First, by way of a mental health break: spring is here! The camellia is finally in bloom, and the lilacs should follow. Pretty! Okay; back to work.

While we’re not as far along as we had hoped to be, we’re happy to report that most of the projects on The Gimlet’s task list are complete or well underway. The family room, laundry room, hallway and staircase are fully wired, plumbed, insulated, and drywalled, plus The Gimlet built some nice shelving in the laundry room. The original homeowners left behind some sheets of water-resistant drywall, so we used that in the laundry room (hence the green wall).

The family room’s gas fireplace insert was installed earlier this week, much to our delight. Not only is it wonderful to have one fully functional, lovely appliance in the midst of the piles of construction debris, but we’ve never owned a remote control that shoots flames before, and are unsure how we lived before possessing such a device. Speaking of flame throwers, rest assured: there will be a new look to the fireplace area and there will be a large high-definition, plasma screen television mounted above the fireplace, but the Man-Cave Monster Television Faction and the Attractive Mantle and Surround Faction are still in negotiations over details.

Back to the list, we decided to drywall the workroom last so it could be used as a staging area for the rest of the remodel, but it is wired and insulated. Yesterday the east bedroom was demolished to the studs and today The Gimlet is adding framing support where needed, updating the wiring, and adding insulation. We only have about one week left before we must return our friend’s panel lift, so the race is on to install as much drywall as possible.

Once the drywall is in place, another friend, The Sheetrocking Swede, has very graciously offered his expertise to mud, tape, and in all ways cover up our mistakes and make the walls look as nice as we’d like them to be. Carpet for the family room, hallway, bedrooms and staircase is on order as well, to be installed after the rooms are painted and finished with crown molding and baseboards to match the upstairs. Our goal is to have the paint, trim and carpet in place by early May to greet our expected houseguests. We can dream, right?

PS: Check out the bar sink. Obviously meant to be.

As we move forward and begin drywalling the laundry room, it seems like a good time to mention the first small steps in the reef process. The Gimlet installed two 20-amp circuits and dedicated one switch on the Manabloc for the system. The water line will connect to a reverse osmosis/deionization unit (RO/DI); the resulting water will then be used to make saltwater and as freshwater topoff.

A 12′ x 3′ area with 8′ ceiling is available for the tank site, and as the family room is in the basement, the tank will rest on a concrete floor. The tank will share a wall with the laundry room. Originally the plan was to house the tank in the laundry room, creating a picture window effect in the family room while giving plenty of space to work and get wet, but unfortunately the wall is a weight-bearing wall and cannot be altered. With that in mind, I hope to house the sump, refugium, and other equipment in the laundry room, below and behind the display tank.

Not sure how this will all work out, which brings up the most important step in this whole process: research. This large space affords a wonderful opportunity in reefkeeping, and I want to be as successful as possible. I’ve been reading, checking out the myriad on-line resources and communities, and our previous nano experience taught us some valuable hands-on lessons. So for now, I’m deciding how large of a tank to get, pondering deep versus shallow (leaning towards shallow; I like being able to reach in and tinker around), learning about plumbing and lighting options, and of course livestock choices (which will affect the kind of light I choose).

Suggested reading:

• Fenner, Robert M. The Conscientious Marine Aquarist. Microcosm: Vermont, 1998. The first time I entered a local saltwater-specialty store, the clerk strongly suggested I read this before doing anything else. Not only does this book provide excellent, well-written (even funny at times), easy-to-understand advice, it also seeks to instill a sense of responsibility and stewardship for the world’s coral reefs. A must-have.
• Michael, Scott W. and Shimek, Ronald L. Pocket Expert Guides: Marine Fishes and Marine Invertebrates. Microcosm: Vermont, 1999 and 2004. I’m saving up to buy Scott Michael’s more detailed Reef Fishes series, but in the meantime, these two Pocket Expert guides are very useful for drawing up wish lists. Information for the fishes includes: maximum length, range (for those planning geographic-specific reefs), minimum aquarium size, foods and feeding, aquarium suitability and reef aquarium compatibility, and captive care. The invertebrates book includes a category for lighting.

These three books are a great place to start. I have read a few other excellent specialty books on aquarium design, corals, clownfishes, and (sigh) my Hanauma Bay souvenir booklet. Given my past battle with cyanobacteria, a guide to algae is also on my wish list. (Perhaps a little light reading at the community pool during the kids’ swimming lessons?)

At any rate, this post is likely to be the last on the reef tank for quite some time, as construction probably won’t get fully underway for another year or two.

Editor’s note: For those who may not have heard the news, The Gimlet was recently made Scoutmaster for Thing One’s Scout troop. Expect many more camping stories, fueled by plenty of red juice.

My scout troop went on a winter camp in Camp Sheppard. We got to the camp by 6:00, and then another troop was staying and lights out was at 11:00 pm. At 6:00 am, most of the people in our cabin (not me or Daddy) went on a hike called the “polar bear hike”. When everybody going was up, I was ½ awake and also ½ awake when they got back, but right then, Daddy got everybody up. Then, we had biscuits in sausage gravy and red juice, and then we had an introduction to the camp and met all the staff. Then, we went inner tubing, and the run we went on had a bump and Daddy made movies of people on the bump. There was another run, but people got too tired to go back up again. Then, we had roast beef sandwiches for lunch with red juice, packed up, deflated all the inner tubes, played games in the cabin, and had a snowball fight. Then at 3:00, we left. We were expecting to be home by 5:00 pm, but we got back by 3:52 pm.