Looky, looky at my new toy!

Posted by: apaintedhouse on: March 10, 2011

In: Our House | Pictures Galore | Redecorating | Wherein I Need Travis' Help
8 Comments

Is it possible to have a crush on a room in your house? ‘Cause I think I do. I’m all googly-eyed over one particular space in our house.

Who wouldn’t be in love with this room?

I kid.

That’s the listing picture of our front sitting room, dubbed the Reading Room. As you can see, it was probably ~~ignored~~ used for a lot of sitting by the previous owners. Here’s what it looked like from right after we moved in until just a couple of weeks ago, complete with books piled in the corner. Nine months of book piles. Awesome.

And it wasn’t just the one side, we’re equal opportunity book pilers.

The day we walked through this house I told Travis that I’d like built-in book shelves in this room. I could see them in my head and they were fantastic. Almost exactly one year later, I had this:

Piles of melamine shelving in the dining room, free standing cabinets in the middle of the floor, new light fixtures strewn about, holes in the ceiling….ahh, bliss. Oh, you don’t think that’s what I had in mind? Yeah, me neither. But my extremely handy husband was dilligent and patient and accommodating and after living with ^ that ^ for a couple of weeks things began to come together.

But only because he had a lot of very important help. It’s essential when undertaking a large construction project, to have someone close by who can hand you essential items like your green plastic ruler.

It’s especially helpful if your assistant comes with his own power tools and snazzy training pants.

And next thing you know, you have this:

BAM. Mama is happy. And just a little bit smitten with her very own Reading Room.

(We’ve since added hardware to the doors and drawers but I’m too lazy to take the pictures over again. Plus the sun hasn’t been out once since the day I took these. Humph.)

I spent two days shopping the house, digging through boxes of long-packed items, finding things I’d love to display, and re-arranging it until I liked what I saw. It was ridiculously fun.

Some befores and afters? I think so.