Sexy new ceilings and serious hot water

So - I have a confession. (bless me father for I have...)

Actually it's not nearly that good a confession, so don't get your hopes up. I did, sadly, have to contract out my first job. Sigh. I can no longer say it's all been done-myself. But, from this contracting I did get a fancy new on-demand water heater (tankless, very sleek, I feel all kinds of fancy with this thing!)

I went to the home-show this past weekend with Jan, Marg and an assortment of other folk and stopped to ask a local company about the tankless water heaters, which was kind of entertaining. The conversation went something like this:

KR (old-timey owner of water heater company): so how old is your current heater
Amy: Well, it was put in when the house was built, but I think it was second hand because it says 1978 on the side.
Long pause.
KR (to fellow water heater guy): What is the shelf life on a gas water heater?
Other water heater guy: 8-10 years, why?
Long pause.
KR (to me): Do you like your floors?

It was kind of funny actually because the water heater people were mildly panicked about my apparently antique water heater and rearranged their installation schedule to get me a new water heater on Tuesday (i.e. two days later). The whole thing had kind of the air of self-congratulation re. crisis averted. It felt like there should have been a champagne toast or confetti or something.

When they hauled the old one out they were remarking about it's unusual weight and the possibility that it was actually half filled with sediment. Lovely. So now I have a fancy-pants new water heater that is mounted outside, so if it malfunctions (which I have been assured it never does) it will malfunction on the grass, and not my floor.

Outside of that little bit of excitement Dad and I scraped the popcorn off the downstairs ceiling and he put in a ridiculous amount of work to get it sanded and patched and primed, so I have the uber-sexy smooth ceiling - which looks fabulous. Now I just have to figure out what I actually want to do with the downstairs. Ideas anyone? Color scheme? It's a ridiculously long room, so it could take some color, but I haven't thought beyond major repairs to actually form any ideas about style. The only think I've decided for sure is that I want to stain the concrete, but beyond that, I'm at a loss. All ideas welcome at this point!