I swear I don't believe in Murphy's Law

With the kids at Hotel Happiness (read the Grandparents), Jay and I thought we'd have time to keep plugging away at the basement and perhaps do something fun. I managed to spoil the fun with my latest project.

You all know this is a WTF house. Let me explain the room in question. The kids' rooms were previously one room used by Jo Lydia Craven as her studio. We divided the room as it originally was since my 8 year old son and almost 11 year old daughter needed separate rooms. One of the previous owners had installed fixed plywood shelves in the closet on Allison's side for drying pottery.

For Allison's birthday next week, I wanted to rip out the plywood shelving from her closet and install some more functional shelving and a clothes rod for her. By this point, we should be pretty adept at tearing out someone else's handy work. This closet was a toughie. The plywood was supported by pressure-treated 2x4's attached to the walls with roofing nails. You know those little bastards with the grooves on them to keep your shingles from flying away. Not only did we unintentionally demolish the drywall, we also discovered mold behind the shelves, presumably from wet pottery. The whole project just got infinitely more complex. We waited for a break in the rain to run into town to get some sheetrock.

Then we ran into all this crazy wiring that at the very least is consistent with the rest of the house. We've probably removed 50 feet of unnecessary or otherwise unidentifiably functional wiring from the basement alone. Some of the wiring is for an elaborate driveway alarm system which included at least 4 alarms, perhaps more.

Jay was able to remove said wiring without lighting himself up, and now I'm left with patches of wall paper peeking through the paint. That's a whole other story. The entire house is painted over wall paper.

As I write, I am waiting for the second coat of mud to dry so that I can prime, paint and install the new shelving before Friday morning when I am scheduled to leave to get the kids in TN. Jay is a saint considering he woke up at 4:30 am today to sand and apply the second coat of mud before going to work. He is off the hook for part 2 of the birthday surprise: building a loft bed. Allison will just get an IOU for that. Tonight, Jay gets Tandoori Chicken and a nice red.