Too old for his tools?

I'm on my lunch break from finishing the basement this Saturday to allow time for muscles to uncramp, blood from wounds to coagulate and my temperament to reset.

We've put our house up for sale and to improve our chances of a quick (or in the case of this market, not too lengthy) sale, I am finishing what was a partially finished space in our basement. This involves some framing, which I enjoy and drywall work which I do not enjoy. Why do they call it "Drywall" anyway? Anyone who has done drywall knows it requires a lot of wet work as well.

Of course for yours truly it's the pleasure of using my favorite tool, the razor knife, that really does it for me. If I don't manage to nick off an ear or puncture a kidney with the damn thing I'm lucky. This morning it was just a slice on my thumb, next to area of skin I removed with the hammer yesterday. As I write this my thumb throbs in two places.

Still, the pleasure of seeing large expanses of ugly basement wall turn into bright finished surfaces outweighs the potential for bodily harm. This basement had a drop ceiling (which I detest) and it will still have one when I'm done. There is too much work involved to reroute pipes, air conditioning ducts, gas lines and electric wires to do a proper drywalled ceiling. Just not gonna happen. Instead I purchased new tiles, some more ceiling members and will clean up the look of the partial ceiling that now exists.

The house was shown by a local realtor yesterday and the follow up conversation with her was very encouraging. I asked for any negative comments and she said there were none. She stated the house was the nicest one she had shown her clients and they loved it. She also said the wife and her mother liked everything about the place, including the proximity to the wife's work. (less than a 5 minute drive)

The couple went away for the holiday weekend and perhaps we'll hear something next week. In the meantime I will continue to finish the basement. It can't hurt to have it done. If nothing else it should get us a little more money in the initial offer. Keep your fingers crossed that I can do a decent job without a hospital visit and that this couple is our buyers.

The Daily Husband