Progress resumed

We went to the house today and spent 3 hours stripping old electric wire in the basement. This involved first hooking up every utility light and lantern we had (4) in order to be able to see in the dark cavern that is our basement. We moved from room to room taking out all of the cloth-covered wiring and the porcelain fixtures, etc. Tons of rusty staples and random nails got the boot too. We only had a few scares. The first was when we thought Mary had accidentally cut the furnace thermostat wire. Luckily she cut one that looked exactly like it, but not the one telling the furnace that it is indeed freezing upstairs. We're not sure if we severed the water meter line or not and since we've cut the water, it wouldn't have anything to register anyways, but we're pretty sure the City of Columbus will be perturbed with us if we did. We're certain that our eventual plumber can remedy that. Then we spent 1/2 an hour or so cleaning up. We believe we have a concrete floor throughout the entire basement, but it appears to be covered in a very fine layer of dirt that is virtually impossible to get rid of. Sweeping just seems to push it around. For "fun" we emptied out the "wine cellar room." It's a little room just off the first one in the basement. Mary swept up umpteen piles of dirt while Eric removed debris from the upper ledge. With all of the wiring and old fluorescent light fixtures removed, the ceiling looks considerably higher (it's probably just at 6 feet). We discussed painting the ceiling while all the wiring is removed b/c it would be much easier. Maybe when it's warmer!