Furniture

I will be the first to admit that we have a lot of furniture.  Some people (ahem, my mother) might say that we have too much furniture.  Whatever.  Whether we have too much or just enough, I am always looking for ways to make the layout of our furniture more functional and pleasing to the eye.

For Christmas 2010 we bought ourselves a big screen TV.  With that purchase came a major overhaul of the family room.  We made a TV area and an office area.  The couch split the 2 areas.

This worked well until Spencer got his train table for his birthday.

Then the train table took up all available space in the TV area. 

It has been driving me nuts.  I feel like our lives are so out of control right now, which is just part of the deal with a new baby.  But it felt extra out of control every time I looked at the family room. 

So, I started hatching a plan.

 I called my aunt and uncle, who are selling their enormous home and a lot of their furniture, and asked what they were going to do with their desk/hutch in the office.  They were going to sell it on craigslist, but offered it to me for $850.  While that was a great deal (and the desk was crucial to the plan) I just couldn't justify the price with me not working right now and only working 8 hours a week when I go back.  So I said no.

Then my mom offered to pay half.  That I could swing.  AND THEN my aunt gave my mom a chandelier for free and my mom's friend Julie offered to buy it from my mom for $200 if my mom would use that money as part of what we owed for the desk.  The only way I can explain it is that Julie is awesome and generous. And how great is my mom?

So, for $225 (original price: $3,000) we bought this baby:

(There are doors that close the entire thing, top and bottom, but I was too lazy to close it up to take a picture.  The chair even folds in half and fits in there too)

We put it in the kitchen.

That meant we could get rid of the office area in the family room.

So, we moved the desk to Spencer's room.

He asked if he could sleep in the bottom of it.  I said no.

We set up his laptops (yes, he has 2) and now he spends a good chunk of time every day doing his "work".  I think having his own desk makes him feel like a big kid.  I hope that I am instilling in him the beginning of a work ethic for homework.

Getting rid of the desk created a huge chunk of extra space in the family room.  We also did a general toy sweep and forced Spencer to put away some of his stuff.   It helped a lot.

One nice little surprise from this whole thing was that the bookshelf that used to hold all my cookbooks got moved to Elliott's room, because the cookbooks fit in the hutch part of the desk.

This bookshelf, from IKEA, was always meant to be in a kid's room.  It always did look kind of stupid in our kitchen. 

And speaking of Elliott, check out what I finally got pictures of last week.

Yes, he's going to do it.  There's half a smile.

And BAM!  Full on grin.

2 seconds later.  Over.

We go back to see Dr. Miloh on Tuesday.  We'll also be meeting with the nutritionist.  The appointment is at 8:00.  It will take an act of God to get there on time.