Sweet sweet rec room

  sweet sweet rec room decor 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

We have a rec room in our house. And by rec room, I don't just mean a room in the basement suitable for recreational activities. I mean, a capital "R" Rec Room complete with real wood panelling, rockin' wall to wall industrial carpet and bizarre screaming-green half walls to mask the foundation. Oh, and there are speakers (no longer in use) mounted in the corners of the ceiling. Sweet dude.

Until now, the rec room has served two primary purposes: 1. storage of boxes and stuff of a less pressing nature; 2. a room in which one can play the X-box.

Not being a fan of the Box with an X, (and blissfully choosing to ignore the reality of those looming boxes), I don't venture often into the rec room. Though in the evening Martin can often be found there, on the pink couch, controller in hand, spending some downtime racing cars through the digitally enhanced streets of London.

But this weekend we're having a party, and so some further incentive to unpack the rec room is upon us. Much progress was made last week when we finally decided that the one small closet in our bedroom was simply not going to hold both of our clothing and shoe collections and Martin gallantly offered to take over the closet in his daughter's bedroom across the hall (leaving me with the one in our bedroom, how very kind he is!). This impacted the rec room box collection significanly, as one entire corner of the room was taken up with the many boxes that contained Martin's shoes. I will not reveal the secret of the exact number of pairs of shoes that my beloved possesses, but will tell you that it is more than my own collection and I believe I weigh in somewhere near 2 dozen if you count flip flops. Suffice it to say, there were many boxes unpacked once the shoes found their new home.

And so, motivated by the dent made, Martin has been pressing on...

Last night, as I continue to adjust from Montreal time, I said good night early and Martin said he was heading downstairs to work on unpacking. As I lay in bed, eyes drifting shut over my book, I could hear the constant roar of acceleration from the X-Box driving champ downstairs and figured he'd given up in favour of some much needed down time. However, this morning as the coffee brewed he urged me to go down and take a look. And to my delight, one corner, the "entertainment unit" region, has been more or less unpacked and fully set up. Sweet.

There is still an entire half to deal with, including a desk that has yet to have all its drawers inserted, piles of musical equipment and some nasty old pillows that should probably just find their way to garbage day that are inexplicably forming a tower in one corner, but it is coming together. Now we just need to decide if we're going to keep the decor and work with the sweet rec room action as is, or try to convert it into something a bit more pleasing to the eye. I'm tempted by the retro-chic, but we're also talking about removing the TV from the livingroom and only having the one downstairs, and really if we're going to really make the room usable, the green paint may need to go...