The Great Hunter and I started out our week with a visit to Busch Family Brewing and Distillery. Yes, this is the Busch family from Anheuser-Busch fame.

Their mission states:

To carry on our rich family tradition of brewing and hospitality by providing an experience and environment where you can enjoy artisanal ales and lagers accompanied by authentic German Wursthaus style fair on the historical grounds of the Busch Family Farm.

It’s located about seven miles from my youngest son’s house in Marthasville.

It was a beautiful sunny, but chilly day and we had good wine, and good food and got a chance to spend some time with our son and daughter-in-law and pet the Clydesdales.

I had no commitments this week so I decided to start a project I’ve wanted to do for a long time. My basement decor is circa 1975 and other than building an additional room and replacing the peel-and-stick tile, nothing has been done down there to update it since we moved here in 1989. When the boys were growing up, it was the place where they hung out with their friends playing video games (and shooting airsoft guns which they weren’t supposed to do.) Since all the kids are grown and gone, no one uses the family room portion of the basement anymore and I tease it is the land of misfit furniture.

We go downstairs to the laundry room and when my son was living in Virginia, he would come home and stay in his old room, but that’s about it. Going down the stairs and looking at the knotty pine paneling on EVERY wall, and the floor tile that had discolored in places and was coming up off the floor from previous water damage, seriously depressed me.

I painted one small wall at the bottom of the stairs and knew right away that I was going to love it.

So far, I’ve painted about 40′ of wall and I’m about half done and I painted the ceiling vents and outlet covers to match the walls.

I have about another four or five days of painting left. I’ve never known the Great Hunter to pick up a paintbrush, so I put him to work wrapping a wooden post that my cat, Gizmo, used as a scratching post for ten years. He did a great job but as is usual with the Great Hunter, he had to shed some blood. It wouldn’t be a project if he didn’t bleed somewhere. This time he smashed and cut his finger when a metal shelf on the table saw cabinet fell and caught his finger. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Once the painting is done, the flooring is next. I have to decide whether to paint the floors or buy more peel-and-stick tile. Right now, I’m leaning toward biting the bullet and buying the tile. Oh yeah, and I have to buy at least half a dozen new ceiling tiles and fluorescent light covers.

So what am I going to do with it when it’s updated? I’m not sure but I just might take advantage of the fact that I could have an exercise mat on the floor and use it without being trampled. After all, there’s only one reason I would be on the floor and that would be to play with Millie and Dolly, at least that’s what they think.