A Place for Everything

 It looked innocent enough when we first moved in.  Maybe a small storage closet, I thought.  There was a note on it asking potential buyers not to let the cat get caught in there.  Turns out, the space runs the entire length of the house and incorporates the middle dormer window space above the stairwell.  The insulation was falling out from between the framing and the floor was plywood, but oh, how the boys LOVED to be in there.  The problem was, they kept coming out all itchy from brushing up against all that exposed fiberglass.  Dean set out to fix it up a few weeks ago and I'm happy to say, it's officially a playroom now!

The "before" picture.  The wood paneling is still the same wood from the broken fence we picked up on the side of the road.  As we were getting closer to finishing this project Dean said, "wouldn't it be cool if everything we needed to finish came from the side of the road?' "Sure," I said, "but it's not like we're going to find brand new flooring on the side of the road."  We happened to all be on a walk and low and behold, our neighbors just happened to have the extra pieces of their brand new carpeting sitting out on the side of the road for garbage pick up the next day.  Dean says to me, "hurry, wish for $1,000,000 next."

  

The finished product.  You can see the lovely carpet.  It's still a pretty tight space and I wasn't able to get very many good photos, but it's the perfect space for toys and dress-ups.

Dollar store bins go above and beyond for toy storage.

 
A bit of whimsy...

Ben calls this "The Lego Room".  My Grandma's cedar chest holds all their bricks and does double duty as a window seat.  I've even caught him in here reading.

Finally, a place for everything and everything in it's place.  They can see where everything goes which means no more excuses at clean-up time.  And the dress-ups Dean kept insisting they never played with?  Guess what? When they're all on display they get worn and used.  I tucked a pirate and a ninja into bed last night for the first time in months.  Project success!