Doing Double Duty

Have I mentioned that we live in a small house?

Remember - six people in 1200 sq. ft.

Things are tight.

However, the problem-solving and creative solutions thrill me.

Seriously.

Ask Husband. He knows that when I'm sitting in a room and it appears that I'm doing nothing, if you look really closely you can see the faint cloud of smoke coming out of my ears and know that the wheels are turning.

Things have been in a bit of an upheaval lately. As you know, Husband started a new job with the new year and now works from home. We set up his office in our bedroom because he needed a quite place to work and since the kids and I do school in the dining and living room that really was the best place.

Except:

It made me crazy.

Not kidding.

Along with our small house comes a small master bedroom. About 12x12. And since the small bedroom comes with a small closet we have to have a dresser in the bedroom. We already sleep on a full-sized bed to help everything fit and now we are adding a desk and chair. Ugh.

Basically, since Jan 1 the room has been arranged four different ways. I just could not get comfortable in there. And I know that some of you are probably thinking, "You rearrange your house all the time. What are you squawking about this for?" Folks, I don't rearrange the same room four times in 60 days. AND before we added the desk to the room it had been the same way for over a year. I was loving the setup.

And honestly it wasn't just the master bedroom. The whole house was feeling out of balance to me. Bobo's bedroom was just Bobo's bedroom.

Huh?

You see, every bedroom in our house does double duty except Bobo's. Princess' room is also the guest bedroom. Popeye and Bear's room is also the play room. Hub's and my bedroom is also his office. But Bobo's bedroom was just Bobo's bedroom. I needed it to do more.

So Husband and I started brainstorming possible solutions. Maybe we could move his office back into the 'batcave' and he and Bobo could just share the space. Husband doesn't bring clients into his office so it looking like an eleven year old's bedroom wasn't really an issue. Or maybe we could work our schedules out so we could put the desk back into the living room. Then the kids and I would do school in the morning and Husband could makes phone calls in the afternoon. Except, have you tried keeping four kids in one room of a house and quiet when it is cold and rainy for days on end?

Right.

Suffice it to say, none of our ideas where feeling quite right.

On Saturday we took a family trip to L-town for a little shopping. Bear needed some new jeans and Husband had a new suit to pick up. We decided to try to think outside the box while we were shopping and hopefully come up with a solution to our master bedroom/office problem.

It wasn't until we were almost home from our shopping trip that Husband had an idea. He wasn't really sure if I would like it and it did take me a few minutes of thinking it through before I loved the idea.

His idea was:

To move our schooling into Bobo's room.

Yes, really, that's it. But when I let it marinate in my mind it's brilliance was evident. You see, our school supplies are located in the hall closet. I have to get everything out and bring it to the table for school and then put it away when we are done. If I forget something I have to pause and leave the table to go get it. While I didn't realize this wasn't the most ideal situation, I guess I just figured it was my only option because of the size of our house.

Not any more.

Sunday afternoon Husband helped me rearrange everything for our new classroom. It works brilliantly. The desk is big enough for two of us to work at at a time and the shelves directly above it are big enough to keep everything within reach. We did school today and I NEVER HAD TO LEAVE THE DESK. Nor did I have to get everything out first and then pack it all away after.

I am loving this.

Of course, now I must paint the room. Right now three walls are a dusty dark blue. I'm thinking a light, bright green. And we are considering changing Bobo's twin bed for a full sized futon. That way we can use it as a couch during the day and Bobo will have a bigger bed at night. We've already found the one we want. =)

We have our master bedroom finally set up in an arrangement that I can live with. We solved that problem by removing the slipper chair we had in there (it's in the living room now) and putting the desk in it's place. Now the room is practically the same way it was before it inherited an office just with a desk instead of a big chair.

And now the house feels much more balanced to me. Every one's bedroom is doing double duty.

Just as it should be.

Bridget

The Dresser

We found Princess a dresser. It is old and beat up and someone tried to do a green paint and glaze effect.

I love it.

We paid $65 for it.

I have fabulous plans for the top. I'm purchasing the materials this weekend and hope to have it done by the end of next week. I can't wait to show you. I love the lines of this dresser. The simple details. And I am totally leaving the green, glaze, funky treatment.

I am changing the knobs, however. And it's on wheels. Which is going to be very handy once I get done transforming the top. Plus, because it is up off the ground I can stash a couple of baskets under it for Princess' shoes.

Perfection. I'm also transforming the insides. Actually, I've already transformed the insides, but I don't want to show them until everything is done. It was all about having a nice clean drawer for Princess' clothes. I just couldn't put them inside without doing something and I was very ready to get her clothes out the the wire baskets they were in and into a bonafide dresser. So I got right on fixing the insides.

Plus, I moved the wire baskets to the laundry room and am loving the extra storage.

Bridget

My Jewelry Display

I have had an idea for displaying my jewelry for awhile. I saw it in a magazine and it burned on my brain. You just cover an inexpensive bulletin board in fabric and then use pearl tipped straight pins to hang your jewelry on it.

I've been waiting to purchase another bulletin board. However, when I was finding places for all the new Christmas presents I saw the brown bulletin board chilling behind my bedroom door and decided enough waiting. Time to use what I have. So this is how things started out: My pitifull broken jewelry box. It hardly held half my stuff. The rest was hanging on my robe hook in my closet and in boxes on the highest shelf. I never remembered what I had and hardly wore any of it.

Hopefully this new system will get me wearing more of my stuff.

I know the fabric makes it hard to see the jewelry, but trust me, it's there. I've almost filled the whole thing and its a big board! I also hung my silver polishing cloth on there and since this is just a half bath I'm not worried about too much moisture hurting my stuff. Basically, all we do is brush our teeth and do our business in there.

It does bug me a bit that the fabric is sideways and rather busy. I have some blue silk that I might change it out for. But until then, I'm really enjoying having all my jewelry at my fingertips.

Bridget

I didn't hang up all my jewelry. I have a few valuable and family pieces that are staying safely put away.

Fabulousness and Struggles

We just finished a weekend full of Christmas'. Great-Grandparents, Grandparents, extended family. It was wonderful. It was a whirl of activities. It was exhausting.

And now we're home for a few days to regroup and then do it all again.

Really, this post is just to share one fabulous piece of information and a struggle. First the fabulousness:

Remember this post? Or this one? Or this one? Or what about this one? Well, you will if you've been reading for awhile bc I wrote those back in the summer and fall of 2008! Yes, folks...2008! I have been wanting this camera for a LONG time. And I GOT IT!!!!

Hubs asked his parents, my parents, his sister and brother-in-law, and his nana to all go in together with him to buy it for me!!! I basically haven't put it down since Sunday morning when I opened it.

When he asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told him I either wanted the camera or money to save toward the camera and that was it! And he delivered!

I've already taken over 300 pictures. I'll post some soon.

Now, for the struggle:

Folks, we had to take two cars with us this weekend just to get all the stuff home! Seriously!?!

Now I have no place to store it and we still have two more Christmas' to do! Ugh. (in a good way) I was at Walmart last night buying groceries and storage bins and ran into a friend and we were talking about how we couldn't afford to store all the new toys the kids get. =)

Anwho...small struggle I know-just the one I'm in right now.

Merry Christmas!
Bridget