Sage

One of the goals I set for myself in 2017 was to “make the basement less scary.” I then proceeded to do nothing in the basement for about 10 months. But as I mentioned in our report-back on 2017 goals, I did eventually get my act together and make a little progress — I just haven’t blogged about it yet. If improvement happens in the home but it isn’t shared on the internet, is it even real?

Fortunately for you, today I’m finally sharing a bit about what I’ve been up to. I’ll need a few posts to cover everything, so today I’m starting with the big reorganization I did and then some of the smaller subsequent functional improvements I’ve made as a result.

As you may recall, our basement is essentially organized into four quadrants. When you come down the stairs, to your left is the smallest area, which is where our furnace is plus a really random assortment of other things: my table saw, our cats’ litter boxes, a workbench the seller left behind, and some storage.

If you turn to the right of the stairs instead, you enter our home gym. We’ve done a lot of work in this space — it started out like this when we moved in:

And now it looks like this:

One you’ve walked through the gym, you get to the area that I’ve turned into my workshop. It used to look like this:

And then my dad built me an amazing giant workbench and I added some shelving.

Then next to that is the last quadrant, which is where our washer and dryer are, plus our extra fridge (came with the house) and utility sink. Here’s what it looked like when we moved in (the seller left all that stuff behind), and we haven’t done much to it except get rid of the gross curtains and bathmat and swap out the seller’s clutter for our own clutter.

At this point you’re probably wondering how this shining gem of a space could possibly be improved. Well don’t get your hopes up because it’s still a semi-finished basement, but the steps I’ve been taking have been increasing its functionality and improving its aesthetics every so slightly — so it’s a start.

First up, ever since I got my workshop set up, it’s been annoying to have my table saw in the exact opposite corner of the basement. Meanwhile, the space across from my workbench has just been a furniture-hoarding zone for things I swear I’m going to fix up and use someday.

I’ve always wanted to clear out this space and move over the old not-nearly-awesome-as-mine workbench the seller left behind plus the table saw Then I would have all my workshop stuff in one corner of the basement, which would be awesome.

So, one weekend afternoon, I did just that. I donated/got rid of a lot of the unused furniture, and only hung onto a few things to store elsewhere in the basement. Then I moved over the table saw and old workbench — and somehow I managed to move those massively heavy things on my own.

Now the workshop corner is looking like this:

The second workbench across from my main one is a great place to store things, which clears up the surface of my big workbench for doing projects.

And then my table saw is right nearby, on the border to the laundry room portion of the basement (because who doesn’t want sawdust flying into their laundry? yes, I do need to work on my ventilation system…).

While I was at it, I added some functionality. First, this is the ideal corner of the basement for my workshop, but there aren’t any good outlets near the workbench — which obviously makes using power tools a pain. I was sick of using an extension cord from the other side of the room, so I snaked an extension cord up through the ceiling joists and dropped it down right above the workbench. Then I mounted a power strip on the center column of the workbench to make accessing the power nice and easy.

Many power strips come with little mounting holes in the back, so first I placed some screws to align with the holes:

Then I drilled a 1″ hole in the top shelf of the workbench to allow the cord of the power strip to exit easily:

And now the workbench has power!

There is also terrible lighting in this quadrant — just a single bare bulb. That’s not ideal when the sun sets at 4:30pm and you’re using tools that can cuts off body parts if you make a mistake. To remedy this safety hazard, I added two light fixtures. Both are plug in, so I didn’t have to worry about hard-wiring them. The first I bought at Home Depot to hang above my main bench — it’s 3′ long with an LED light source that doesn’t require any bulbs (I have some flourescent lights elsewhere in the basement, and I hate dealing with those bulbs), and a pullchain to make it easy to turn on and off.

It’s made to hang on chains (which it comes with) from the ceiling, which makes it really easy to get it at the right height. I just figured out the right measurements to center it above the workbench, put some hooks into the ceiling that I already had on hand (it did not come with hooks), and voila!

It is plenty bright, and a good price at $30. Now I can safely use power tools all night long!

Above the other bench, I hung a light that my dad and stepmom gave me for Solstice. It’s super handy because it has an outlet on it as well, so it essentially adds light and power to that bench.

The other thing I added to this bench is a vice clamp my dad and stepmom gave me. I bolted into into the surface of the bench.

I’m pretty pleased with how functional the space is now. Having an organized shop makes SUCH a difference. At the end of a project when the space is looking like this:

…it’s easy and quick to clean up because everything has a place. For a neurotic DIY lover like me, that’s pretty much the best of all worlds.

So what does the other corner of the basement look like now that the table saw and workbench are gone?

As a reminder, it looked something like this (though I’d already moved the paint cans and hand tools to the workshop):

And now it looks like this:

The furniture items are just a few pieces that we occasionally use or I think we may use down the road (plus one leftover coffee table from reality TV…) — the rest has been cleared from my home, and it feels so good. But you might be thinking: is that a new floor? Why yes, yes it is! And that’s a story for another day.

Here we are in 2018, which means one thing: it’s time to set ourselves some new goals! We’re both goal-oriented individuals in our personal lives, and so we’ve carried this practice over to the blog in the form of sharing and then reporting back on some of the goals in our lives for the year ahead. (If you missed us reflecting on our 2017 goals, feel free to take a peak.)

These posts are great accountability for us, and they also give us a chance to talk to you all in a more structured way about some of the things that are going on in our lives and that are important to us beyond the main topic of this blog. (Recognizing, of course, that there can be nothing more important than home decor.)

So, what are we aiming to do this year, both in our homes and more broadly?

Naomi

This is only my second year setting annual goals. Last year the process worked much better than I expected it to, helping me stay focused on a few things rather than trying to add stuff haphazardly to my life. My day-to-day interests are fickle and I am always interested in the new, shiny thing, even though long-term commitments and progress are what actually make me happy. So my overall goal for this year is to stay focused and double down on the things I know I want to accomplish.

Finish that Novel! And Revise…

My goal was to finish the novel in 2017. While that didn’t happen I did take credit for meeting the goal since my word count by the end of December just about reached my original estimate for the length of the story, 90,000 words. I now estimate that the story will take about 120,000 words to tell (at least in this first draft form, I’ll try to shorten in revisions). So my goals for 2018 are to:

Finish the first draft in April
Do major revisions by the summer
Share with a few trusted readers
Make more revisions based on reader feedback by December

That feels pretty ambitious, but I do think it is achievable. If I keep writing on pace over the next four months, finishing the first draft in April is doable:

And as for the revisions, who knows? I don’t know yet how substantial they will be, or how long it will take me to revise – i.e., will it be faster or slower than writing a first draft? But without goals and timelines I won’t have anything to drive me, so I’m putting a stake in the ground.

Be Engaged

I have learned to be pretty good at saying ‘no’ to things and staying focused on my goals. I make significant time in my life for blogging, writing, and putting in extra hours at work by setting limits on social engagements, family time, and other projects I take on (like causes). Some of that is good, but these other things are important to me, too. It is selfish to go all in on the very me-centric parts. I think I need to re balance. So this year I want to:

Spend more time with friends and family
Spend more time with Brad that doesn’t just involve sitting quietly on the couch while I write (hi, Brad!)
Do a better job staying informed on national/local issues
Support important causes

… all within reason, of course. I’m talking more of a 10% shift in time, rather than a major change. I am hoping I can make more time for these things by being smarter about my time, but I know some of the time will need to come from other priorities. And that’s OK.

Keep a Journal

I have an awful memory. Really bad. Brad spends a significant amount of his time reminding me/trying to convince me that we actually did a particular thing together in our past. I regularly forget how old I am.

But I do want to remember things. I’ve tried keeping a journal in the past but just couldn’t keep it up. It ended up being a book where I wrote 10 page essays about myself about once every two years. This year, I picked up one of those “line a day” journals and I’m going to see if I can make that a daily habit.

[insert very bloggery picture of me looking thoughtful while journaling here…. just kidding]

Of all my goals I am least hopeful about achieving this one, but I’m going to give it a try!

House Progress

Finally, I ~~have to create content for this blog~~ want to do a few things around the house, mainly to continue where the goals left off last year. This year I want to:

Finish the front closet and make the hallway nicer (i.e., rugs, actually hanging art, etc.)
Do the big renovation that we need (re-siding the house, a few other things)
DIY renovation of the kitchen… or at least start it

More to come on those as they hopefully happen!

This coming year, a lot of my focus is on balance and taking care of myself. By that I don’t mean a lot of pampering, I just mean improving some of the basic practices that make life feel a little less frenzied and a little more sustainable. I find that being specific in my goals always helps me be better about achieving them, because it’s easier to know when I’m on track and change course when I’m not.

Here’s some of what is on my list for 2018:

Take care of my mental and physical health
- Rehab right leg — Physical Therapy, stretching
- Exercise 4+ days per week, with at least as much strength-training as cardio
- Weekly therapy
- Meditate once per week
- No more than 40 hours of work per week, no email on nights and weekends
Make a difference in the world
- Remember that helping kids go to college is meaningful
- Pick my cause to engage in deeply
- Show up for other causes once per month
Waste less time doing mindless things
- No facebook for 1 month +
- Play more games
- Read 10 books
Improve the house
- Figure out longer term layout/room use plan
- Year #2 of outside projects

Taking care of my mental and physical health

In past years, it has been easy for me to think that because I run frequently and a lot, I am a healthy person. However, 21 months of a lingering leg injury and feeling pretty down mentally the past year suggest otherwise. I’m really trying to embrace the idea that being healthy doesn’t mean running 5 days a week and beating my marathon PR…it means valuing the “less intense” work like stretching, doing Physical Therapy, ensuring that if I want to run my whole body is strong enough to do so without getting hurt, introducing mindfulness practices, going to therapy, containing the role and reach of work in my life, and more than anything recognizing the connections between mental and physical health.

Making a difference in the world

As I reflected on in my 2017 goals report-out, this is one area I felt really bad about last year. This year, I think I need to approach it differently. First, I need to recognize and give myself credit for the fact that I spend a good chunk of my life trying to make the world a better place by virtue of the career path I’ve chosen. It’s not about patting myself on the back and being self-congratulatory, it’s just recognizing that I am contributing in ways that I care about each day when I go to work and I need to remember that when I’m castigating myself for never doing enough.

That said, I do feel like I need to pick a cause to focus on beyond my job. It is easy to get overwhelmed by how many pressing issues there are, and I’ve found that to be paralyzing. I need to remember that one person cannot do it all, but each of us bringing our energy to the areas we’re most passionate about can do amazing things. And lastly, that idea requires that other people do show up to lend a hand on issues that aren’t their passion project — like making calls, attending meetings/rallies, making financial contributions, etc. Last year I said I wanted to do something every day — that quickly proved to be untenable, and so I gave up and went into a shame spiral. This year I want to set a more reasonable goal of showing up for a cause that isn’t mine once per month. That’s not a lot — that’s 12 things per year. But that’s a lot more than no things per year because I was too busy sitting at home feeling bad.

Waste less time doing mindless things

For as busy as I feel, I actually have a lot of free time. I spend about 130 hours a week meeting the basic responsibilities of life (10pm to 8am tied up with sleeping and bedtime/morning routines, 8am – 7pm on weekdays tied up with commuting and working, 5 hours per week spent on physical health). That theoretically leaves 38 hours per week of free time.

I spend a good chunk of that time working on my house and writing this blog. I like that. I spend time with friends and family. I like that too. I spend some of that time meeting my basic household management responsibilities, like our finances. I don’t mind that and it’s necessary. I also spend a lot of time watching TV and messing around on the internet. Some of that is important downtime, but I don’t think I derive a proportional amount of satisfaction doing these mindless things compared to how much time I’m spending doing them…and I have the suspicion that if I cut down that time, I wouldn’t miss it and I’d feel much happier having time to do more things like read a book, spend quality time with others, call my senators, etc.

I’ve decided to take just a few concrete first steps. The first was to uninstall the facebook app on my phone. Facebook can be a nice way to stay connected to far-flung friends and family, but I spend a lot of mindless time scrolling through facebook doing things that at best add nothing to my life (like reading Buzzfeed articles) and at worst make me feel bad (like reading clickbait inflammatory news articles when I would be more informed by just going directly to a few good news sources for 15 minutes a day). So I’m just removing the temptation in an effort to reset what I do when I have an idle few minutes (why not just open my kindle app on my phone instead?).

I’d also like to do something like a weekly game night where we play one of the million board games we own instead of our default go-to of watching TV or a movie (which is so easy to turn to when you’re exhausted), as well as more often turning to a book to entertain me rather than my computer/phone. I’m not going to go off on some deep reflection about modern technology’s impact on our lives, I just want to take a few small steps to shrink its footprint in my life right now.

Improving the house

Yeesh this post is getting long, and I’m only just now getting to the home improvement part of things. I’ll keep this short, since it’s what will actually get most coverage on the blog this year. Basically we’ve gotten to the point where we need to figure out if this is the longer term house for us (and if so, what do we need to do like add a second bathroom, switch the usage of various rooms to make it work for kiddos, etc). Also once spring/summer return, I’ll resume our outdoor work, focusing on the Year 2 projects we identified in our 5-year outdoor improvement plan.

So that’s some of what we’re setting out to do in the year ahead. When we reflected on our 2017 goals, a number of readers commented to say they weren’t big goal-setters but might give it a try this year. We’d love to hear what you’re thinking about for 2018!