The Fourth Room...

Okay, so here's the thing...I have a tiny house, I LOVE our house, but there's no bones about it, it's tiny.  So when people ask about our house and I tell them it's 1300 square feet, 4 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms, I usually hear, "What?!? 4 bedrooms?  Where's the fourth bedroom?"

So here is the the story of The Fourth Room...

Once upon a time, there was a little family, a daddy, a mommy, and 1 super adorable baby boy.  They bought a little house for their little family and moved all their stuff in.  But where, oh where, to put all that extra stuff that never has a home.  "I know, we'll put it all in that other room down the hall.  You know, the one those crazy people who lived here before us painted dark blue and sponge painted?  We don't need to do anything in there for awhile, so we'll just put all our extra stuff in there for now."  I don't remember who said this exactly, but it was said nonetheless.

Time passed and the little family started fixing up their little house.  Painting here and there, new floors in the front room and hallway, but they only ever ventured into that fourth room to find a "temporary" spot for something they didn't really have a spot for.

The mommy and daddy were trying to share the same office for awhile, but with a fish tank and two computer desks it was starting to get crowded in there.  And the mommy didn't have a place she could do anything with all of her craft stuff.  So they decided it was time to change the fourth room into another office.  One office for each of them, because they each had a lot of stuff for their respective hobbies and nobody was able to work on anything.

That's the story of the fourth room, and here are the pictures of the story thus far...

 This is the view from the hallway.  Nice paint job, no?

And the wallpaper border?  Somebody really liked sports. (*gag*)



We took the doors off the closet and I moved all those boxes out.

This was taken after I had gone through this stuff for the hundredth time and had gotten rid of even more.

After Leland got the support framing in place.  Sorry there are no "in progress" pictures.  He textured and primed it on Saturday with Trent, and before I got home on Monday he was already almost finished with painting the yellow.  He's THAT good!

 

The "dry fit" of the countertop desk.  We got a piece of countertop for FREE leftover from somebody's work (I'm not telling who, hehe) and Leland cut it down to size.  The holes were already in there for cords/cables, etc which is nice because the iMac will be in here and all the cords can go through the holes!



And here is that cute baby boy I mentioned earlier.

This desk is so strong it can hold all 25 lbs. of this massive kid.  Love that smile!

So Leland and Trent are going to run an electrical outlet so I have power and also put in a light on the same switch as the light on the ceiling fan so I have can "frighten away the ghosts of so many years ago with a little ILLUMINATION!"  (Sorry, I couldn't resist the Phantom reference when talking about illumination.)

The reasoning behind the built-in closet desk is that these rooms are 10x10, which doesn't leave room for much else.  We have a daybed for guests (Thanks Melgozas!) and a bookcase and tv stand as well.  I couldn't figure out where to put a desk and I didn't want to get rid of any furniture.  I think I'm going to put a curtain in front of the desk opening so that it can be hidden away from guests who stay with us.

I'm still waffling on a paint color for the walls in the rest of the room.  I don't want it to be major league girly because we may have to combine offices in the future when another baby comes along and needs that other room.  On the other hand, it's just paint and it could be changed in the event of offices combining.

I've been thinking about either a light sage green OR a muted heather purple.  Thoughts?

Linen Closets are so...GRRR!

Doesn't it always seem like your linen closet always needs an overhaul?  Mine does.

And I've been on a bit of an organizing/decorating the house kick recently and reading blogs like this, and this that sometimes have pictures of projects that they've done in their homes.  I just like reading about what other people have done.  I don't usually get great ideas by myself.  I'm a copier.  I see what someone else has done and then twist it to fit what I need.

So when I saw the most recent Better Homes and Gardens special publication (it's all about storage, organization, and decorating in small spaces...like my house) and saw a photo of a beautiful linen closet all clean and organized with bins and dividers I thought, "THAT'S my next project!"

Here's the cover in case anyone wants to go buy it.  It was $5.99 and totally worth it in my opinion.

This is the first page I flipped to (and the inspiration for this project) while I was in line at Walmart to check out. I actually ran back into the Walmart to pick out some bins I had seen earlier while Leland unloaded our groceries. I knew I liked those bins for a reason.

Our hall linen closet is smallish; it fits in between Carter's room and the 2nd bathroom in the hallway.  I feel lucky to have a linen closet, since neither of our apartments had a big enough storage area for all the linens to have a home.  I like it when things have a "home" that way they don't float around my house from one flat surface to another.  You know what I'm talking about if you've ever been to my house.

So here's the {almost} finished product!  I still need to get labels made and slipped in to the slots of all the bins and I still need to find a basket that will fit on the floor inside the closet for towels, but it was a serious improvement to all the random stacks of stuff that had been unceremoniously shoved into this closet just so it wasn't out where people could see it (another of my less than favorable traits, when people come over I hide my clutter instead of actually doing something about it...eek!).  But hopefully now that won't happen anymore.  Because I won't want to mess up all the work I did in here.  It's SO much better!

2010 In Review

I put together a little slideshow of our 2010.  It actually includes the end of 2009, but that was some really important stuff, so I put it in.  I hope you enjoy it!  (P.S.  I love having a Mac, it made putting this together so easy!)

Click here to watch it on YouTube!

Watched Over

I just wanted to quickly share an experience I had over the weekend.  Leland and I were going to a Christmas get-together with his cousins on Saturday night.  My parents were going to be watching Carter for us and we met up with them at my grandparents' house where my mom and dad were putting up the Christmas tree.  The party was a potluck and so we had our crockpot with us and we brought it in to keep it plugged in until it was time to leave for the party.  It ended up getting plugged in on the island and I made a mental note to not let Carter go into the kitchen so that he wouldn't pull on the cord and have a hot crockpot fall on him.

My dad had gone downstairs, we thought with Carter in tow, and the rest of us were sitting and chatting in the front room.  I don't know how else to describe it other than I suddenly knew Carter was not with my dad, but was in the kitchen about to pull the crockpot down on himself.  I jumped up and ran into the kitchen just in time to grab him as he was standing and reaching for the crockpot cord.

My heart was pounding, of course, and I just held him tight because I knew how hurt he would have been if he had pulled that crockpot off the counter.  My mom said something about my "great Spidey-sense" which got me thinking.  That wasn't me; that was a prompting from the Holy Ghost watching over my little family and keeping my little dude safe.

Anyone who knows me won't be surprised when I tell you that I'm crying as I write this.  I am so grateful for the power of the Holy Ghost in my life; I know I am being watched over and that my little family is, as well.

Another year...

A year has gone by since I wrote my last anniversary post.  I just reread it to reminisce and remember what was going through my mind at this point last year.

Last year on our anniversary:

• We were pregnant (hugely pregnant) with exactly one month left to our baby's due date.  Though we didn't know it at the time, we would be in the hospital exactly one month after our anniversary to have labor induced and have our little one join the world.  What a journey it has been since then!  I love being a mom and I know Leland loves being a dad (since I'm writing this alone I will put that in for him).  Carter has blessed our lives and even though struggles have arisen from the stress of parenthood, I'm thankful to know I have a partner I can count on while we raise our son.

• We were getting ready to close on our house.  While reading last year's anniversary post, I saw that I had written we were hoping to close on our house the following week.  Well, that didn't happen.  But we did evenutally close on our house (while in the hospital being induced, sheesh!).  We love our little house and we (and by we, I mean Leland) have put a lot of work into it to make it our own.  It's funny to look back on all the worrying and stress we let bother us last year and to realize how un-stressed we are now that we are settled in our home.

This past year has been more of a discovery for us as we've learned that love is infinite.  I didn't know I could love as much as I do.  My love for my family has grown exponentially since I became a mother.  Every day I love Leland and Carter more than I did the day before.  It's not always the way it is in the movies or in books (sometimes it is) but I climb into bed at the end of every day knowing I have an awesome sweetheart and the coolest kid around who both love me.

Thankful: Post #1

I am thankful for:

• an awesome husband who put up with my crazy over this whole weekend.  He helped me with the heavy lifting and kept our son Friday night and ALL DAY Saturday so I could focus on Ashley's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party.  I am thankful for him and I love him SO MUCH!
• everyone who made Ashley's Bridal Shower possible.  I couldn't have done it without:
• Terri and Dave for the letting us invade their beautiful home and throw a big party in their backyard
• Myrna, Tina, D Jo, Lawanna, Angie, Karolann, Nicole, Terri, and Corrinne for help with the food, the food prep, the setting up, the teacup shopping, and everything else
• The Men: Leland, David, Tyler, Dave, and my dad, Scott for picking up/dropping off tables, setting up tables and chairs, and waiting around for me to give them one more thing to do
• My mom, Lisa, and my Aunt Linda for all their help with floral arrangements, because I suck at it, and for doing all the kitchen stuff during the shower so I could play hostess
• my husband, Leland (again) for painting and installing our baseboards after the awesome job he did on our floor (and thanks to everyone else who came and did flooring and painting at our house, it looks amazing and I love it!)
• my parents, brothers, and Aunt Linda who held or kept an eye on Carter on Sunday so I could have a peaceful Sacrament Meeting and eat my lunch at the luncheon after the baby blessing

I think that's a pretty good start to my "thankful" posts.  Three cheers for GRATITUDE!  Hip-hip-hooray!  Hip-hip-hooray!  Hip-hip-hooray!

Up to the challenge?

I've seen a lot of "Challenge" posts recently, all trying to get us to focus on being grateful and whatnot.  Well, I'll admit it, I'm not always so focused on the "gratitude"; unless, of course, I'm pointing out someone else's lack thereof.

So, I'll take your challenge (whoever YOU are).  Let's see if I can manage to get the word "thank" (or any of its siblings) in all of my posts from now on.  I'll attempt to do short daily posts, I hate it when I have to write long ones, 'cause nobody wants to read all that.