I’d guess some of you might be wondering where I’ve been. Busy, in a word, with work and other issues. The most recent tidbit to rear its ugly head is the realization that we have a wasp infestation somewhere in the basement — and it’s in either the walls or the ceiling of what is supposed to be the layout room. That means bad news — the whole basement needs to be ripped out and rebuilt — and good news — the basement can be rebuilt the way I want it!

Right now, there’s a fireplace situated in a corner of the basement. It’s angled, and so it eats up a huge amount of space. I also believe that the area surrounding the fireplace is where the wasps are hiding and that it’s also hiding the water shut-off for the hose-bib on the back of the house. So, that’s where I’ll start demolition.

Our plan is to replace the fireplace with a pellet/wood stove, which will be free-standing, and will allow me to make a smaller chimney chase. That means that the corner will be more useable for layout space (not ideal, but at least useable).

So, now I have to get up the inclination to box everything up and get it stored somewhere, figure out where the money for the renovations will come from, and get to work.