To be honest, things have been a bit slow on the basement lately. Some of that had to do with trying to find the right red for one of the walls. We’ve been sampling various ones and finally found one we liked. My brother and his wife also suggested using a grey primer on that one wall instead of white. Last week we put on the grey primer and then over the weekend we painted the red wall. It took three coats, but we are very happy with the outcome.

Next up is to paint the light grey on the other walls.

» All the images of the basement progress

If you do any sort of web development you should be already be reading A List Apart. However, just in case you aren’t (or you missed the latest issue), I wanted to point out Eric Meyer’s “Prefix or Posthack” article from today. Honestly, I was skeptical when I first started reading, but knowing Eric Meyer’s work I kept reading and I have to say he makes a strong and compelling argument. I’m convince the idea is sound and a little work up front could help in the long run.

» Prefix or Posthack

We’ve been needing to upgrade our “family” car for awhile now. Our Hyundai Santa Fe was a great car, but just wasn’t quite big enough for a family of five. We needed something with a third row and we hate mini-vans so that wasn’t an option. Our main requirements: third row seating, moonroof, and a return to keyless entry (our Santa Fe didn’t have this). We also wanted to try to get captain chairs (bucket seats) in the second row. We did a little research, went out and test drove a few different vehicles and finally narrowed our list down to the Chevy Traverse, the Hyundai Veracruz, and the Toyota Highlander. The Traverse was a bit larger so offered the best comfort in the third row, but to get the options we needed/wanted we would have had to go up to the more expensive models. The Veracruz was nice and drove pretty much the same as the Santa Fe, but had a second row bench seat. The Highlander, while having a slightly smaller third row area, did have the captain chairs in the 2nd row. At first we were a bit worried because, like the Traverse, to get our main requirements it looked like we had to go up to the Limited model, which was a bit above our budget.

We contacted countless dealers for each of the cars and I have to say, very few dealers were willing to work with us on the price. I get that some dealers are no-haggle and I am fine with that, but unless you state you’re no-haggle then a customer should be able to negotiate a better price. At some point dealerships seem to have forgotten that a negotiation is a back-and-forth where each party concedes a bit and in the end you hopefully reach a price both parties are comfortable with. Either car sales must be finally going well for them or they really just don’t care anymore. We had hoped to purchase a new car, but because of the response we were getting we started looking at used cars as an option.

Carmax to the rescue. We’ve had good luck dealing with Carmax in the past so we tried there first. While looking for our three candidates on the Carmax website, and after narrowing down the feature options, we surprisingly found a new 2010 Highlander Sport that seemed to fit the bill. We were happy to see the lower price, so we went to check it out in person and take it for a test drive. When we arrived we found out that the Sport model is a level between the Base and Limited models, but it’s no longer being made, therefore most dealerships don’t have it in their inventory and it’s no longer listed on Toyota’s website. After doing a test drive we decided to pull the trigger on our new ride …

I have to say that I am loving it. It rides well (not like a truck), has the third row seating we need, a moonroof, keyless entry (so nice to have again), and it’s four wheel drive, which we weren’t necessarily looking for, but is an added bonus. It was even in a color we liked. Now we may add the rear DVD entertainment system at some point so we have that for trips and we need to get cross rails for the roof so we can add some cargo area when we need it, but we definitely got a great car for a very good price.

If you haven’t checked out The Guild yet, then do yourself a favor and try it out. If you consider yourself a gamer, or any kind of geek really, then I think you’ll appreciate the humor. From the website, it’s “… a independent sitcom web series about a group of online gamers.” The early episodes run about 3-5 minutes, while the newer episodes are roughly 6-8 minutes long, so you really don’t have to invest much to see if it’s your cup of tea. Being a gamer myself, I found it quite funny and strangely addicting. Check it out if you have a few minutes.

» The Guild

To update you on how our basement is coming along, the newest news is that we had someone come in and hang the three doors we needed and frame out the old doorway into a proper entryway. We probably could have done all this ourselves, but as un-square as our basement walls have proved to be, we decided it was best to let a professional handle it so that we didn’t have any issues with the doors sticking or anything. They’re nothing fancy, need a coat of paint, and still need knobs, but they definitely make it look more like a room.

» More images of the basement progress

On a totally unrelated note (except that one would be good to have after hanging doors), if your looking for a really good and uncommon beer, then give Flying Fish’s Exit 4 American Trippel a chance. Very good. Much thanks to the wife for finding it.