When will I learn?

I remember back to a Colby High School Health Class when we learned about middle- aged men and the mid-life crisis. Although I’m in my late 20s, I think I’ve rapidly aged to the point where I’ve experienced a midlife crisis during homeownership. Our house is a bi-level and has a lot of wood trim and doors that were installed when the home was updated circa 2013.

Well, my wife and I decided it’d be a good idea to do something different with the basement of our bi-level home. Enter the mid-life crisis. We had been wanting to do this for awhile now but our procrastination got the best of us.

We decided the most opportune time to paint the trim was after we just had new carpet put in our basement. There’s mistake number one.

We got to work three weeks ago tearing out the trim and unhinging the doors so we could take them out to the garage to be sanded and painted. I had late nights of prying trim off. Sometimes, that would be coupled with a slip of the pry bar and a nice little expletive muttered under my breath. Once we had it all out in the garage, we underestimated how much sanding we’d have to do.

Thankfully, one of our friends got us an orbital sander for our wedding and that really came in handy during this project. Shout out to the Vance family.

Through wrist cramps and dry hands, we got all the trim sanded down, primed and then painted. Of course, we had very nice weather mixed with some cold days so the times we could go out and paint were numbered. However, my wife who did a majority of the painting, went out whenever she could to paint. Before leaving for a social function or before a late shift at work, she’d be out in the garage putting a coat of primer or paint on.

As we put the trim back together and brought it inside, we realized the trim would never look the same. The pieces I had broken needed to be re-cut. My local hardware store had a deal so I got two Milwaukee batteries for my sander and got a circular saw for free. (It seems like a good deal on paper but when you’re spending $250 on batteries, how good of a deal is it actually).

We decided to leave the door frames in place and we slid painter’s tape under the frame and above the carpet. Yes, we like living on the edge. After the basement has been a mess for about a month now with carpet being installed and now our trim escapade, it’s finally starting to come together and look like a basement again.

We have yet to drip paint on the new carpet and haven’t lost any pieces... knock on freshly painted wood. Now, we’ve just got the doors to do.

Speeding

Through

L

ife