Plans

I've really been thinking about things I want to do around the house lately. I have some ideas, and I think that I can do these things over time for not a ton of money. :n)

1. Craft Room: I want to make the upstairs landing into a craft room. I have a butt ton of craft stuff, and it's all tucked away here and there. It would be a really nice use for that space, and it would be much more motivating for me to actually do a lot of the crafts that I want to do if I didn't have to dig the supplies out every time. (For example, using my sewing machine.)

I have been thinking on it for a while now, and I've decided that I want to paint it spring green:

with purple accents:

I also want some shelving hooked up on the walls, and I really like this:

it's what I have in Corbin's room, and I like the look of it. I think I could get away with just 2 of those hanging on the wall. And I wouldn't put the back panels on any of them; I'd leave them blank. Those units are only $50 apiece at Home Depot, which I think is a pretty good deal. :n) The idea would be that I could sort out paper, fabric, scrapbooking supplies, etc.

I want some sort of a desk/table in there, but I think I can easily find something like that used on Craigslist. I don't particularly care if it's in brand new shape, I just want something solid and not chipboard.

2. Spare bedroom/office: I want to redo the "toy" room (Corbin's old room) and make it into a spare bedroom/office. After a lot of thought, I want to either have a daybed in there, or a fold out couch. I think my preference is a daybed, though, because I want it to be more bed than couch, so that it's easy to get into. The advantage of the spare bedroom would be that if Tim is home and snoring really loudly, or if one of us is so sick that we're coughing hard, the other can go up into the spare room and sleep. (Believe me, I've dreamed of a spare bedroom many times, and found myself out sleeping on the couch on several occasions.)

I haven't figured out exactly how I want to decorate that room yet. I have gone back and forth with lots of ideas. For example, it would be cool to make it into a room of my favorite cartoons (Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.), but I don't have all that many items to fill it with; it would be a process over time, and until I ended up getting tons of stuff it would just be these weird cartoony colors with no real motivation behind it. I've also considered keeping it sort of light earth-tones, so that it's relaxing, but it's also going to be the place where I'll (fingers crossed) get some homework done, so I don't want it to be so relaxing that I'm falling asleep. On the other hand, I don't want it so "loud" that a guest can't sleep in there, either. (Not that I ever have guests over, but it could happen someday.)

So what I need to do first is PURGE TOYS because that room is a colossal disaster area, and nobody plays with about 90% of what's in there. Of course if I were to start purging it with anyone there, I'd suddenly begin hearing about how, "But I've been looking for that!"

I'm hoping to get some help with getting rid of some of the stuff from the kids, and then I'll continue to get rid of more of it on the sly. I have a plan to get together with some friends of mine, as well as with all of the toys that we all go through, and swap them out for things that our kids will actually play with. Then we could all have a big yard sale here with the rest. (Obviously they would sell their own stuff, but if we all have it at one place it will attract more people for all of us, of course.)

3. The master bathroom: is still not quite finished. There's not a lot that needs doing there, but my plan (right along) has been to make it silver and black with a motorcycle theme. It's already got a few motorcycle things in it, but the walls are blue. I think I want to paint the walls silver. And at some point, I would love to switch the toilet up for a black one. :n) Of course I'll need to buy matching shower curtain and rugs, but there's really not much more to do there.

4. My flower garden: This is a project that I'm sooo ready for. Like yesterday LAST year. It's going to be a memorial garden, with flowers/areas to represent each person. There will be a main type of flower in each area, but then it will have others around it, too. If I were able to, I'd love to have a big old wooden swing out there, too. But the trees in the front just don't look like they could support something like that. I basically want the entire front of the house to be the flower garden. The slope in the front is going to be covered with a spreading pink flower. And everywhere else in the front will either be flowers, rock path, or cedar. My birdhouses will go out there, too. <3

5. Vegetable garden: The kids and I are also very ready for this. I'm too excited for growing our very own fresh foods!!! CAN NOT WAIT!

Okay for now I'm going to stop. I have some other things that I want to get done, but I'm starting to sound greedy; or at least a little overzealous. :nb