Fixing up the church basement

We are in the process of fixing up the church basement. It's your typical basement in an old country church. But this one has had virtually NO attention in anyone's recent memory. So we're going to replace all the fluorescent lights (we wanted to put different fixtures, but had to stick with fluorescents), paint the ceiling and poles, and once the fish fry is over we will put carpet down over the old tile floor. I had wanted (and still do) to paint the walls, because it's that old knotty pine stuff. Not only it it seriously outdated, but it is in bad shape. There are spots where it has faded around pictures and things that had hung there for years, plus someone put a bunch of nails in it and then covered them with putty. So you can see the putty all over the place. To me it's just pathetic looking. But when I brought it up there were a few people who were hesitant to do it, so... whatever.

The thing that bothers me most about stuff like this is that no one really even seems to care. I mean, no one cared that it looked like crap. And no one will care that just a few people will have put in a lot of work to make it look a little better. It just doesn't matter. Because it's a church basement, and no one cares what a church basement looks like. Which isn't true, because there are people who do care. But they're not the people who have been a part of this church their whole lives, and they probably aren't going to be either.

The other thing that has been driving me crazy is how people have stuck tape and sticky stuff to the walls and ceilings. Jane spent one whole night just cleaning the ceiling. I mean, people will try to hang stuff from the ceiling with scotch tape, and it always falls down, and then they just leave the tape up there! Why would you not feel compelled to remove the tape??? Probably because they don't care, because it's an old church basement. And I can guarantee you that the people who stuck all that stuff to the ceiling were NOT the same ones who came and did all the work to clean it up. I mean, do they tape stuff to the ceiling in their house? Not at all! So why is it okay to do so at the church? Ugh.

At any rate, I am hoping it looks better when we're done - even without painting the walls. At least I can find some satisfaction in it. Hopefully.