43) Empty Inside

With Monday came the renewed push aided by an impending deadline and a surprise visitor to get the basement “party ready”. The first step was to drag out the last of what was still in the basement (minus the three massive pews that you decided would be far too difficult to drag out and store somewhere else without getting in the way for three days). There were sheets of unused plywood to contend with along with a large pile of miscellaneous pieces of wood of varying sizes and purpose. Then there was David’s makeshift tool bench… an ugly yet useful former and heavy duty, ruggedly constructed wood shelf that turned on its side with an old piece of plywood screwed over the newly appointed top made a great temporary workstation. Finally there was a plethora of tools… all of David’s tools from nearly two decades working in the trades… along with all the brand new ones bought just for the purpose of making marked improvements to the church…

“What are we starting with?” You wanted to know. You had just put on your nitrile gloves. They glistened with oil at the wrists. They weren’t necessary but the feeling of dust made your skin crawl and so anytime you worked with anything dusty or dirty you’d slather your hands in a thick coat of olive or avocado oil to nourish them before sliding them into the black gloves.

“What are you doing?” She asked. Jackie was horrified.

“Oiling my hands so they don’t dry out while I’m working…”

“You just… they’re in oil all day just sliding around in there?!”

“I mean it sounds fucking disgusting when you say it like that but yeah… pretty much.”

“That’s gross.”

“You yucking my yum?”

“Yup.”

David was used to the whole oil schtick by now. The one time he had questioned it you let him know that things could be way more weird… “I read about how these elderly women in Italy who had picked olives all their lives had skin on their hands like those of a 20 year old… so honestly the fact that I’m not slathering this shit on my face and walking around 24/7 with a BDSM gimp mask on my head should make you pretty thankful…”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” David had asked.

“I don’t like dry skin or dust…”

“Not what I meant…”

“I think that we should get the big things out of here first. I’m going to slide all the wood boards back out the window we brought it in through and did you see that I already disassembled my ‘workbench’ I had over here?”

You hadn’t noticed but sure enough, one more massive thing out of the basement.

“Oh wow… no I didn’t but now I see… this is great! When did you do this?”

“I couldn’t sleep… woke up early and figured that when after an hour of tossing and turning and not being able to go back to bed that my time would be better spent working down here than it would be spent doom scrolling.”

“So what I’m hearing is that I need to start slipping you regular tea instead of decaf at night?“

David rolled his eyes and laughed. “Let’s bring all the wood to the window then I’ll go outside and you just hand me everything ok?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Within no time all of the wood, the large pile of scrap and sample trim, 2x6s, 4x4s, 1x8s, and old shelves were all hauled to the window and then sent outside the window with the ease that trekking through the kitchen and around countertops and the island sink and then the laundry room with the rickety steps could have never afforded you.

Already the space was looking so nice without the giant stack of scrap wood and the massive former shelving unit turned work table in the middle of the space.

Little projects, cans of paint, all painting supplies, an old makeup vanity you were refinishing for your youngest, and more was brought into what would eventually become her room. For now it was a catchall for everything that wasn’t going out to the workshop but couldn’t stay in the basement.

“Quick break before we haul all of the tools out to the workshop?” You said pointing to the rows of neatly arranged tools between two of the basement’s support columns.

“Sure,” David said as he pulled off his work gloves and the two of you went into the kitchen, into the laundry room and through the French doors that led out into the church’s yard. The weather was phenomenal. The sky was clear and bright, a warm sun shone on the neat rows of planters put in by the artists, the former owners. Your freshly planted rhubarb was beginning to take off in the warmer springtime sun.

“It’s a shame,” said David as he passed you one of two freshly rolled J’s before he fished through his jumpsuit’s front pocket for a lighter. Upon finding it he placed the other J in his mouth and pulled with his lips, lighting the lighter with a quick flick of his thumb and a little puff of blue white smoke… “that we’re having this weather now and when your mom gets here next week it’s going to be freezing and rainy…”

He handed you the lighter and you lit your J, “Yeah I know… this weather is perfect, I’m sure she would have loved this but she knows the whole northeast weather routine… at least I’m pretty sure she remembers that… plus I think she’s way more excited to see the kids than she is about getting some decent spring time weather.”

“That’s true….”

There was a long pause while the two of you stood in the sun smoking your joints, staring at the church, and drifting in and out of disparate trains of thought before you interrupted the silence with a long drag and an exciting revelation…

“Do you know what I realized just now thinking about the basement?”

“What’s that?” David asked as he exhaled a wispy cloud of smoke.

“So the basement is just about emptied now… right?”

“Pretty close…”

“Do you realize that the last time anyone saw the basement like this was 131 years ago? We are the only people alive right now, that have ever seen the basement back down to the bare foundation and mostly empty. That wouldn’t have happened since right before the masons started applying the cement and plaster to the walls… and even then they probably had a bunch of tools and mortar down here. Maybe we’re the only ones that have ever seen it nearly empty and down to the stone…”

“Oh wow… you’re right! I didn’t even think of that.”

“It’s strange to me that in 131 years of existence that we can add some ‘firsts’ to the experiences had here.”

“That is nice to be able to add our own new stories to the history of this place…”

“I think the kids box sledding down the stairs and running down to open up Christmas presents last year were probably firsts too…”

“Roller skating and skate boarding in the sanctuary?”

“Maybe…”

“You ready to empty this thing out?“ David said stubbing the end of his joint into the muddy yard before picking it back up to toss in the trash inside. You did the same and handed him your dirty roach.

“Let’s fucking do it…”

Trip by trip the two of you carried out pliers and screwdrivers and a large array of different sized hammers and sledgehammers and prybars. David wouldn’t let you carry too much, your shoulder had really gotten bad as of late, but you did manage to find an empty five gallon bucket and make multiple trips carrying multiple items at once this way (with the use of your right arm).

“That’s smart,” David said when he saw you carefully selecting cumbersome but light tools into the bucket.

“Gotta tick up the brain power when the muscle isn’t muscling…”

“Work smarter not harder…”

“Yup.”

When the two of you had finished the church basement was a cavernous empty space save for the three massive pews. Sometimes the sheer size of the basement was lost on you both, hard to gauge with no references like furniture to base the visual against… but now seeing the three eight foot long benches arranged in a long line with a good four feet in between each one, and still more than enough space to line up least two to three more if you had them, both the scope and scale of this project became apparent.

“Holy. Shit.” You said staring in amazement at the old stone walls and the golden honey oak of the ceiling, “We did this…”

“We’ve come a long way since we started… lot more left but…”

“Shhhhh… let’s just enjoy this for a few minutes before we start listing out everything else we still have to do… “

And the two of you did. You stared at the ceiling, and the stone walls, and the flooring that no longer had massive rotted holes… or sagging sections that dipped and groaned with the littlest bit of weight…. or the nearly 3/4’ gap between the floor and the wall… You admired the freshly repaired ceiling beam that had once been rotted to an oily dust that rained down whenever the kids ran upstairs. You took in the warmth of what had once been cold and generic white painted walls, now covered in a rich deep brown clove color and how they tied in the wood ceilings to the space.

“Ok…” you said after you couldn’t smile any bigger or take in any more of what the two of you had done or else you might just start crying and get all emotional… you didn’t have time for that now… you had a party to get ready for… the first party in your newly renovated chouse…

“You ready to put together that list of shit we still need to do before this birthday party and my mom comes…?”

“Of course you tell me now after I brought that 1 by 10 by 10 foot long board back outside…”

“Stop it…” you laughed… half the joke was knowing that David was only half joking. The other half was how much work you still had to do… from now until forever… and that that was ok with you both.

*****************************************

Did you know that there’s even more? You’re missing part of the fun. Yup that’s right… more stories, more pictures, more videos, more randomness, more fun!

Subscribe now and you’ll get it all and more. You’re going to love the bonus material and if you don’t, you’re free to cancel at any time. No questions asked. Except the ones where I question my very existence at 2:00am wondering why you canceled… but you won’t because this is so freaking good AND your monthly subscription helps to keep the story going, the paint a flowing, and the website up and running… so if that’s not winning… what is? 

Here’s the space the next day after we finished cleaning, priming and painting the floors. I went in later and painted the white around the base of the walls and columns. It will eventually all have molding but for now… I couldn’t take the white lol.