A Hammer Is This Bird's Best Friend

I live in a century-old house. The owners have renovated it cosmetically, but not structurally. This has left an impractical narrow and steep stairway to the second level, and an area I like to call the dungeon, ie. the basement.

The basement here really makes me understand why we French call an unfinished subterranean room a 'cave.' It is dank, spider infested, and you can only stand upright in the back part of it. It's no wonder I have yet to get through that part of the house, which I absolutely must do before moving again. *sighs*

At any rate, I decided this afternoon that going down to the dungeon would be a mite easier if the entrance to it wasn't so cluttered. I use it as a broom closet/empty beer bottle storage facility and things were getting out of hand. The following is a picture of just one side of the entrance. The other side was messy, too, but worked for me and wasn't in my way.



I scrapped up some courage and went downstairs to get a hammer. Then, I used this wondrous tool to relocate some of the many nails in this area to better utilize the empty back wall:




Aaaaah. Much better!

Sure, I could have gone all out and added new shelves, real hooks, and other storage solutions using items I have on hand, as well as touched up the paint but a) I'm only here for another nine months and b) I don't own this place. So, this will do.

If I did own this place, I wouldn't have satisfied myself with a cosmetic rehaul. Instead, I would have gutted to the exterior walls and started from scratch to improve the staircases and put a powder room on the first floor. Thankfully, I'm a renter who can appreciate the face lift and the fact that she's not stuck with those stairs for twenty odd years, LOL!