a man's basement is his castle

Well it wouldn't be Christmas without a few meltdowns, would it?    I'm not talking the kids, either.

Little bit of background:  Our house has a finished basement.  It's not huge by any stretch of the imagination and without the sealed...um....seal that goes over the sump pump pit, the basement occasionally reeks of sewage (we've had it checked out...not toxic and the seal is not in the budget yet). However the finished part was my husband's oasis.  There was just enough room for a large TV, a couch and his amp and guitars.  The other side of the basement was the kid zone filled with toys.

As much as my husband enjoyed being down there, it wasn't just for him.  Slowly our daughter started taking over the basement.  She is very creative and has an art desk.  Her room is a bit small so we put it in the basement.  Well, she is part hoarder I think and the desk turned into one big trash heap full of papers, papers, and more papers mixed in with crayons, markers, empty chip bags, etc etc.   My husband periodically yells at her to go clean up the mess downstairs but her idea of clean and ours vary greatly.

Today, he finally hit his boiling point.  He went down there after telling her to clean and once again, found papers on the floor, toys out, and a new stain on the carpet from nail polish.  He decided that the basement officially is to become a storage room and that's it.  He then proceeded to take down his wall art, pack up his guitars, move the furniture to the center of the room and essentially, close down the basement.

While he was doing this, I was trying to talk to him.  I told him I'd clean it up and why didn't he get all of us down there to clean it up together?  He just kept saying it was storage now.  When I told him that since he didnt want to be down there any more, I'd take it over.  That went over like a lead balloon.  It seemed that since it was ruined for him, then no one would get to enjoy the basement.  Seriously, he can act like such a kid sometimes!  I think that's why he and our daughter sometimes butts heads.  She's like a mini-husband in female form!

I kicked him out of the basement and started vacuuming and cleaning.  I filled a trash bag full of papers and just random crap that had accumulated down there.  While I was doing that, Hubs kept coming downstairs and bitching about the stains on the carpet caused by play dough, spilled Kool-Aid, and nailpolish.  However, when I brought up spills he had done on the carpet, he argued with me that he hadn't caused any stains.  My point was....WHO CARES???  It's a basement.  A little steam cleaning action and the stains will come up.  They aren't that noticeable.

The outcome of all this is my basement is cleaner now but there's still furniture stacked up in the middle of the room.  He came down after I had vacuumed and said he'd put it back together later.  I swear, that man drives me bat shit crazy sometimes.  He makes the smallest little issue into such a huge ordeal.  I guess that is maybe the PTSD kicking in.  He did tell our daughter he was really stressed and he shouldn't be so mad.

Today is done, tomorrow is a new day.  Christmas Eve day.....that should bring it's own set of stressors dealing with family and travel and all that.  But, one day at a time!  Off to bed now for me!