During freshman year’s spring break, my family started to finish the basement of our basement. Although I always thought having a finished basement was nice as it would allow for another area to live in, I never planned on manually working on it myself. Being part of a family that is quite handy, though, I should not have been too surprised.

In the beginning planning phase, I was involved with planning out lighting fixtures. Figuring out their placement, quantity, light type, and figuring out how to group them to the switchboards proved to be a more time-consuming task than I initially thought. Through hour-long talks with the family, we found a solid plan. I then secured the wires to the framing of the walls and also installed the boxes for the power outlets and the switches.

Although I thought I would eventually get faster, I always did everything at the same pace. As I continued I realized that enjoyed taking my time measuring and perfecting everything while listening to my podcast. Whenever I was working in the basement so would the rest of the family. We would take breaks in between and have dance and coffee breaks. It was just a time to hang out with the rest of the family. Because of this, the project just kept getting dragged out. And with time, we got busier and busier.

As of now the walls are painted, the electric work is done, and the speaker is set up. However, the flooring is yet to be installed and there is an absence of furniture. I still go down to watch movies and talk with my family despite this because I still really treasure the time and effort that we all put into the basement. Maybe it will be done next year, or maybe not. Either way, it will still be used plenty.