This weekend I made some great progress on the basement and am happy to report that the home theater ceiling is done. My plan for a simple perimeter of Armstrong ceiling tiles around a curved tray ceiling turned out to be much more work than I thought. Part of that difficulty was due to this being my first experience with any sort of suspended ceiling system. Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't so bad. Then I put some crown molding on the inner edges of the two long sides of the tray ceiling with rope lighting hidden behind. This should cast some soft light up on the curved ceiling for a subdued lighting effect when watching movies.
This first photo is looking down the room from where the TV will be placed. On both sides you can see the in-wall speakers for surround sound, as well as the sconce lights from Ikea. The ugly door will be repainted another color, or possibly replaced.
This next photo looks down the opposite direction and shows where the TV & entertainment center will be placed. The opening is sized just right for our existing entertainment center, which will sit flush with the wall for a built-in effect. You can see the access from behind via the small closet under the stairs.
Here's a closer look at a little area on the right side of the home theater room. The basement wall has this small inset area under the front porch. We decided to add some storage with the two large Ikea cabinets below, and "day bed" type area above it where we can take a nap, read a book, or whatever.
Over on the other side of the basement is a larger room which will become my wife's sewing & crafts room. This room is over 25 feet long, so it has plenty of room for all her fabric. The perimeter wall molding is installed for the suspended ceiling. Next weekend I plan to finish this ceiling - thanks to the longer holiday weekend.
Here's another view of the sewing room looking in the opposite direction. The double doors at the back lead to my workshop, which is pretty much complete except for the suspended ceiling (
See other blog post here). The small door you can barely see at the back right side is the access to the closet under the stairs. The two French doors you see leaning against the wall will be mounted in the passageway between the home theater and the sewing room. These will be mounted on a sliding rail system in a bypass door configuration.
Assuming I get the ceiling completed next weekend, we will go out to purchase the flooring the next weekend. We are looking at an engineered bamboo that can be used in a floating floor installation. If all goes well we will have the floor installed by the end of July. After that, I estimate 2-3 weekends of work to connect the main electric service, install all the outlets & switches, and install the remaining lighting. Our goal of completion by the end of summer looks very attainable at this point.
When the weather turns colder nothing warms you from the inside like a big bubbling pot of fiery broth loaded up with meat, veggies, and whatever else you want. This is not a dish for the 100-degree summers of Georgia - it is best enjoyed on a cold winter's evening. The broth is made up of a store-bought hot pot soup base and either water or chicken stock for flavor. In this case we chose a Taiwanese soup base in a jar. Some beef tendon was pre-cooked in the hot pot base using a pressure cooker to soften the tough connective tissue. When cooked for a long time, beef tendon takes on a wonderful gelatinous texture and absorbs the rich flavor of the broth.
On the side there's usually a sauce into which you can dip the cooked bits of stuff. My favorite is sa-cha sauce mixed with a raw egg yolk and a little soy sauce. The other sauce we like is a simple mixture of sliced scallions and vinegar. The vinegar sauce compliments pork very well, but I prefer the sa-cha sauce on everything else. I think I am a sa-cha junkie - I love it with stir-fried beef and I always use it to make a sauce for pan-fried dumplings. 
The pork takes a little extra attention to make sure it's cooked properly, but the beef only needs 30 seconds or so to preserve it's tender texture. We try to load up heavy on the vegetables and this time we used sliced king oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, brown & white beech mushrooms, and bok choy. We also added tofu that had been previously frozen. The freezing process changes the texture and creates some holes which allow the tofu to soak up the broth. Tofu skin, purchased as dry sheets, is another tasty item which softens up in the broth and soaks up lots of spiciness. 
Frozen fish cakes and imitation crab meat were added for some seafood flavor, although scallops would have been good too (but so expensive!). At the end of the meal we put in some tang-oh (Garland chrysanthemum - Chrysanthemum coronarium) which soaks up a lot of the spicy oil floating on top of the broth. 
