Change in (Floor) Plans

As mentioned before, we’ve been working on transitioning Bailey’s old nursery into a shared room for her and her soon-to-arrive brother.  Our original plan was to create a floor plan similar to this:

Unfortunately, after the furniture was moved around we discovered that this floor plan wouldn’t work as well as we had hoped.  The main problem was that the dresser/changing table (which is a fairly frequent destination in the room) felt cramped and closed-in in the back corner.  Not to mention the fact that the book case and hamper (which we had planned to move into the closet) were greatly missed in the room.  So it was time to come up with a Plan B.

After a little bit of rearranging, our final floor plan ended up looking like this: 

Some of the elements in the room stayed the same, but a lot of things changed.  So far the floor plan seems to work much better for us!  And Bailey couldn’t be more excited about it!

Built-In Brainstorm

Once upon a time, the view from our family room into our kitchen looked a little something like this…

But, what you may not have noticed from the picture above was the old built-in desk/book case that used to be in the family room.  You can just barely see the corner of it in the picture below (For some reason I completely neglected to take a picture of the old built-ins prior to ripping them out in the big kitchen/family room renovation… obviously, I was more focused on the impending changes to the kitchen than I was on the changes that would take place in the family room). 

Completely out of view of the above picture is a large recessed area (approximately 3 ft. deep by 3.5 ft. wide) to the left of the built-in desk/book case.  The space is flanked by brick on either side and served no apparent purpose, so this is the spot where we had awkwardly placed an old TV and stand to be used in the room.

Anyway, our plan from the very beginning was to swap the “office” and “entertainment” areas.  Before the old kitchen wall came down and the new peninsula went in we were forced to rip the old, built-in desk/book case out to make way for the new walkway into the kitchen.  The slightly recessed area (approximately 1 ft. deep by 6.5 ft. wide) that we were left with was too shallow for a desk, but it would work perfectly for the new built-in book case/entertainment area we had envisioned.

 

And the deeper recessed area to the left (again, I failed to take a “before” picture of it) was the perfect depth for a built-in desk similar to this inspiration picture (originally pinned from here).

Unfortunately, with the expense of the kitchen renovation and the unexpected roof repairs we made last year, we didn’t have the money in the budget to finish our built-in plans.  This left us with a lack of storage and no designated office space in the family room.  Our so-called “temporary” solution has simply been this…

Continue using the deeper recessed area (that we planned to convert into a new built-in desk) for our old, awkward TV and place an old, unused desk in the slightly recessed area to the right (that we planned to use for a new entertainment space).

I know it’s pitiful, but this has been our reality… for about 9+ months now!

Thankfully, however, it doesn’t look like this will be our reality much longer!  Because sitting in our back room as I type this post are a small handful of boxes that look a little something like this…

That’s right folks!  The cabinets required to make our built-in dreams a reality are here!  Now all we need is a free weekend or two to make the magic happen!

Repurposed Soda Crate Planter

This old Orange Crush soda crate was another find at a local church yard sale.  I instantly fell in love with the bright colors and graphics and knew that I could come up with something to do with it at home.

The only problem with it was that it had a piece of old, nasty carpet attached to the bottom.  I’m not really sure what the point of the carpet was, but I figured that I could easily remove it and the nails that had been used to secure it.

With a little elbow grease both the carpet and nails were gone and some more fun graphics were exposed on the sides.

And after popping a few flowers inside I was left with this fun planter for the back patio. 

This is definitely more than a crush… I think I’m in love!

I Bought a House!

A bird house that is!  But after stumbling across this sweet little blue bird house at a church yard sale for just $3, who could blame me for pulling the trigger?  I just love the happy, summery colors and I thought it would be the perfect addition to our back yard wilderness!

You see, we’re literally surrounded by nature here in Kingsport.  Our neighborhood is bordered by a mountain on one side and a river on the other, so it’s not unusual to have deer, rabbits, ducks, or even the occasional skunk or bear in the back yard.  So I’ve been gradually trying to capitalize on our one-ness with nature by turning our gardens and yard into a sanctuary of sorts for all of the little critters that come to visit. 

My new blue bird house is the next step in my master plan!  Not to mention the fact that it’s just plain adorable!

I mean, come on… what little bird wouldn’t want to call this place home?

Baby Boy Leonberg… 4-D!

Craig and I were very excited to have a 4-D ultrasound of our little guy last Friday (at 27 weeks and 1 day) and then a repeat 4-D again today (at 27 weeks 5 days).  Just as with Bailey, we got a lot of hand-in-face shots (see her 4-D pics here and here).

But thankfully, with a bit of patience we were able to get a few clear pictures of his sweet little face!

Can’t wait to see that adorable face in person!

12 Years Ago…

…Craig and I were just a couple of crazy high school kids flirting in class.  Then he asked me out!

And who could have imagined where that first date would lead?

Nursery-Turned-Shared-Bedroom

Craig and I are in the process of turning Bailey’s current nursery into a shared bedroom for her and her future brother. 

I’m sure some of you out there are thinking we’re totally crazy for doing this, but let me explain our thinking a bit.  First, kids share rooms all of the time.  My sister and I shared a room for years when we were little, so we figure until our kids get older sharing a room won’t be too big of an issue.  Second, we live in a 3-bedroom house and all of our family and a lot of our friends live out-of-state.  So, when we have people come to visit (which happens every couple of months and a few times a year at the holidays) we need a place for them to stay.  Even with our current guest bedroom available we’ve still had occasions where family and friends end up on couches, air mattresses, or at hotels.  So, keeping our guest bedroom free is a must! 

Now, as fun as it is to play around with planning a new space… converting Bailey’s current bedroom into a shared bedroom has presented us with a few different challenges: 

1. Fitting all of the necessities into a room that’s roughly 150 square feet
2. Working around the room’s architectural challenges features (the windows, the wall of closets, and the door)
3. Creating a space that works for both a toddler and an infant
4. Creating a space that will fit both a boy and a girl

Here’s a drawing of what Bailey’s room currently looks like…

…and here’s our plan for the shared bedroom.

You’ll notice a few big differences in the shared space.  Primarily, we plan to add a twin-sized bed for Bailey, so that the crib will be freed up for our new little guy when he arrives.  The second major furniture change is the addition of a smaller dresser in place of the humongous dresser that’s currently in the room.  We don’t really expect the down-sized drawer space to be a problem given the entire wall of closets in the room and the vacant dresser in the guest room that can be used for extra clothing storage.  You probably also noticed that the hamper and book case are missing from the drawing.  We don’t plan on eliminating these items entirely.  We just plan to tuck them away in one of the closets (probably the closet that’s closest to the rocker). 

So, that’s the plan for the nursery-turned-shared-bedroom.  As we all know, things don’t always work out according to plan… but we’re pretty sure that this room design will address the first couple of challenges on our list above.  Now, the last couple of challenges on the list we’re praying Pinterest and Google can help us figure out!