Home Improvement

So my nesting and "always looking to improve our space for cheap" bug has been biting again lately. I have been evaluating our primary living spaces, reflecting on homeschooling and came up with a plan for intentionally making "away" spaces to aid in variety in play/learning. In other words, it was time for a change.

I decided to tackle these two spaces, ultimately making them three spaces to allow for separation and decluttering.

I will unveil first the before photos and then two of the completed spaces since the third space is not fully finished yet.

The before:

 The practicality of my homeschooling shelves clashed some with the reality of two small girls. So I decided moving the books away from the homeschooling supplies and "closing" the homeschooling/discovery play supplies to a "Mommy distribution" policy would aid in keeping it cleaner. 

 The "office" space is on the opposite side of the fireplace from the homeschooling supply and books/piano. [We don't have a room assigned for our office space b/c we decided instead to have a playroom and teach the value of "no touching" even in a common space, plus reserve a bedroom for respite care/adoption.]

 Our main room in our house is the living room, arrayed with two couches, a large TV (gifted to us) and then this wall of: cat climber (right), dollhouse (I painted and got from an old therapy work "exchange") sitting on top of a table (covered by a blanket) with extra blankets stored under it (movie watching snuggle time), princess castle, then large lego bin (left) and then you start running into our "entertainment" section by the TV.

And now, the After:

I started by moving the homeschooling supplies and the piano to divide our large common room that holds our missions table (outdoor patio glass table/metal chairs kept inside), dining room table (closer by the kitchen) and office area. 

[Side note]: Since our fireplace is not a working feature of our household (cracked chimney), we don't use this area as a sitting area, but we do use the "missions wall" to add/learn about missions projects, our world vision kids, missionary friends, etc. I've displayed information about the global hunger needs, persecution, and world vision village phases for the reminder and active, ongoing conversation about God's work and the labor/laborers still needed in the harvest. I am ultimately going to flip our large poster area with our (soon to be) three world vision kids display area to allow for an easier update space and a larger space to display the children's artwork/letters. I'm in no rush to complete this project since changes will be coming to our missions wall with two of our missionary friends coming home in August, therefore, taking down their pictures/information and moving them to the missions binder for continued prayer for the region, even when our missionary friends are not there. Anyway... so that's the posters/info you see displayed on the wall above the toys.

Hoping to deter run-by piano use, Matt and I moved the piano sideways, thus providing an endcap to the missions table/dining room area and making the illusion of a separated play area with the toys from the living room. 

Since we do homeschooling at the dining room table, this small play area will allow Abi a "space away, yet nearby" to play while Rachael does her table work. Abi, my more "touch-base" kid, didn't enjoy looking at books (the previous bookcase was there instead of the toys) for the homeschooling time and often would not play alone in the other room since her character likes to be close for a few "touch bases" during homeschooling.

This set-up will allow her to play quietly with the dollhouse/animals/legos/miscellanious basket of larger electronic toys while still remaining socially close by. 

I chose to use a small buildable shelving unit to allow for decluttering and easy "slide-in/out" old laundry basket storage. When everything has a place and we don't see all the utter details of the toys, things look much neater. Plus asking Abi to clean up entailing putting things in bins = realistic expectation for her age. 

Next I tackled the living room space. Due to the shape of our living room and the ridiculously heavy TV, we really have found the best set-up for the living room large furniture. But I was wanting to make a quiet space available for a little bit of a refuge away. Since we have toys in the other two play areas (playroom and large common room), I wanted to make a space where the girls could go to enjoy the quiet while still reserving their rooms for sleep (we've found it helps best to reserve their rooms for sleep, thus creating the environment at the "doorstep" of their room and clear expectations while in their room). 

Thus I give you, our new space (with minimal but nice changes):

 I pulled the toys out, made a "forward facing" bookshelf from a pinterest-inspired idea mixed with a "what we have around the house" reality.

I also decided to keep the small metal bin of "edible books" (cardboard/foam books) for easy Abi access. While Abi can reach the bottom shelf of the wall-mounted bookshelves, I know that she also enjoys her "dump and fill" nature in all environments and often finds "the right book" best by spreading books out on the floor. So her board-book bin allows such enjoyment at her level.Rachael can reach the bottom shelf with ease and the top shelf while standing on a pillow animal.

I put all the reading pillows under the bookshelves, with hopes to couple them with the blankets previously stored in the living room and also allow movie-time snuggling with pillows too. 

To the right of this picture is our large three-paned front window, which allows this space to be naturally lit for most of the day. Between the two couches, the pillows and the blankets, this allows a nice quiet area of learning, reading and discovering. We have already enjoyed the snuggle time on the couch (verses the floor in the previous room) which my back and my Mommy's delight so appreciates.

The limitation of this bookshelf allows us the ability to put enough reachable books on there without overwhelming the girls with choices (fits about 25 books). That limitation also allows us to switch out books every few months or so to keep up the variety and interest.

I made this shelf out of 1 eight-foot 2x1 board we had left over in the garage, 1 sixteen inch scrap-board, and old laundry line. Thanks to our church maintenance guy, Michael, and a phone conversation with my brainy Dad, I got the boards measured out, cut down, screwed together and mounted with 5 metal brackets to the wall. I used an additional 8.5 inch piece of wood in the middle section of the bookshelf to provide extra support since books, while light individually, can add up in weight.  

I will unveil the office space another day when it is completed. When I rearrange I like to also take the opportunity to clean out, vacuum, wash down the items, etc. I have put the office on pause for a few days to return to my regular housework/chores (so as not to get too far behind on those) while taking on these new projects. I'm also waiting for a chance to put the finishing touches on my two bookshelves. ;)

Thus far, to flip the two spaces between the large common room and the living room it has cost me $10 in dry wall screws (we ran out and the small package was not a deal) and 5 metal brackets at $0.89 a piece to secure the bookshelf to the wall. As mentioned earlier, I already had the wood, extra laundry line, paint, and obviously all the toys. 

Plus with using black Tempera paint to paint the shelves, the girls enjoyed helping paint as well and I didn't completely spazz out when Abi decided to taste the paint. EEK! Granted, only one taste sufficed the child. ;)

The project took me two days of time (life had to happen between), which I also count a cost to the project. And it was a cost well worth the "new" spaces.

=)