My Journey of Hope: Craft Room Conversion!

Hubby said the sexiest thing to me this past Saturday. He took my hand as I was about to head out of our bedroom, smiled at me and said, "How about on Sunday, we stay home from church, and..."
"... start working on the craft room?"

Be still my heart. That man sure knows what to say to get my blood pumping!

Now, you need to understand, this room has been the bane of my existence for three years. When we first moved into this house, I was doing a home-based business, and the space was perfect for my home office. I was able to get in and paint before we moved, and the plan was to get it unpacked and get right back into my business as soon as possible. Well, other rooms took precedence, and the office became a room full of boxes we didn't want in other rooms. In March 2014, we cleaned it up enough to move a friend's belongings into it for a two week emergency housing issue. once it was cleared out again, we had a TV and DVD player set up in there for the kids, and a loveseat to sit on. And then we started dumping stuff in there again. We'd come home from medieval events exhausted, so we'd stick the basket in there, intending to clean it up the next day. Well, we all know about good intentions, don't we?

So now here we are, three and a bit years in this house, and this is the office:

Three years of crafts, items to sell, cat structures, outgrown toys, medieval accoutrements, cleaning supplies, and just plain junk and garbage!

It is a BIG job, and just looking at it had been enough to intimidate me into doing nothing. Because up until now, it has always been a priority for me, but not really anyone else in the house. So when Hubby suggested working on it, I knew I had buy-in from at least one other member of the family, and that makes all the difference!

We started on Sunday, and in between meals, paper routes, last-minute visits with Primus' girlfriend before she leaves on vacation, and various and sundry errand I have had to run for family and friends, we have managed to make a noticeable dent in the mess. The first - and biggest - job is to CULL. Just get rid of some stuff already! Starting with the items we wanted to put up for auction was easy; we already knew we wanted that stuff gone. Next up was cleaning out furniture pieces we no longer wanted to own. Getting some of the larger things out of the room really opened it up, and made it much easier for Hubby to begin visualizing what the finished craft room will look like. And that motivates him to want to do more to get it done :) We are waiting on a few items to be picked up, and I have another bunch of items to put up tomorrow, and our space is already looking so much better!

Sorting through medieval stuff and putting it away, as well as office stuff (me), potential classroom stuff (Hubby), and craft stuff (everybody) is the step we are currently on while waiting on the auction item winners to pick up their goodies. Once we've pared it down to only what we actually want to keep in the house, we can then assign homes for them. That will involve bringing in the furniture pieces that we had earmarked for the craft room. For now, that means a wood and glass 4 foot high cabinet that the TV will live on top of, as well as the Ikea bookshelf with partial glass doors, and ideally, the glass display case that we currently have in the living room. I want the craft room to really be not only a functional work space, but also a showpiece, having our best work out for others to see.

Here's where I stopped tonight:

I have a floor! And a carpet! And walls!!!

I'm still doing a little here and there before I go to bed, and I'll work at it every day until it's done. Once the de-cluttering is finished, it will be time to build Hubby's computer desk, which will serve as our crafting table. We also have under-shelf lighting to install, items to auction off, other items to cull, and craft storage solutions to come up with. Suffice to say, I think we have our work cut out for us!

Stay tuned for the next installment!