Before and After

OK...I guess I was a little too anxious to start my project, as I do not have any proper BEFORE pictures showing the entire area. But those of you who have been here, know what a cramped space the kids and I shared for my office and their community play area. But below are a few pictures to give you an idea of the space and the color before the make over.

This picture is what the area looked like when we bought the house, taken on our inspection day. The large bookcase stayed and we filled it to the brim with photo albums, kids books, files and stuff.

Here you can see my mini desk in the background (behind the beautiful family!). With the printer on it, leaving me not much work space.

And another shot of the "toy closet" and book shelf, my desk chair and the kids table.

So, a brief run down of what I did...

1. Husband left town early Monday morning and I decided to complete a project while he was gone. So the first day I purchased everything I would need: paint and rollers. We like to paint, so we have all the tarps and pans, etc., etc...I am all about instant gratification and painting a room gives it to me!

Prior to him leaving though, I moved the majority of toys out of the "toy closet" and into their bedrooms. The toy explosion fallout seemed to be growing exponentially everyday, so I decided to minimize the fallout by moving ground zero to their rooms. The "toy closet" is now my sewing closet :)

2. Started to do a little bit while the kids napped, moved most of the books outside and started clearing out junk.

3. Put the kids to bed and got to work. The first night I painted the dining room area of the room. I got two coats on and one coat of cutting in. Whew. Time to go bed.

4. The next day I finished clearing off the book shelf while the kiddos were napping. But ran into a problem getting the humongous bookcase out into the back yard. (My plan was to cut this bookcase in half...putting the lower two shelves into SO room and then mounting the top three shelves to the wall above my desk.) Well it was bigger than the door going out to the backyard, so I had to call my dad for help. I thought I was going to have to cut it in half to get it out the door, and was afraid to use the circular saw on our dining room floor - I knew it would not end well. Fortunately my dad was thinking more clearly than I was at the moment and suggested we turn it on to its side. WOW, why didn't I think of that! - and to think I care for two children on a regular basis - scary!

5. Put the kiddos to bed and began the arduous task of priming the other side of the room. I primed because of the backside of the fireplace and the stucco, I wanted to make sure the interior paint I was using would cover up the terra cota color. I got the fireplace covered in the primer and the two coats of black paint on the "work space" walls. Yes, that's right, I said black paint!

6. The next day I dropped my kids at preschool and Papa's house and made the 2.5 hour drive one way to the Palo Alto Ikea to get the items I needed for my project. (Yes, tj and crew, THAT Ikea.) The nice thing about IKEA's website is that it can tell you exactly where in the get-it-yourself-warehouse the items that you want are! So you don't have to waste any time going through the showroom. So, I spent about 45 minutes in Ikea getting my items, checked out and drove 2.5 hours back home. But this night I took off. We went to the beach to spend the night with Gabrielle. It was fun and a nice break from painting until 11pm! And, yes, the next day was as freezing as it looks, but it was still the beach and we were there with friends!

7.Thursday night I cut in with primer around the fireplace and wall area and got the first coat of the off-white paint on.

8. Friday night was a long night...Hubby was coming home late Saturday night, so I had a lot to get done. The final coat on the fireplace and adjacent walls (that fireplace was bitch to paint because the surfaces were all so uneven. But I bought my new favorite paint rollers at OSH, they are sponges that were sliced so that they could get into the grooves. I didn't realize I was buying them at the time, I thought I was just getting the regular thick nap roller. But I am extremely happy with my purchase - they rocked!) Anyway, this night was a late one (1am) but the painting was completed!

9. Saturday morning was the day to assemble all of the Ikea items. I put the two desks together and they looked great. So exciting! Then I got the Billy bookcases together. I decided to stop before mounting anything on the walls. I had to make some changes to my list while in Ikea and now everything didn't fit exactly how I had envisioned. So, I decide to wait for EO and to get his opinion on everything thing else. And, I was exhausted! I could barely lift my arms, so there was no way me and the screwdriver were going to be getting along!

EO got home (finally, no thanks to the storm in Chicago) and was happy with the painting (and more happy that he didn't have to do any of it!) He was maybe a little less happy with the fact that I had decided to save us money (happy about that part!) by reusing the existing bookcase, but to cut it down (less happy because project for him!) But he embraced the vision and we got it done and mounted on the wall this week. Plus SO is VERY happy with her new book shelf in her room. And in full disclosure, I did break the garage door in the process of all of this (because I was stupid!), but fortunately for me it was not as bad as I thought it was and EO fixed in a few minutes. Damn, he is handy! Gotta love a man in a tool belt! (but it had made a really loud BANG, so I thought I was screwed!)

So with out further adieu...the AFTER:

I must say, I could not be happier with how it turned out. Even with two of the walls painted black, the area is so much lighter. EO thought it extremely out of character for me to be painting walls white (I am usually the anti-white), but after three years of not being able to decide what color to paint the room, white was the best I could come up with.

The kids have a bigger table now to sit at so they are not on top of each other. And I love sitting at my desk doing WORK! So it could not have turned out much better! Now all I need is a new chair...

An Open Letter to the Contractor Building the Spec House Next Door to Us

Dear Contractor,

There are a few items that I would like to address before you go and start building another house in an already established neighborhood.

Item #1: If you are building it as a spec house, be a man and say so. Do not say you are not sure what you are going to do with the house, maybe you will "live in it or maybe sell it." If you are only going to live in it when you cannot sell it, then say so.

Item#2: When you ask me to borrow our water to wet down the dirt so that it does not blow all over while putting in the footings for the house, please explain that this is not a one time deal and that you are going to show all the subs the water spigot on the side of my house to be used for the ENTIRE job.

Item #3: When you say that you are going to pay me for said water, please do so without having to be reminded. But also, do not think that I will not remind you, so don't be surprised when asked to cough up the cash.

Item #4: When showing subcontractor's the water spigot for all to use, please point out to them that the wall that it comes out of is the wall between them and my childrens' rooms. So, if they could please not let the gate SLAM as they go in and out multiple times a day, I would appreciate it. Because, as you know since you have a toddler as well, that when the subcontractors are done for the day (3:00pm), it is during naptime.

Which brings me to...

Item #5: It is obvious that you have some friends doing some work for you. I know this because some of the work does not start until late afternoon. So, why does it have to be just about everyday when nothing is happening to the house, all day, that at 3:00pm your buddies show up to start tractoring and jack-hammering...at 3:00pm...during naptime. I am sure if this house was being built next to your house, your wife would want to lose her mind.

Item #6: Before you move the port-a-potty onto my property, at least ask first. I understand that your gas line needs to go in, because the sooner stuff gets done, the sooner you will go away. But think about it, wouldn't you be a lot LESS pissed off if you had at least been asked first and agreed to it?

Item #7: When you say that you are going to move the port-a-potty today (because we asked you to - two weeks later) then, could you please actually do it. It is now two days after you said you would move it and it is still on my property. One more day and I am going to call them to come and pick it up...it is on my property after all. Yes, I mean tomorrow, Tuesday, the 29th.

Item #8: I am pretty sure you hate coming to my door to ask me things (which is why you did not ask me about the port-a-potty). But you did come to my door to ask to borrow the hose (more water related borrowing) blaming it on the subs with promises to return the hose. Well it did not get returned and EO had to go over there to get it so that we could use it. Our own hose. I am sure you can imagine the answer the next time you ask to borrow something.

Item #9: If you have to dig up some of our plants that are close to the property line, again asking or letting me know would be the thing to do. Especially since I had already asked you if our plants were going to get trampled and I am sure you can remember what your answer was to that.

Item #10: Please be considerate of all the crap we have to put up with on our narrow little street while you are building this house. Put yourself in our shoes. We have to wait for you to move the tractors so we can drive down the street to get to town as you are at the beginning of the only outlet. We have to deal with the torn up road and the big metal squares covering up the huge holes in our road...it is with a little dread that I wait to see how this will be remedied. With respect to this item, I am not sure what exactly happened the day that you hooked up the water and the gas lines, but from what I could tell it seemed as if you were going to leave on a Friday night with out making the street very drivable for those of us who live on it...for the entire weekend (i.e., beers were being consumed, the tractors were parked in their usual overnight spots and the mood was jovial). I witnessed some sort of an altercation with my neighbor from across the street...she was yelling, hands flying in the air. I admit, I tried to listen but sometimes my kids make it hard to eavesdrop. All I know is that one of your buddies went over to talk to her and that later the cops showed up. And then you and your buddies worked until past 8:30pm that night to fix the road up so it was drivable. Thank you for that.

Item #11: I am sure by the above referenced items that you can understand why I fully expect some sort of fruit basket or "thank you for not riding my ass the whole job" gift, because frankly, I am sure that my husband would have been happier had I bugged you about everything other than him. And in case you need some thank you gift ideas, I enjoy gift certificates for high-end stores, coffee, massages and furniture - with triple digit amounts on them.

The only good part about the house being built next door (after the lot had sat empty for 50 years and there was no action on it until you decided to build a spec house in the worst market possible probably only because we live in the house next door, but I digress) is that good friends of ours have purchased it. So, while we do have to put up with the construction and the BS, we know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And we know that we will not get stuck with some crappy neighbors who are even more annoying at 3:00pm (or 3:00am) while my children are trying to sleep.