Speaking of Setting Goals…

by | May 11, 2008 | Organization, School Room | 7 comments

…of rather, unrealistic ones

I did it AGAIN!!

Last month 😉 my hubby and I purchased some furniture from my parents neighbors who are moving. Well, the rest of it arrived Thursday night! I was very excited, but not quite ready.

You should have seen the look on hubby’s face when my dad arrived with that trailer full of furniture! Where was it–3 more sections of bookshelves, a new table for the kitchen(we have outgrown ours), 6 chairs, a matching hutch, and a corner hutch–all going to go???

The kitchen was fairly easy… It is actually too much furniture for the size of our kitchen, but we hope to add on that dining room someday… Maybe this will be more incentive! 🙂

Before Pictures:

After Pictures:

So, what do you think?? Someday we hope to have the same flooring in both the kitchen and living room… But for now, we need to put something under one end of the hutch to level it out. I am excited that I will have more cabinet space now!!! It does make for a rather cramped kitchen though, and we don’t even have the extra leaves in the table!

Anyways, that was the easy part… The hard part was fitting the new book cases into our, already overfull, school room. It was going to be necessary to move, or remove, the wood bookshelves–that I recently convinced hubby to bring in from the garage just before Easter. He was not really willing, to say the least.

So — we added the bookshelves along the far wall where you see those desks, along with the computer desk (which you can see here) that had already taken those desks place. The room was packed to say the least.

Well, Friday I ended up staying home with the girls and Snuggles (since he has been sick) while hubby took the boys to Mass and to work with him for a few hours. I thought “I can surprise hubby and do it myself before he gets home!!!!!” ummm… yeah right!!!! That was a totally unrealistic goal!

I began by taking everything off the bookshelves and placing it all on the table in the middle of the room, as well as on the boys new desks. Then I thought — it sure would be nice to keep these book shelves in this room… I wonder if they would fit in the closet??? I measured them, and sure enough, they would just clear the ceiling. So, I then took everything out of the closet and added it to the middle of the room. At this point, the room was filled with stuff!

OK. At this point I had about 3 hours till hubby was due to arrive home. 🙂

I then called my dad, and he walked me through how to operate a power drill so I could unscrew the bookshelves from the wall. Yes, I am pathetic when it comes to tools. I actually used a fire poke thingamajig to pry the closet shelf loose. It worked!!

I inched the huge, heavy, solid wood, bookshelf towards the closet, and tipped it to try and get it in:

Here is where I got stuck:

Argh! I couldn’t for the life of me get it to stand up. It was too darn heavy! And time was ticking!!! I had a total panic attack! was starting to get stressed!

Well, one of the benefits of coming from a large family, is that there is usually someone that you can call if you are really in a bind! My dear sweet brother Scott came to my rescue! THANK YOU SCOTTIE!!! Not only did he help me move all the bookshelves, he helped me move all the old furniture into the garage, took pictures of it all for craigslist, and organized it too! All before my hubby got home. Hubby had to agree that it looked much better, even though everything in the middle of the room needed to be put away!!!

Well, that was yesterday… Here are some pictures from today:

The School Room Closet:

With the extra shelves, I was able to add almost all the board games from the hall closet!! This will make them so much easier to get to!

Our School Room:


These were both taken from the doorway – New Table, Chairs and Desk.

The far wall. I’m thinking of hanging my world map there, but I’m not sure. Eventually I would like to get a white computer desk/armoire to finish off the room.

Here you can see the new bookcases. I LOVE THEM!!! Does any one have a good suggestion for making the most use out of a corner bookshelf, to where it still looks nice/organized?


And, here is a closer view of the boys new desks.

My Aunt Roxanne, who is also my godmother, gave me some of her art while I was visiting!! The boys wanted theirs above their desks, rather than in their room, so I hung the Train” above Rascal’s desk and the “Boat” near the door. She is mailing me the “Airplane” for above Capitan’s desk! Aren’t they cute?!?!?!

(She also gave me this one for the girls room, and the Monkey, Giraffe, and Lion for Snuggles room. I love them all! Thank you Aunt Roxanne!)

Well, the school room has sure come a long way this past year. Once again, I am glad that tomorrow is Sunday. I better hurry up and get the groceries put away, make a cake, and then get some sleep. I’m exhausted!

I hope you all have a very Blessed and relaxing Pentecost Sunday!!

7 Comments

  1. stephanie

    Great job! I did something similar – moving a bookshelf into our guest room closet…but I’m still “dealing” with the junk that was previously stored in the closet. 🙁

    Happy Mother’s Day / Pentecost!

    Reply
  2. Friar Suppliers

    Wow! It looks wonderful. I think the new furniture really cozied up the kitchen area. It looks very homey and pleasant. I LOVE the school room as well. I am desperate for bookcases. You’ve inspired me.

    Have a lovely Mother’s Day.

    Reply
  3. Margaret

    WOW! That’s a big job. Thank goodness for a dad and Scott!

    Reply
  4. Christine

    Wow, you’ve been busy! It looks great!
    I enjoyed the video.

    Reply
  5. Amy

    Looks beautiful Jessica!
    BTW, you have the best siblings!

    Reply
  6. JoAnn

    good job Jess!!
    Looks great!
    I love all these pictures!
    And happy mothers day (2 days late :S
    Love you!

    Reply
  7. mamatutwo

    Beautful set-up! I like it!

    Reply

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Hi! I'm Jessica, a Roman Catholic wife and home educating mother to our nine children. I was home educated myself, along with my eleven younger siblings. I have a special devotion to St. Therese, through whom I have been given much help and many blessings--the beautiful "Shower of Roses" that she has sent my way! Here I will record a few of the blessings I treasure. Please remember that what you see here is just a little glimpse at our lives, so please say a prayer for us, as we continue to strive for holiness.

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