We've been framed! Er... I mean, framING.

Much like our favorite baseball team, we've been spending a lot of time in the basement (yuk yuk yuk). Also much like our favorite baseball team, we've been giving it a half-assed effort ("But I was using my WHOLE ass!")

So, you may remember the wall by the hot water tank. We FINALLY completed all of the demo, and we now have an opening into which the door to the workshop will eventually go:



We also added a couple more walls, or at least, the skeleton of such:



I suppose that's technically three walls. Would you believe the smallest of those walls took the most time? Those bloody tapcons were nearly impossible to get working there. On the plus side, I learned a lot about how to make the tapcons work properly, but on the down side, my repetoire of swear words didn't seem nearly broad enough. I'll have to work on that.

Speaking of swearing, I'm pleased to announce a new feature here on the blog:

The Injury Report!

To bring you up to date:

So far, the War Department hasn't gained any injury beyond a couple of bruises suffered when she walked into something or other, and a couple of minor splinters.

I, on the other hand, am a walking litany of abuse. So far, I can chalk up the following (in addition to the usual cuts, scrapes, abrasions, contusions, and other minor incidents that probably won't leave scars):

• A 3-inch scratch on the underside of my right arm, obtained by keeping a sharpened length of wire coat hanger in the right-side pouch of my tool belt. (It's actually a very handy little tool for measuring the depth of the tapcon pilot holes.) I don't keep it there anymore, but I admit that I had to figure that out the hard way.



• While attempting to break up a stubborn piece of aggregate in the way of my masonry bit, I smashed my left index finger with the hammer. I blame my friend Clamb, who was the one who suggested that I use that particular method of breaking up the aggregate. Stupid Clamb!



• The aforementioned nail in the eye. Fun!



• This:




That, in case you were wondering, is a nice little burn in the shape of a masonry bit. See, I was drilling some holes for the tapcon, and hit what I thought was yet another piece of aggregate. So I tried drilling through it - didn't work, so I moved on to the next hole. What I failed to notice was that the tip of the masonry bit had ground down, and wasn't working at all anymore. So, after spinning it uselessly in the hole for a while, I pulled it out and went to change the bit. While I was wrestling with the chuck key, however, the bit touched my hand for a split second. Hence, the fancy burn with the cool pattern.

Fortunately, I have plenty of cooling salve (beer). Oh, and the new bit finished the holes nicely, so no worries and no more smashed fingers.

This has been the premier edition of the OurBasementReno Injury Report. If this were a sports betting pool, and you were betting on who was going to be the most whole at the end of the reno, I'd be putting everything I have on the War Department.

Just saying...