New! New! New!

I feel like our house is finally coming to life!!  For one year we lived with those awful white walls, no character, no personality, no life.  We did that because we didn't want to have to repaint after we had our one year inspection.  For those of you that are now in the process of building there are pros and cons to waiting to paint and decorate.  The pros were we only had to paint once and it gave us time to gather ideas and really think about what we wanted our house to look like before we changed it.  The cons of course are that you have to live in a colorless house for what feels like forever, and you may not catch all the little things you may want Ryan to fix at your one year inspection.  Thankfully we really didn't have too much of the latter BUT I still find little nail bumps or things I wish I had caught before and had Ryan fix instead of us but really no biggy in the grand scheme of things.

So I mentioned before my husband was working on something and boy what a difference it has made......truly has brought some much needed character to our home.

First I'll start by telling you we finally got some new couches in our living room and I LOVE them!!!  I have had my eye on this set FOREVER and finally we got it!! The couches are much bigger than our last set so I had to do some rearranging to make it all fit.  I still need to get some new end tables to match, maybe a large tree to fill the back corner, and a coffee table or new ottoman as well but one thing at a time I guess......so here are our new couches:

Its so hard to tell from these awful pictures but its a very light taupe color (almost looks a slate white) with a little bit of brown piping on the edges.  Anyways it finally fills our living room proportionately and the color is a way better match for the look I was going for.......LOVE them!!

Speaking of couches, I also got some pillows to add to our "little living room" couch....I think it ties in the accent colors a bit more and makes it look a little more inviting:

oh yah...so back to my husband's latest project.....as usual he did a fantastic job on this one!!  It really looks so nice and brings a lot of character to our plain jane home.  When planning this project we went back and forth between a couple different styles but I'm pretty pleased that we decided to just keep it simple......in addition I literally agonized over colors for months (I know its just paint :-)) but I'm so glad we ended up going with the color we did as its such a soothing, warm, compliment to the colors we already have and will have in our home......so are you ready?

Our new entry!!

 My husband put in Board and Batten and it really makes the entry so much more welcoming, inviting, and gives it so much more character.  He even put the tiny ledge shelf at the top as well.  I'm NOT a big fan of our floors with this style, but we knew that we would be changing those sometime down the road but for now I just love how it has turned out.  I also love the paint color.  For those of you that are curious, its Olympic paint color Jute.  These pictures make the paint look green which it does have a green tone to it but it really looks more of a natural brown color, very similar to our living room color but darker.....I just love it!!

So in addition to the entry, my husband also painted the mud room.

We painted it (yes I helped too!) the same color as he entry way to balance the flow through our house....again what an improvement from those white walls.  When my husband had put the first coat of paint up in the entry I slightly panicked thinking it was too dark or that I wasn't going to like it, but honestly I think that was because I have just gotten so used to those white walls that any color seems to make such a drastic difference to the appearance of our home.......all I can say is I have missed color in my life and I'm so glad its finally making a come back into our home!!

Still feels like we have so much more to do before the entry is fully completed....we were hoping to paint our entry doors black, I need to put some black and white matted and framed pictures along the long wall in the entry, next to the entry door I'm considering either a wall mounted coat hook like this one from Pottery Barn:

or some pictures I already have currently above the couch in our "little living room" that look like this:

 It would tie in the future paint color for our "little living room" plus the other colors we already have in our home.  I'm putting the mirror that was previously hanging above the entry hall console table above the little living room couch as it looks more proportionate with the couch than the current pictures do.  We also hope to do some crown molding in the entry as well and hopefully some new wood floors......ahhhhhh will look so nice when its finally done.....

So I know in past posts I mentioned I had some entry way ideas.  In the Ravenna model there is no closet near the front entry so no place for coats when guests visit.  However, the door to our basement is in our entry and most of our guests assume it is a closet......soooooo this is what I have done:

We have done this now in all three of our homes and it has worked out so nice. I have some nice decorative iron wall hooks which I put in our basement stairway wall so that when guests come I conveniently have a place to hang their coats without cluttering the entry or putting them in another room or closet in some other place in the house.  It also works great for the kids coats and school bags so they are near the door and ready to go when they catch the bus and come home from school.  Anyways its been a fantastic solution for our entry closet/coat dilemma and also keeps things neatly and nicely tucked out of sight!!

So sorry this was such a long post but there has just been so much going on that I've been pretty excited to share......we'll try to keep the projects coming (still have some in the pipeline for this summer), but let me know what you think........

Happy decorating!!

Surprise, Surprise....he's at it again!!

I don't know what has gotten into my husband lately but I sure wish he would share some of this new found energy.  He's been in nothing but jump in and get things done mode and I love it.....just wish I could keep up with him.

So yesterday I came home from work and he had completed two surprise projects.  Our neighbors were getting rid of some of their closet shelving so we took it off their hands :-).  Now I'm not a huge fan of the wire shelving but it was free, it works, and honestly its not like people are staring into my closets so I'm not overly concerned of the appearance of them......a future project maybe but for now I'm into functionality over visual appearance when it comes to closet space.  So first up was the big storage closet upstairs.  At the moment it holds wrapping paper and party supplies, large picture frames we haven't decided where to hang yet, and old kids clothes and toys we are planning to donate or give away etc.  I've been wanting shelving in there so I can actually organize some of the kids clothes into what is going away and the new clothes that I've purchased at a huge discount and hold onto until they grow into them.  I love when back to school rolls around and I've already got half their clothes purchased at the previous years clearance prices!!!  The one issue I've found with doing this kind of shopping is you need an organized place to put the clothes.....I think this closet will be that space and I can finally organize my storage bins so I actually see what they have and what they'll be in the market for next season.  So here is what my husband did:

Don't mind the lack of organization......I will hopefully be getting to that soon, but as you can kind of see he put the shelves to the one side so that I still have a huge amount of space on the opposite side for taller items, a vacuum, things I may need to hang, more shelves, etc.  I love it!!!

So last year I told my husband we needed more storage space for kids stuff......I was so overwhelmed by the amount of books and toys they had but there was just not enough places to neatly store them.  We came up with a plan to put some shelves in the kids closet, and he made some shelves but they were never installed........well now they are!!!

I so need to get in there an clean out their room.....having twin boys sure does make for a messy room!!!  But despite the mess I think these shelves will help with storing their Legos, bins of cars and action figures etc.  Now in combination with the built ins my husband made in the office there should be no excuse for toys to be scattered about the house!!!  

So there are a few more things coming down the pipeline as well that I'm super excited about.  Just to give you a clue I found my husband doing this today:

AND, I found this on the kitchen counter:

I'm pretty excited.....any guesses as to what he's up to?

Hope you all are enjoying this nice jump into summer and are busy working on some projects as well....until next time.

THERE IS A HOLE IN THE CEILING!!!

I love my husband.  He's been my best friend since we were in grade school, an awesome, fun, devoted father, he's handy, handsome, romantic, funny, loving, thoughtful.....I could truly go on and on......and although I don't tell him nearly enough as I should, in short he's everything I've ever dreamed about in a husband.   Even though I think the world of him, occasionally he does some things that just make me crazy!!

For one thing, my husband is one of those curious fidgety types.....you know the ones who like to take perfectly fine functioning things apart and put them back together again just to see how things work or were put together.  It never fails, if he has something on his mind he just has to fidget with it to get it out of his system ......and to his credit he is way smarter than I ever could imagine being when it comes to mechanics and designing things and fixing things etc. which he learned by being fidgety.  I, on the other hand, am a task master.  Don't mess with it unless its broke, no goofing around just get it done and it better be neat and tidy while doing it and it should be done efficiently and correctly the first time.  So you can imagine how these two very different personality types can sometimes clash when it comes to ideas/projects and getting them done.   

Over the years we've thankfully worked out a system when it comes to projects.  Sometimes my husband will just do things without telling me just so he can get it done without me griping about it and then I can "inspect and approve" it later when its finished.  However, when I know he is working on a project he just reminds me, "it's not done, wait until its done before you start picking it apart"........and I take that as a hint to leave him be.  I have to say that whatever he is working on usually comes out beyond fantastic!!  Its just so unfortunate that his process of getting things done and mine greatly differ so its horribly painful for me to watch and keep quiet and incredibly frustrating for him while I wallow over every little imperfection.......so when he reminds me that he's "not done yet", I try hard to just let him do his thing and keep quiet until its completed.

Well recently my husband and I had very different opinions on a little project that he tried to sneak past me.  I will just tell you that one day he mentioned to me that he was "curious" and the next day I came home and spotted a hole in the ceiling of the garage which he tried to cover up by just laying pieces of  the drywall back over the hole (as if I wouldn't notice :-)).........this was not an approved way of doing things in my book as you can imagine!!  Not only was it not approved, but the garage wasn't broke, there was nothing pressing that would require the need to put a hole in a perfectly fine garage ceiling, and seriously what curiosity would make you just randomly cut a hole in the ceiling one day!!!!  There are so many more projects that he could have done like paint a room, landscape the yard, work on the basement, build some laundry room cabinets, but no he chose to saw A HOLE IN THE GARAGE CEILING!!!!........so you can imagine my frustration when I saw the hole!!!

The game was well played on my husband's part.   He knows me way better than I give him credit for.  The damage was done and he knew I wouldn't be able to just let it go and would make him complete the task.  So he got his way and this is the newest project that has been completed:

sorry the pictures aren't better.....it is a garage though...I'm not sure I could make it look that nice.....

 This is where "the hole" once was......

 Now its stairs to access the giant amount of storage space above the garage.......

view into the space........

We actually did this at our last house and I have to say it was awesome for storing stuff like winter sleds, extra lumber etc......BUT our last house was WAY smaller and we didn't have as much basement space either.  In this house there is so much more space.....not to mention he built a bigger shed, and we have a HUGE basement.....how much more space does one need to store "stuff"??  This is why we greatly differed in opinion on this....I saw no need for this in our new house and if space was an issue then we needed to get rid of some stuff but he just couldn't let that space go to waste.....he was curious!!!  So now its done and we have stairs to storage above our garage.  He also put electric up there as well so he has a light.  Its actually a HUGE space for those out there that are also curious.  He bought the stairs at a big box store and was able to install them himself........such a HUGE improvement from the hole in the ceiling......and he did a good job making it look nice too!!

In other news, my husband also installed a loft in our shed, built some shelves in the garage and the shed, and is finally getting things neat and tidy in the basement and the garage/shed areas.  We finally have some flowers in our shed flower boxes and got some new urns and flowers for our front step (if it wasn't dark I would have taken some pictures....next time!).  We're also waiting for some quotes we got on some other projects we hope to have completed or at least started this summer.......so stay tuned and there will be much more to come!!!

Any of you have some great storage ideas/projects/tips to share??

Done!

So for the last week or so I have been leading you on about a HUGE project.  My husband has literally been working day and night to get this done in time for my daughter's birthday party yesterday and literally Saturday night it was done......well done as its going to be for the moment anyway.....seems like nothing is every fully done and in terms of this project we have a lot more to do but I'm just too excited to show you the project that I can't wait until everything is fully done!!

 I always knew my husband was very handy but I am so beyond amazed of his handy work on this project and everyone at the party was in awe that he did everything from scratch.  Nothing from this project was pre-assembled, pre-cut, pre-prepared, pre-drafted, or pre-done .......it was all his work from design to finish and I couldn't be more proud of  him......he did a fantastic job!!  He did learn a lot from this project though....probably the biggest thing he learned was not to let your wife know how crafty you are because it just opens the doors to many, many more "To Do's" on the to do list, and now I know that there is no idea too big for him to tackle!!

So are you ready to see what my husband made?................

So remember this room (our office/toy room)?......remember how I complained it was such a mess and so cluttered and I had no space for anything.......

well I'm excited to show you that this is how it looks as of today:

Sorry for the horrible pictures as they don't do this project any justice at all......BUT DON'T YOU LOVE IT??  Makes me just want to do cartwheels or something!!  If you couldn't tell already I just LOVE how it turned out.  The shelves are all adjustable and the cabinets below also have adjustable shelves, and he even made the cabinet doors by hand as well which really had me in awe!! I now have a TON of space to organize and put away kids things.   I have already cleared out our pantry of Art supplies, kids rooms of books, toys etc. and I still have a ton of space left.  Hopefully I'll get it a bit more organized and neatly filled with items but for now I'm just happy that its already made such a big difference in our home.

So now that my husband has completed this project, he decided to take a break and build me something else today while I was at work......check this out:

I know, you've already seen the shed he built.....BUT you haven't seen the shed with the completed window boxes he made today!!! Again very excited to have these done and now I can't wait to go get some flowers to fill them with.

So there you have it my friends.......the big project I've been so excited to share with you.  Now I guess its on to the next project but for today I think we'll just take advantage of this beautiful weather while we can!!

Until next post......enjoy!!

It's BIG!!

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself!!!  I have a big project to share with you but I'm trying really hard to wait until its done before I show you.  All I can really say is IT'S BIG and I LOVE IT!!  It really has turned out way better than I could have ever imagined and seriously this project has just opened the doors to many more on the list that I think we could actually tackle this year!!  The biggest issue holding us back is schedules and time......I just need time my friends and we would be banging out projects like you couldn't believe.  I don't know how you all manage to tackle projects so quickly as it just doesn't happen for us even if we put every spare moment into it.  However, I am just as excited though to tell you we are underway in some projects and I can't wait to share them with you!! So hang in there with us and I assure you we'll have some postings coming soon!!!

What have you all been working on lately?  Decorating?  Building something?  Landscaping?  Would love to read about some more inspirations you all are coming up with in the blogging world!!

Stay tuned......

Some much needed R & R

Hello my blogging buddies.......can I just tell you this week I am much, much, MUCH more relaxed than in past months.....(yup...that was months I said, but honestly its probably been more like years).  You don't realize just how stressed out you get until you leave it all behind and then come home refreshed with a new vision of your life.

Last week I seriously thought my hair was going to fall out.  Besides the whole airport situation, my mother in law staying with us, work, and all the rest of the things that go along with our crazy schedule (dance, scouts, guitar lessons, life etc.), what I didn't tell you is I was also packing our family for a much needed vacation.  In addition I was also pre-preparing for Easter since we would be driving to Florida and arriving the night before Easter.  Since we were staying with my brother and didn't want him to stress or fuss too much I literally made Easter breakfast, dinner, and also a couple other dinners ahead of time, froze everything, packed it, drove it 20 hours, and finished preparing it at my brothers house.  So needless to say it was a ridiculously crazy week but all worth it when we were finally on vacation and no one needed to worry about cooking or grocery shopping etc......everyone had a break and it was AWESOME!!!

My favorite part of coming home from vacation is when you walk in the door to your house and you realize its not as cluttered, messy, hectic as you felt it was when you left it. When you are home and inside all the time the walls seem to close in on you and even the smallest of things feels like a mountain of mess or work.   In addition it was like seeing our house for the first time again and realizing all the things I loved about it and suddenly remembering the things I want to change that I had forgotten about as they got lost in our day to day living.  It even smelled new again......LOVE!!  One thing my husband and I both agreed on was we still love this house and sometimes we have to take a step back before moving forward when it comes to projects and getting things done.  I'm finally seeing the bigger picture and not just focusing in on all the little stuff that has been bugging me.  I'm much more motivated to get some things done now when before it was just a giant to-do list that never seemed to get accomplished.......we were just so tired and worn out......vacation certainly does the body mind and soul a lot of good!!  Not to mention a 20 hour car ride allows you LOTS of time to think and clear your mind!!!

So here we are a new week, a new prospective on everything, and lots of motivation to pump out some projects and grow some new ideas for the future!!  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and week off if you had Spring break last week.  We did a lot of fun things on our vacation; went to the Marine science museum, touched stingrays, went to the zoo, toured the Daytona Speedway, celebrated my 36th birthday, but our favorite was just hanging out on the beaches, building sand castles, making sand angels (sand was everywhere by the time we were done), collecting shells, and riding the waves (sigh!).......so I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from our trip in hopes it will give you a moment of relaxation dreaming of those beautiful waves:

                                      Nothing feels better than the soft beach sand on your feet!!

                                                                ahhhhh smell that sea air....

                                                      one of  my favorite places in the world!!

Hope you are all relaxed now and you didn't even have to drive 20 hours to get there!!  Take care until next post.... :-)

Good Gravy!

Good Gravy is a term I seem to be using ALOT lately.  Probably a little old fashioned but with three little sponges parrots kids running around it is certainly a better choice than the words I really want to say.   I was hoping by this time I would be excitedly displaying pictures of my new built in cabinets that were nearly completed but this is all I got at the moment:

 Oh...what is this you ask?....why of course its the pile of lumber we bought to make the cabinets...but it still sits in our garage untouched......

 And this?.....its my dining room now being used as a make shift toy storage room.....

And there my friends is what has been accomplished in the office this week.......ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (insert GIANT frown)!!!........GOOD GRAVY!!!

My husband had vacation last week and the plan was to do nothing but work on the cabinets.......so why aren't they done you ask?......well its like this.....our week of nothing turned into the week of nothing but chaos.  Which in our house should be nothing new when you have a fireman husband, a wife who works around the husbands already goofy schedule, and three little ones who each have their own little schedules of school, sports, and other activities...now throw in some bouts of life happens, extended family functions, and time with friends and there you have it!!    Often it feels like our life is just one big game of tag...you're home~oh good~Tag You're it!!  We even refer to ourselves as "the tag team" and our way of parenting as "tag team parents"......its actually been WAY better since I lost my job....my new job isn't nearly as time consuming, demanding, and stressful but still it does take time away from my family and provides the "tag team" environment we've become accustomed to.   I'm not complaining....our schedule definitely has way more benefits to it than cons.....I'm just explaining its a very different life than what most people are used to and often is very CHAOTIC!!!

Oh yah....so back to why the cabinets aren't done.....so besides the normal chaos, less my husband being off for the week, my in-laws (father in law and step mother in law) were coming back from spending a few months in Arizona so we were planning on picking them up from Buffalo.  Well on the same day my other mother in law also decided to come into town from Arizona to attend a funeral and rather than fly into Rochester thats only 30 minutes away she also decided to fly into Buffalo but on a different plane that would land 3.5 hours earlier in the day.  Normally that wouldn't be an issue as we would just hang out at the airport but apparently that wasn't going to work this time.....so now my husband has to drive 1.5 hours to the airport, pick up my mother in law and travel her 2 hours to attend a wake that evening while I am left to get the kids off the bus, immediately pack them up in the car, drive to Buffalo, pick up my in-laws, drive them 3 hours back home then drive 1 hour from their house back to our house, fit in dinner while on the road, and get the kids in bed hopefully by 10pm which is WAY too late on a school night but apparently the only option......GOOD GRAVY!!.....so needless to say we have been crazy.....my mother in law is unexpectedly now staying with us this week and we have been doing nothing but running around from here to there, and back again......literally yesterday I put my coat on and got in the car at 8:45am and didn't take my coat off until 4pm, then made dinner, ate, put my coat back on and got in the car and came back home at 9:30pm.......to say the least its been a week of the unexpected happenings!!!  So thats why our cabinets aren't done.........such good intentions but throw in a crazy week and there you have it....Good Gravy!!!  I think we'll be taking a few days off just to get caught up on laundry and cleaning around the house (which I should be doing now before I have to leave again and pick up my daughter........I'm just too tired)!!  Anyways...hopefully we'll have some cabinet pictures for you soon.....we definitely have full intentions of getting them done sooner than later!!!

On a side note the model home in our development is done!!

It is practically in our back yard which I don't mind as its adding a bit of privacy to our lot, and we'll still have nothing in our back yard so we keep our nice view of the rolling farm fields and woods!!  The grand opening was this weekend but I have yet to take a peak at the inside.  Its a Milan model with the cottage style front......it looks very nice from the street view.....I can't wait to get in and see what types of decorating inspiration I can get from it!!  We visited a Waverly model not too long ago that was to die for and we certainly came home with a bunch of ideas to add to our list of to-do's.  I should have taken some pictures to share but didn't think of it until just now...........we sooo need some landscaping in our backyard.....oh yah I believe thats on our to do list this spring...Landscaping!!.....thinking perhaps a small burm in the back part of the lot with  some river birch trees, pine trees, maybe a sunburst locust tree someplace in the yard, would love a flowering dogwood in the little corner yard area between our morning room and where the office is........hmmmmmm anyone out there have any trees or landscaping arrangements they love and that have done well in their yard........have you planted them yourselves or hired out......I would love to hire out for our landscaping but think it may be too costly for our budget........would love some inspiration, ideas, and thoughts on DIY or hiring out for the landscaping before the planting season begins.......

well hopefully we will find some time in the coming weeks and I'll have some cabinet pictures for you soon my friends......until then happy decorating and keep all the wonderful ideas coming!!!

Back to Square One

so a few days ago I gave you all a mystery clue for one of my upcoming projects.....unfortunately I'm disappointed that it won't work out after all :-( Initially I got that fabric swatch thinking I would use the fabric to reapholster my grandmothers old wingback chair that I plan on putting in our bedroom some day, but the colors didn't quite work the way I wanted.  They did, however, work awesome in our morning room and I thought they would make excellent valances to replace the existing ones I have now (which I really don't like), and recover the toss pillows in the living room (which I also don't like anymore).  However, now I can't find the fabric online and in store it would cost me a giant fortune to buy the amount of fabric I really needed so I guess I am out of luck with that project.  Probably a good thing as I've been checking out some different possibilities.

Here is my dilemma with the morning room....I love having valances on the windows but I have drapes on the sliding glass door for privacy and I think it looks out of proportion.  Should I forgo having privacy and just continue the valance over the sliding glass as well or should I get rid of the valances and just do drapes on each side of the door and sections of windows?  What have you all been doing with your morning room windows and sliding doors?  Its just one of those projects I can see all sorts of ways and haven't found the exact one that I LOVE!!

SO while I'm asking questions.......I've been seeing blogs about the tile that looks like hardwood floors.  Have you seen this stuff?  I saw it a few months ago in one of the big box stores and didn't care much for it, but that was just looking at a pile of tile....I've been seeing pictures of rooms done with this tile and it looks amazing when its done.  People have been putting it everywhere in their homes; bedrooms, laundry rooms, living rooms,dining rooms, kitchens, entrys and honestly from their pictures it looks like hardwood floors.  So I looked into the reviews of this tile and its been getting excellent reviews as well.  So now I'm considering putting it in our master bathroom so it would look like hardwoods but have the durability of tile.  Have any of you seen this or have any thoughts about it??

Well hopefully I'll have more to blog about soon. I've got a paint swatch next to me that is strongly suggesting I run to the paint store now to get it and start painting!!!

I'll be eagerly waiting to see/read your morning room curtain tips and hardwood tile thoughts!!

Jumping In

So yesterday I announced that my husband has accepted the office make-over challenge that I proposed to him.  Today he was already visiting various hardware and big box stores looking at supplies and trying to decide how he was going to approach the cabinets...make them himself, or buy them pre-made but unfinished and then make them our own......I'm pretty sure after his travels today he has decided to make them himself.
Later this afternoon I caught him measuring and drawing and now that he has left for the car show with the kids I thought I would take a peak at what he was up to and this is what I found:

So looks like he's already started his rough layout/measurement/supply plan which is a good sign that he is into making this project into a quick work in progress.  I on the other hand have been thinking about colors, and what type of seating I want, tables, window treatments, lighting etc......all the fun stuff that gets me excited!!  So glad we're finally moving forward with a new project...

So I love to give you all some mystery clues as to what projects we have in store and unfortunately I couldn't make it to where I needed to go today, but I do have a clue for one of my next projects I hope to get working on soon....so here is the clue:

Any ideas as to the project and what do you think about the colors/pattern?

I will also tell you that I spent quite a bit of time in our guest room today coordinating fabrics for those pillows that I still want to make for the bed and chair......I think I finally figured out what I'm going to do but need a short consult with my mom (the master sewer and quilter) to see how I should go about doing what I want to do.   Hopefully I'll finally be getting that project on the way as well.

I LOVE FINALLY GETTING BACK INTO THE PROJECT GROOVE AGAIN!!! :-)  I just hope the trend keeps going and we don't repeat another little lull.  So keep inspiring us with your projects and we'll keep you posted with ours.......

Until soon again my friends......happy decorating!!

Challenge Accepted!

So the slump from weeks past has FINALLY ended and I have moved on with my old decor dilemmas and have dreamed up some new projects to start working on.  A fresh year, a fresh list of projects and boy do I have some big ones!!  So after some researching of my own I made some decisions about what I think I (and ultimately my husband who brings my dreams to a reality) want to tackle next......THE OFFICE (aka the toy room).  With three little ones under the age of 6 and grandparents who love to spoil them, we have a lot of toys.....no joke an unbelievable amount of toys!!  When we were searching for our dream house I wanted a place where all the toys could go and the kids could play and I wouldn't have to be stumbling over legos, Thomas trains, barbies, and hotwheels cars all day, and then when the day was over I could just close the door and magically the toys would disappear from view......ahhhhhh heaven!!!

So initially we had a blank canvas in the office.....so I brought in some of those cheap put together cubby things and some storage shelves and at first it was great.....but now I'm finding half their toys don't fit in the cubbies, and they've broken the cheap storage shelves (no shock there!).  In addition, we've added the couch and chair that once lived in our front "little living room" until we got new furniture, and are clearly too big for the office space......so now we seem to be back at square one where the toy room is just a place to put things with no organization and no room to really play in so it ends up out in the living room and the hallways and I'm doing just the things I dreamed I would be avoiding......ouch and ugh!!!

I am completely embarrassed to show you all this, but we all have to face our fears and just so you get an idea of the exact chaos I'm talking about here are some pictures of our toy room as it currently looks:

The even scarier part of these pictures is actually the room doesn't look half bad today, leading me to believe their rooms are probably unbearable :-(

So my new challenge is to clean this place up and get it organized!!  From day one I wanted a big built in book shelf along the back wall so I could have a place to store their 8,000 books (maybe that's slightly exaggerated....ha!), and neat baskets of cars and blocks, games, puzzles, art supplies (which are currently invading the morning room and pantry), and the like.  I wanted this room to allow the kids to play with their toys but also have comfy seating and a TV so the kids could watch their shows or play video games with friends, and where I could sit comfortably and play games with them or read stories, or watch TV if my husband is using the living room TV.  So this room would not only be a toy room but somewhat a den as well, and in the future an actual office or place to do homework etc.  We often refer to this room not only as the toy room but as the conference room as well since we often go in there and lock the door so we can actually hold an adult conversation or take an uninterrupted phone call when needed and drown out the kids yelling in the background. So in short I have high hopes for this room!!!

So this morning I finally proposed my ideas and plans to my husband and he has accepted the challenge and is already trying to figure out the details to make it work.  To give you a peak of what I've proposed here are some inspirational pics:

 I am in love with the bookshelves with the cabinets at the bottom and I think that is what we are most leaning towards so I can hide some bigger kids items behind closed doors.  So we shall see what happens in the next couple weeks.  Unfortunately my husband and I have some goofy schedules and with three little ones our projects don't get completed as quick as we would like but at least we have one in progress and in the works!!!  If you have any advice, ideas or inspiration we would love to hear from you......and we'll keep you posted of our progress!!!

Until next time.....Happy decorating!!