This will make me sound like an oldster, but I sure am happy it's almost back-to-school time for the kiddos! Call me crazy, but I actually enjoy a peaceful lunch alone during the week without the hoards of teenagers tweeting, instagraming, facebooking, texting and everything else-ING. Is it too much to expect a salad without a side of gossip and gum chewing? While tuning out the prepubescent jibber jabber at the local salad bar today, I tried to tune back into the design job I'm wrapping up this week of a 2,000+ square foot basement complete with two guest rooms, a guest bath, family room, wine room, game room, and gym all with a Nantucket nautical theme (don't ask). While the majority of this new space is camera-ready, the reality of most basements is the reason they were created in the first place; to house the ugly working-bits of the house. While I plan on leaving this home ready for a celebration, preparing it for the dark, bleak moments is also important. I put flashlights in every room, in every house I design and I love attaching magnets to a flashlight and placing it on the electric panel, so if a fuse ever pops, yours won't! Breakers are clearly marked as are water shut-off valves in case of an emergency. Because paint cans tend to fade and turn foul quickly, I put any extra in clear containers and mark exactly what room they came from (if there's a paint color formula on the label, I jot that down too). Sure, the devil is in the details, but preparing for those not so great moments makes life heavenly!
