Room To Grow

When we moved to our wonderful house two years ago, we gained some space in terms of more rooms, but actually downsized quite a bit on the size of bedrooms and closet space. I spent the first year doing my best to make space, getting rid of so much, and trying, trying, trying to get the right fit in those rooms. The hardest room was Joe-Henry's. He'd gone from a gigantic bedroom with TWO closets and a large open floor plan, to a sweet little room, with a sweet little closet, and some extra little nooks and crannies. Notice the copious use of the word "little" in that last sentence.



Last year when he was gone, I painted his room. It was the first room that I'd painted here - the interior was all one creamy color, and I loved it, but I wanted to make his room a bit more personal. So I went with yellow, his favorite color. But even though we had added some fun updates through the year (his battery operated light up solar system and moon, glow in the dark stars, etc.), the room didn't work. And it had gotten really bad lately, with stuff dumped on the floor and no path to the closet. But what motivated me to rearrange it was this: I want him to clean his room. I want it to be EASY for him to clean his room. I want him to not be scared to try to find something in his room. Because all his toys were in his closet, there were so many that he didn't play with. And because we hadn't gone through those toys in over a year, there were lots that were broken, or that he just didn't have any interest in any more. And you never noticed the cool little touches that were made in there last year. I love these planes made out of soda cans that Grandma got him. But you were always so busy trying not to break your ankle navigating the mess that you never even saw them.



So the last two days have been spent in full on cleaning and decorating mode. Yesterday, I felt so overwhelmed, at one point I realized that I had been standing in the center of the room not moving for probably five minutes. There was CRAP everywhere. So I pulled out some big trash bags and went to work.

Then I moved his bed to another wall, got rid of his dresser all together,



and moved his clothes into baskets on the shelves in there.



pulled all his toys out of the closet, and into the room where he can get at them (and put them away easily).





Now I feel like it's workable. Also, with the dresser gone, there's actually room to PLAY! He can access everything, AND put everything away easily. Did I already mention that part? About him putting his toys away easily? Just in case I didn't - I tackled this project to help him be more independent and self-reliant and put his stuff away when he's done. Not that he will, but at least I know it's humanly possible.

Before & After

As promised, a few pictures of our weekend project....

The entry before:

Note the coats threatening to eat the children...



Watch out! There is a coat rack monster behind you!



The entry now:


Hey, come on in! Hang up your coat! Stay awhile!


Living Room, before:

Adorable children playing spies in front of a wreck of an entertainment center. Note the drunken lamp in the background with the lampshade on its head.


Living Room, after:

Ooooohhhhh, look at the comfy seating area!


Check out the wall color, the shelves and of course our gigantic tv!

We Live Here Now

To celebrate the end of The Grand Experiment, we decided we needed a bigger tv, for the bender we were going to go on when the experiment was over. We'd also been talking (for just under a year), about how to utilize our space better in the living room. Our house was built in the 1940's, and it has tons of charm, but very little storage. For a family of crap gatherers, you know what that means.....
Crap is in the open. There Is No Hidden Crap!

Crap!

When we moved into our first condo, I spent a long time picking out colors, because we didn't rent anymore, and things did not have to be white, and I love color! We spent a week painting before we moved in. When we moved in here, almost two years ago, I was so close to having a stroke from the stress of the move, and I decided painting was low on my priority list. But enough time has passed, and truly, I feel for the first time like we are not going to be moving in the next year, so it's time to get creative. The first thing I tackled was our entryway, which was more of a "WARNING: OBSTACLES AHEAD" kind of deal. Apparently people didn't wear coats in the 1940's, so there was no place to hang up outerwear when you walked in the door. I had attempted something in the past, but it just wasn't working. Coats would migrate from the standing coatrack to the nearest chair, where they would turn on the tv and pop open a beer. So I obsessed about it for weeks, measuring, searching, but finally, I found an arrangement that not only didn't suck, it actually worked. I felt bold. Triumphant. And ready to tackle the living room.

Charley had come up with the plan to utilize the space better, and picked up a new tv at costco. It looked HUGE, and I was terrified that it would swallow me whole if I watched it, but with the new layout, it's a perfect size. On Saturday, we rented a van, drove to Ikea and picked out shelving and a new coffee table and tv stand. And ate breakfast. No meatballs, but there was this fried dough stick that I almost mistook for potato wedges. Anyway, none of the furniture that we chose matched, but I don't like it when things are too uniform. I feel like I'm in a waiting room. My mil always tells me she likes that about me. That and the way I don't have to iron my clothes. I make the wrinkles work for me.

But I digress....

So after we loaded up the van at Ikea, I drove to Home Depot to pick out paint. I had an idea, but hadn't nailed it down yet. I decided to go with a terra cotta color, to contrast the pine and green shelving. The rest of our house is the color of rich vanilla, and I only wanted to paint one wall, plus I needed something that would look good with our rustic old hardwood floors. Just looking at that little dot on the can, both Charley and I were skeptical, but once it went on the wall, it was magic. We spent all day Saturday staining and finishing and painting, and on Sunday we put it all together.

Putting it together. (I did that for you, Kari!) I wonder if Mr. Sondheim was inspired to write that after going to Ikea? If you follow the non-verbal directions super carefully, you won't have a problem. But if, like me, you misread them, you will, as Charley said "ANGER THOR AND THE SWEDISH GODS OF FURNITURE ASSEMBLY" And you will be accursed. And accursing. Despite a few mishaps, though, we managed to get it all together. It looked pretty good, but it still wasn't just right.

So after getting JH to bed, I rearranged the furniture, and I have to say, that did it. It looks amazing. I'm actually proud of it. I promise to post pictures soon.

Now to tackle the rest of the house. Wooooo hooooooo!