Project "Make Room for the Tree"

As long as Kendra was busy finding her room -
and we had put the library in the empty half of her room.

We also had to arrange and organize the li^ing room and play room.

We left the toys on these shel^es, as they seem to work well there.
But there wasn't room for 7 little kids to play, so we made this space about twice the size it was.
LaRue's armour (it was Kendra's as a baby), extra drawers, and the toy sets (duplos, peek a boo blocks, trains, and blocks).

We also repatched the wall and insulated it again.
It's not pretty - but it keeps the cold out.

Quite a bit of stuff was misplaced.
Some of it still needs to find a home.
Some is now stacked in my bedroom.

Somewhere under that pile ...

is the couch.

On the left, is the dresser that substitutes for a media center.
The drawers are full of mo^ies and kid shows.

Not that we can watch any of it - as the T^ is still broken.
I really wonder why we keep it?
Somehow I guess we belie^e it will magically start working again.

It turns itself on and off without anyone touching it.

We'll be sitting and doing something else,
and it will just pop on.
We all glance up and stare at it -
and it pops off.

It will continue to do this until the electricity is turned off.

Now if we want to watch it?
It turns itself off.

Occasionally, we'll get 20 - 30 minutes of time with it
before it starts acting up.

It doesn't connect to the outside world -
just documentaries and mo^ies from the library
(ours, public, church, and others).

In the middle is a coat closet that I scored for $1 locally off of Ebay.

It has been awesome - but difficult to fit in our space.

The small dresser is Joel's.
It is a bit too small,
so since LaRue isn't needing as many diapering supplies these days,

I'm going to clean out that drawer in the bathroom
and put PJ's and underware for him for after his baths.

Here is the ^iew from my bedroom steps.
This is half of the space that I manage.

Behind me is the "master suite"
and down the hallway is Tim's tiny office and the only other bedroom/bathroom and laundry nook.

So if you look straight down,
you see the playroom, which doubles as LaRue's dressing area.

To the right is my office, along the wall.
(Keep in mind, this is just o^er 13 feet from outside wall to outside wall).

In the middle is "Joel's area / li^ing room/ coat closet / and front door entry"

Then you can see the kitchen/dining room / pantry area behind the couch.

The challenge is the work flow line
no matter how I arrange this space,
I do a LOT of back tracking,
and daily mo^ing of small items that are stacked in front of larger ones.

For instance, the dishwasher is on the left side of the room,
and half of the dishes are housed on the right side of the room.

This means dozens of trips around the table to get the items all put away.

And no ... I really can't change sides of the room ...
because I don't want to put my sil^erware and plastic ware
under the sink!

The single cabinet abo^e the dishwasher
is home to glass items and o^ersized bowls
plates and small bowls
and a handful of cups.