Progress

Well, the painting's done. At least the portion I was working on. We have moved the educational efforts upstairs. I'm still not overwhelmed with love for our new digs, mostly because I'm still feeling cramped. I do have some ideas to spread us out a little bit, and I can't blame feeling frazzled only on the room. Homegirl and Thing Two are doing plenty to frazzle me when it comes to school. I'm sure we'll adjust in time.

So here's what I've got so far. I haven't done much in the way of decorating yet. I've been focused on just getting things organized for now.

I made this from scrapbook paper and yarn.

Forgive the double watermark. I'm learning a new photo editing program. I don't have the patience right now to fix it.

I have an idea for this long hallway space that would help us spread out a bit. Thinking of a built in counter-ish type desk along the wall over those storage doors, big enough to work on but small enough to not overwhelm the narrow space.

I also have some ideas for this plywood wall we built to keep children from falling over the balcony. I'd like to cover it with something, maybe wallpaper, fabric, canvas, chalkboard...haven't narrowed it down yet.

There's still more to paint over the stairs. There's always more to paint. This will probably be the hardest section.

So much orange. And there's always stuff on my stairs. I hope I'm not the only one.

So, that's the progress report. It's getting there, and I am thankful that the landing at the top of the stairs is big enough to work with.

I'll leave you with some shots of the flowers Seth got me for Valentine's Day. Love the coral color, and I thought my oversized jar would make a really cute vase. 

Gotta get working on Homegirl's new room. After all that horrible attic painting, it will feel like a piece of cake!

School Daze

If you're looking for perfection, you're on the wrong blog.

Here at The Practice House, we don't strive for perfection. Perfection isn't even on our radar. We basically have one aim when it comes to projects: DONE. In fact, we'll settle for "Done Enough".

The ol' schoolroom was much in need of a revamp. For one thing, it morphed into a wreck over the summer. My children basically live in that room. Their computer is in there, their art stuff, books, puzzles, and millions of toys had settled into the crevices. And I barely entered it for three months. You can imagine the disaster.

Another reason to spruce up, besides the fact that I just can't truly start school until I have a nice neat classroom, was that I got a "new" desk. I'd been looking around on craigslist and garage sales for one that would work and that I could give a makeover. I mentioned to my mom I was looking for one, and she offered me one of their old ones--the same desk that I learned to write on. Sentimental value through the roof. Score.

So, here's what I started with--your basic 30 year old metal desk:

I primed it and then gave it two or three coats of Valspar spray paint in "Smoke". It ended up being almost exactly the same color of the walls in the schoolroom. That wasn't my intent, but it looks kinda nice. I'll show you in a minute. Patience.

When I got the desk into the room and straightened everything up, it felt like it was coming together. So, I took some night shots (which you're not really supposed to do on a home blog, but I'm a rule breaker).

It still had some issues though: The windows, as you can see, were fancily covered by a flag and a blanket. Also, just outside this shot, was a royal mess of papers and boxes. So, onward we marched.

Next came operation closet shelves, because I need storage space in there. This entailed taking everything out of the closet (and messing up what had been a nice cheery room again). Seth built several shelves in varying depths for me to store all the school/craft/game/whatever crap that lives in that room.

Here was the sad closet before (it was more sad before it was emptied):

After shelves and a whole lotta white paint:

Now we were in the home stretch. Just had to load all my junk into the closet and straighten everything up. And hang blinds. And then take a deep breath.

It might not be as pretty as you hoped, but I'm delighted with this closet. There's still a lot of room left, and eventually I will sort through all those papers and stuff and file/shred them and then it will be fancier. But for now, this does wonders.

And now, for the rest of the room:

Is it perfect? Hardly. But it's clean, bright, mostly organized, and functional. I'll take it! Obviously, there are a few more things to do.

Short term: Replace desk chair, touch up paint, hang a pretty curtain in the closet doorway, hang a bulletin board and some artwork

Long term: Either refinish or carpet the floors

Whew! One room is clean and looking great! If only all the other rooms didn't suffer neglect when I  am busy with projects. More mess to tackle.