Sunday, February 28, 2010

Physical evidence of further progress. . .

The train table, with properly assembled tracks, will not last, but effort was made!!


The new dresser, painted by the hubby, and the hope chest that should be leaving shortly.




The problematic oversized closet doors. Plan to make some type of mural to cure mass of whiteness, but not sure about furniture arrangement. Welcome all suggestions.



WALT enjoying his clean room. Pay close attention to the neatly organized Littlest Pet Shop, Thomas and books. Please ignore the large stains on the carpet.








Toy central. Home of most of the multi-part toys, including Lego Thomas, Potato Heads, puzzles, blocks, construction gear, musical instruments, and games.








WALT's room is a fully functional and accessible boy's room at last. The books are organized and in book shelves. The puzzles are with puzzles, the blocks are with blocks, and the clothes all have a home in the new dresser with working drawers ( a definite improvement from the previous dresser in which most of the drawers did not work properly). Even the train table is arranged with a fully working set of rails. (though this is mostly for photo purposes because disasters come often to the trains at the hand of the mighty WALT)




Thus far the wild man's room has been the most dramatic change, and the most costly. Mom shelled out the dough for the first two book shelves and the dresser, her "Christmas present" (which was in addition to the large box of toys she had wrapped under the tree) and for which I am very grateful. He also scored a fresh paint job, new curtains, plastic storage bins for Lego Thomas, and a third book shelf (which will be talked about in greater detail later.) At the end of the day he needs a more appropriate TV stand. I am not discussing how evil TV is in a child's room. I will say that it is on only certain times and only certain channels and movies. I will also say that any sane adult will have a TV away from themselves after being exposed to iCarly.




There are still too many toys. I know this. I removed at least three 20 gallon tubs of toys and at least 3 more need to come out. But this is a process. On a good day my child is OCD, on a bad one he is full blown Rain Man, which results in the medical diagnosis of "quirky." Only so much can change in a period of time without a "4 o'clock means Judge Wampner" episode and so I am continuing to weed and purge with each weekend cleaning. Even with this continued removal of stuff his room will look just as full because all 4 rooms left to de-clutter are full of WALT things.



There are also too many books. I say this half heartedly because I am not sure a child can have too many books. I had a huge library sized shelf in my childhood room and it was full of books. Some of those books live on in WALT's room, the rest I bought. I love children's books. If the world is kind, my karmic reward for cleaning my house will be the time and ability to write my own children's books. Children's books are where construction paper creations live. I LOVE children's books. That said I did manage to weed some out. There were some that were simply too young. I have passed these on to my brother in law to enjoy with his nieces. Some were in bad repair due to the amount of love they were shown. And a few were repeats (and are now for sale at half.com) I bought the third book shelf and still didn't have enough space. It was then that the hard decisions had to be made, and the Sesame Street encyclopedias were surrendered to the out pile, leaving only the Charlie Brown set (both found at the flea market while pregnant)



The room is still less than perfect. The carpet MUST go, and soon. It didn't look so hot when we arrived and four years of people that hate carpet and the responsibilities that come with it, and 5 different dogs, and 4 different cats, we'll it's not good. We will probably opt for wood/wood laminate and a rug. It's our thing.


There is also the large closet. Too large really for WALT's room. It was built by my handy dandy husband when it was our room. We knew we were going to switch rooms but found the doors for $59 at Home Depot and couldn't resist. Now I can't figure out where to put the bed and have a night stand, but not have the bed next to a window, or in the middle of the floor. It remains a quandary.


But there it is. One bedroom down, 1 and 1/2 to go. And just WAIT til you see the next one. You may be calling one of those reality shows on me yet!

5 comments:

  1. Those closet doors are SCREAMING OUT LOUD for that magnetic paint/ chalk paint treatment. An ever-changing mural of his - or your - own design! You can get dust free chalk, magnetic poem kits, etc.

    Don't be afraid to stick the bed out perpendicular to the wall. It's hard for me to see if you have room or not, but maybe after the hope chest thingy is gone, you'll have more room? Easier to make the bed then, as well.

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  2. You are so right about the chalkboard paint. We are painting whole house sans his room, since we just painted it in Dec, and that will just be added to the list.
    I dig perpendicular. Worry a bit about him rolling out of bed (mom thing) but I am definitely gonna have to play around and think outside the box.
    Not real worried about dustless chalk, but maybe I should be????

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  3. Re: dustless, if he were to really get into changing the board a lot (and who wouldn't?) you'll want to go dustless for tidyness purposes.

    Try the perpendicular. If he falls out once, trust me, he won't break. He's a strapping young lad! And after that tumble, change it back.

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  4. Now that I have all the dimensions of furniture, except tv stand, and will just guess on that one, I think I am going to draw out a few different options and let WALT have some say. I will stick the perpendicular in there for sure. Change without WALT's approval is sure to be changed again.
    I must say that I look at these pictures and I actually quite proud.

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  5. Draw everything out on graph paper to scale, and cut things out. Move them around like a little chess board. Fun!

    You have reason to be proud!

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