and tool boxes and the foot-high thick layer of stuff on the work bench, and half the time we couldn’t find what we needed and had to buy more anyway.

Plus, we did not think ahead very well and while building the shelves for the storage room, every single thing in the work room got covered in an inch-thick layer of sawdust. OOPS.

So I spent the past week vacuuming, wiping, and rinsing off every single thing in the work room, and then I sorted everything, and then I put everything in little containers, and then I LABELLED THEM:

I have to say, sorting stuff and then labelling it is my nirvana. It’s like, better than chocolate. POSSIBLY even better than secret ice cream cake.

And definitely, definitely, happy dance worthy. Did you know I can actually go into the work room and the storage room now in BARE FEET? And then FIND STUFF? It’s like it’s not even my house.

Next up: we return our focus to the finished space and hope to actually start moving in some furniture soon, then it’s time to get all the toys, books, and video games in the house down there. Hopefully before September, but you know – that ice cream cake isn’t going to eat itself.

Woody Allen was once asked what era he’d wish he’d been born in, and he famously answered, “No time before the invention of antibiotics.” While I would add indoor plumbing, modern refrigeration, and President’s Choice products to the must-have list, I think my official short answer to this question is now, “No time before the invention of YouTube.”

Seriously, search for any question, issue, or problem you are having, and ba-bam!, there’s a video to help you out. Today we had a two hour power outage in our neighbourhood, and I had to get the van out of the garage to go to the library, and YouTube talked me through how to manually override the garage door opener. Then, a few hours later, it showed me the secret flick-trick to getting it to re-set and re-engage when the power came on.

In the past month I’ve used YouTube to learn how to clean a virus off my PC, how to diagnose problems with the furnace, and how to make a fleece poncho for Girl Guide camp. I’ve also watched the video for “Let It Go” from Frozen about a hundred times, used it to teach myself the entire “You Can’t Handle The Truth” speech from A Few Good Men, and showed the kids all the family-friendly parts of Pitch Perfect.

Speaking of which, I LOVED IT – Pitch Perfect, that is. I watched it this week and it was like a bullet to the mushy-gushy part of my heart. As usual I am, what, two years behind the pop culture scene? But I don’t care. I put it on my Pinterest wish list, so I can watch it over and over, along with my other Girl Power guilty pleasure movies, Coyote Ugly and Step Up 2: The Streets.

Taking names and kicking ass, I say.

Just about the only thing YouTube cannot solve for me is our ongoing problem with sugar ants. They are EVERYWHERE, every year. The buggers cannot be killed, cannot be stopped, cannot be discouraged. I’ve taken to leaving the dead bodies of their brethren around as a threat but as the Captain noted today, they do not seem to be very smart as they just shrug their shoulders at the dead bodies and go merrily on their way anyway, only to be squished, or given poison to cheerfully take home and feed their babies. Candidates for extras in the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, for sure – and yet, the hordes are still flowing so I guess they are doing something right.

Maybe they’ve been watching apocalypse survival videos on YouTube.

I was shopping for greeting cards this week and every time I do, I am reminded of my sister Fame Throwa’s brilliant idea for a line of greeting cards that are polite and respectful but not emotional. There is a real need for this product, I think, as there are occasions when you are required to send a card but you don’t actually know the person very well and so most of the Hallmark-style stuff out there just isn’t appropriate.

Like, say you have a distant grandparent that you have only met a few times, and your mother expects you to send them a birthday card, and it’s no trouble really to get such a card and sign it. But every card is either TOTES HILARIOUS – age jokes! Pictures of men in butt-less chaps! Chimpanzees wearing sunglasses! – and that’s not appropriate given that you hardly know the woman, or they are super gushing (“Grandmother – So often we don’t take the time to share how we really feel…thank you for all the sacrifices you have made…you influence my life on a daily basis.”). NO. When you open a card and there’s a “poem” on the left hand side as well as a “heartfelt message” in scripty pink writing on the right, you know you’re in trouble.

What I want is a nice line of cards that say, “Have a great birthday” or a generic “Hope you have a very nice father’s day” or “Sending you fond Christmas wishes” that aren’t addressed to any specific person (like “Mother” or “Pop-pop” or “To my only brother, from his little sister”). A pretty picture, maybe some sparkle, a clean, unsentimental, non-jokey message inside.

Is that too much to ask? SHEESH.

In other awkward social interaction news, I was out shopping for an item this week at the Bulk Barn, and a very nice lady warned me that I could get said item at the Giant Tiger for less. This item was only $12 at the Bulk Barn, so we’re not taking hundreds of dollars of savings here, and the Giant Tiger is clear across town, and I wasn’t going anywhere near that in the near future. So I definitely wanted to just get the thing at the Bulk Barn, but she was really warming to her topic, about how things are so much cheaper elsewhere and she doesn’t understand how they can charge so much and she has it all figured out, and I should take my business elsewhere. So then I felt really weird about just going and buying the thing anyway, like I was going to look like a total idiot for deliberately paying a higher price.

So I ended up not buying it, and doing some other errands, and then going back and getting it later on.

I think this is a clear example of how my desire to please and/or fear of confrontation and/or over concern about being polite has gotten out of control. I just can never find the quick-wit to breezily say, “Oh, I’m in a rush today, but I’ll keep it in mind for next time!” and then be on my merry way. WOULD THAT BE SO HARD, brain?

SHEESH.

You can tell it’s getting around to the end of the school year when the kids’ packed lunches start to smell of despair. At the beginning of the year I’m all cheerful about chopping fruit into fun shapes, and putting together creative sandwiches, and baking unique (and allergy safe!) treats.

But after months of the same food leaving in the morning, then coming back home again, and then me eating all of it, I start to wonder why I bother. I remember when the Captain was in JK and I was on the school council, and he never ate any part of his snack, and the Council president remarked that her grade-three boys were always starving and begging for her to pack more food for them, and I thought, “Oh, someday!”

And I’m still waiting.

I can’t even complain too much, because both Sir Monkeypants and I were legendary lunch-non-eaters in our day. I came home for lunch until grade 5, but in grade 6 I had to start taking my lunch. I’m sure for the next four years at least, a fruit or vegetable never crossed my lips, and since my lunch was all packed in disposable stuff – fold-top sandwich bags and brown paper lunch bags – I was able to easily hide the evidence in the school’s garbage bins. I’m sure the amount of celery sticks and carefully pre-peeled oranges I threw away could have solved the world’s hunger problem. Basically, I’d drink the drink, eat the cookies, perhaps take a few bites of sandwich if I was really starving, and that was it.

And now, payback, as I’m sure my mother laughs at me with a happy sense of justice. Since I use flip-top plastic boxes for the kids lunches, it all comes back to me, and I get to see their own drink-and-cookies-only lunches in full technicolor. By June I’m ready to give up, and usually throw in a Kool Aid Jammer, some chips, a fruit roll up, a granola bar for the “healthy” part, and call it done.

Summer really can’t get here fast enough.

My latest column for Capital Parent is up on their blog – go and read it over here. That’s a photo of two-year-old Captain Jelly Belly at the top – I practically bawl just looking at it. MY BABIES, SNIFF.

Our basement is coming along, to the point where if you saw these pictures, you might actually think it’s finished, or close to it. I thought so, but then I started to make a list of all the things we still need to do down there, and it got really, really, really long, so I stopped and went and had a box of cookies to calm me down.

But at least there is progress!

Here’s the little nook at the bottom of the stairs, hopefully one day to be full of bookcases:

The stairs and hallway:

The built-in nook in the hallway, with IKEA shelves installed:

Sharp eyed viewers will notice, in that last picture, that there are identical IKEA shelves in the background, in the main room. Here’s why: when we got all the flooring done and in, and then went to slide in our lovely IKEA Expedit shelves, they DID NOT FIT. They were too tall and too wide by like, a quarter of an inch, and we possibly could have wailed on them and pounded them in there, but it definitely would have damaged the wall, wall that we had just spent hours and hours repairing and painting.

But it had a happy ending in that IKEA has discontinued the Expedit shelves because they have introduced a replacement, the Kallax system. Kallax looks almost EXACTLY like Expedit except it happens to be about a half inch smaller all around. I’d call that unbelievably lucky, like to the point of complete improbability, but whatever – WE’LL TAKE IT.

So we went out and got some Kallax shelves and slid them easily into place (a little too easily, now there is a bit of a gap but WE’LL TAKE IT, DAMMIT). And thus, we have a nice set of Expedit shelves leftover. Not sure what we’ll be doing with those at the moment but there you have it.

Here’s a couple shots of the main, big area:

Looks pretty good, no? Sir Monkeypants has been working hard. But as pretty as it is right now, there’s still lots to do, including:

• painting – the window wells, window trim, and doors to the work room and storage room still need to be painted; the baseboards need to be repaired and touched up where they were nailed in.
• cabling – need to run wires for the TV and Internet and phone
• storage – we need to buy, assemble, and install several bookshelves, wardrobes for toy storage, and a TV/entertainment unit, at a bare minimum
• curtains – need to cover the windows with something
• work room – needs to be cleaned out and organized
• storage room – needs to be emptied, shelves built, then stuff put back in there

We’ve been stalled for a couple of weeks now, trying to figure out our next step, but I think we have made a decision – we’ll try to get the storage room done next, so we can get everything that goes in there put away properly. Here’s what it looks like now, and I think you’ll agree it should be a bit of a priority, considering I almost kill myself every time I go in there to find sports equipment/camping gear/gift boxes/extra kitchen appliances, and Christmas IS coming, and Lord only knows where the decorations are hiding.

This means that all the lovely empty, clean space of the finished area is about to get full of every box and crate and leftover bit of furniture we own, and it’ll stay heaped like that until we can get shelves built into the storage room.

But they say it has to get worse before it can get better, right? SIGH.

Yesterday I was listening to an interview on CBC of Farley Mowat, by Shelagh Rogers. He was what people call a character, because he obviously did not care one whit what people thought of him, and as such half of what he said was pure poetry, and the other half was outrageous to the point of scandal.

But what struck me most of all is that every single thing that came out of his mouth was just so definitive. He knew who he was, and he had his own worldview totally figured out, and he stated it with absolute confidence. Things that he wasn’t interested in did not concern him. Things that he was interested in, he knew. He just knew. He wasn’t being a blowhard or a know-it-all or an obnoxious douche – rather, he was really charming and smart and convincing and even sensible. But most of all, he was just…sure of himself.

I used to be like that back as a teenager – didn’t we all? There was a time when I knew the truth, the way the world worked, the way things needed to be changed and the ways they needed to stay the same. But the older I got, the more I wondered. The more I saw other points of view, and they seemed valid, too. The more I found myself seeing all sides to every issue, to sympathizing with everything.

To the point where now, I feel like maybe I’m not so sure about anything.

I mean, I have my values, sure. And I know what I want for myself, for my kids, for my community, for this world. But the ground is shifty. Anything can happen – new data, new experiences, meeting a random, well-spoken stranger – that could change my point of view. And I’m open to that. Is that a problem?

It sure would feel good, every now and again, to be as certain as Farley. To feel like this is how it is. Not to be belligerent or closed-minded or rude, but just to be sure. To speak with authority on a subject, with real weight behind it. To know, really know, from my own personal experience, what to expect. How things are, and how they are going to be.

I’m thinking – since Farley was in his 80s during this interview – that maybe this is something that cycles back in time. That it’s a bell curve of uncertainty, starting low as a kid, rising to a peak in our mid-life-crisis years, then dipping back down as we reach the age of no longer giving a heck what the other guy thinks. Maybe I just need to give it time.

Or maybe not. I’m not sure. Maybe that only comes with being a character.

It’s spring, which means it’s pool building season around here. I live on a long street – at least 120 homes – and it has a lot of bigger houses on bigger lots, which means pools are a dime a dozen around here. Seriously, I do not think I am exaggerating at all when I say there are at least 40 pools on our street alone, which can be very disorienting in the summer, feeling like we have been transplanted to California. With the coming of this spring, there’s already a half dozen big trucks on the street all day long, and the sound of the digging and concrete pouring and tile scraping of another couple new pools going in.

I used to think we would never want a pool, because I was not interested in all in the upkeep. Although I do think I work hard, home maintenance is not my forte, and outdoor home maintenance is even lower on my priority list. But then, a couple of years back, our back yard got into such a terrible state, with bare patches and prickly weeds and dandelions (see: lack of interest in outdoor maintenance), that we actually started to think about putting in a pool just so we could eliminate the grass. Plus, MyFriendJen down the street got a pool, and her kids went from casual swimmers to Michael-Phelps-style SuperFish in just one season, and that was pretty darn compelling.

Last year we actually got to the point where we were really, seriously, going to do it, but then the kids begged us to keep the swing set that takes up at least half the available backyard space, and then the Basement Budget Suck event happened, so it’s not happening any time soon. But that’s okay, because I’m not sure I want one really, anyway – it would be wonderful in the summer, but how would the kids play outside in the winter? Where would we put the vegetable garden? Would we ever have the funds to take another family vacation, or would the backyard become our vacation?

So I’m curious: do you have a pool? Do you love it, or regret it? Do your kids have enough backyard play space, especially in winter, with the pool there? Are your kids totally awesome swimmers now? I am wondering.

You can tell it’s May around here, because suddenly the calendar is full from morning until night, booked solid with activities, to the point where we can barely breathe. I keep wanting to yell at the world, these amusing incidents are not going to blog themselves but before I get to the end of the sentence, someone else needs to go somewhere or something else needs doing, and I’m off and running again.

Here’s the most important thing from this week: I’m going to be on TV! I’ll be representing SavvyMom.ca on Our Ottawa, which is a CBC program shown locally in the Ottawa area. It airs on the local CBC channel at 6 a.m. Saturday, then is repeated at 11 a.m. Sunday and again at 11 a.m. Monday. I’ll be talking about Mother’s Day activities around town, and showcasing some of the Mother’s Day crafts featured this week on the SavvyMom site and on their pinboard.

(Side plug for SavvyMom: I’m the SavvyMom.ca Ottawa Correspondent, which means I write the headline articles for the Ottawa section of their website and for the e-newsletter that goes out weekly to a few thousand Ottawa-area homes. You can sign up to get the newsletter on their website – and I’m always on the lookout for great businesses or events in Ottawa that parents would want to know about. Just drop me a line.)

I’ve already taped my segment, and the best part was that there was a makeup lady on site, and in about three minutes she made me look about 20 years younger. Makeup – WHO KNEW? I want to hire her to come live with me and do my makeup daily.

I kid, though – the best BEST part was meeting the host of the show, Lucy van Oldenbarneveld. She’s the CBC news anchor here in Ottawa and I managed to hold it together for most of the taping of the show even though I was sitting right next to LUCY VAN OLDENBARNEVELD. At the end I confessed my super fangirl-dom and had this photo taken:

She is every bit as fabulous and delightful and interesting in person as you might imagine. SERIOUSLY. FABULOUS.

The TV spot could not have come at a better time (despite the bursting at its seams schedule, which saw me running to Michaels for craft supplies on Tuesday afternoon, then engaging the girls in a three-hour crafting marathon squeezed in between piano lessons, to prep the props for the next morning). That’s because I’m off, in about 10 minutes, to give a talk to Little Miss Sunshine’s class entitled, “What I do for a Living.” Her teacher asked parents if they would be willing to come in and talk about their jobs, and so the Little Miss and I had this conversation:

Her: Will you come into my class and talk about your job?

Me: Do you even know what I do?

Her: You sit at the computer all day and do blogging.

Me: Hm, pretty close. Why don’t you ask your dad?

Her: He will be busy working.

Me: And I will be…? Nevermind.

Her: So will you?

Me: I guess so.

And so, I am off to try to make “blogging” and “website design” sound super cool and awesome. I really, really hope no firemen or policemen show up. At least I have Lucy van Oldenbarneveld in my back pocket – that’s sure to impress a bunch of Grade 1 kids, don’t you think?