Sunday, February 26, 2012

The Living Room - Before and After

My apologies for it taking me so long for this post to finally appear.  Suffice it to say, I have been technically challenged.  First with camera issues (solved by purchasing my new Nikon) and then by a laptop that died a slow death.  When it rains it pours....so off to purchase a new laptop that I am now adjusting to.  Trying not to be too sad about some of the files lost but not having everything backed up and moving on.

As promised to YH - finally a post of the reveal of the LR.  Hurray!  Odd but when rooms come together over time, you often forget how bad they looked when you begin. I give you a couple of before shots, just so you can appreciate how far it's come.

The day I first saw the room - it looked like this.  I wish I could find the picture that I had of when the renters were here (lost with my laptop crash) because it really looked very sad.

Another angle - shot from the fireplace wall


And now a few after shots:



A few extra shots just for good measure....



And for those that may be wondering about this aspect of the mantle arrangement:


Many years ago I ordered a series of letters and started putting inspirational words on display for the kids to see.  A twisted traditional began with my oldest son almost always
coming in and changing the inspirational word to something like "nerd", "rad", "dumb"...getting the idea here.  Flash forward a couple of decades and a few mantles later and I decide to again put theinspirational words on display for the twins.  Oldest son comes over and again does his routine of the change up of the word - and now guess who's carrying on the tradition? Yep....the twins.  The other day I came out to find the word "mule".  Guess the good news is that they are challenged to think of new words with the limited amount of letters we have left in the series.  So the family tradition continues in a fun and entertaining way and it's always obvious which are the words I choose and which are the funny words they choose.


For the record, other than the paint and the drapery panels, there was not much cost in pulling this room together.  I had everything from previous homes and lives.  Guess the real question really should be why the hell did it take me so long to get it pulled together.
Hope you enjoyed the post...post a comment and let me know what you think.

Off to play golf.  Hmmmm..... maybe that's why I'm not getting these rooms done as quickly as I should be!





Sunday, February 5, 2012

My messy little packrat

Why is it some kids just aren't born with the "neat gene"? I'm a fairly organized person and I tend to like things clean, neat, orderly.  So how is it I end up with a daughter that is a total packrat and could care less if things are a mess?  Quite obviously the child has never heard the term "less is more".  She seems to think "more is more" and just for good measure, let me throw in the fact that she does think her space is organized.  Perhaps to her it seems that way.  To me, I tend to want to sneak in (when she's not around) with a big garbage bag and go on a wild purge session.   Ok, I confess.....I have!

Now we have yet to agree on the design and re-do of her room, so I'm opting for one step at a time.  Have I mentioned the child has an opinion about everything? Kind of like her mother I suppose.  We picked a wall color and painted the room a peach when we first started.  She has decided that she wants white, green and hot pink to be her additional colors.  so - while not what I would pick, I am trying to work with her on her color choices.  Guess it's fair to say we started working on her space this weekend.  Step 1, attempt to get rid of some of the mess by getting her a desk.  Off to IKEA for something that a) worked with our selected colors (IKEA always has white, right?) b) was inexpensive and c) would work in the space we had.

I give you her before shot - fair warning it's a mess.....


And after I found the perfect little desk at IKEA and her father came over and helped with the assembling of the desk, the after shot:


BTW, never believe IKEA sales people when they say it's very easy to assemble.  It took 2 college grads giving it our best college try to put it together.  I could have never done it solo.

So - I'm amazed by the fact that not only was she thrilled with the desk, but she very neatly put everything in her 2 drawers in a orderly fashion and helped me clean the room.  It's a start!

To date we have:

Wall color - painting and trim done
Blinds installed
Green rug found and down
White desk

Next up: change out the bed (from a single to a full size), find bedding, rearrange layout of the room, DECLUTTER.  I'm hoping that the tidy white desk is going to inspire her to like a more streamlined look.  However I would not place a bet on this ever really happening.  I think the "more is more" look somehow suits her in an odd sort of way and hey....I figure they eventually grow up and move out :)