I was in the shower this morning (where I do most of my thinking!) and was idly thinking about our loungeroom and "I'd make it bigger if we ever built again since that's where we spend most of our time".. That segued into a thought on how big our office / playroom area is and how we never use it.. Aha! Lightbulb moment - why don't we swap the loungeroom and office around? I mentioned it to Pete expecting him to scoff, but he actually thought it was a good idea!
When we built, we designed a great office area at the front of our house, with a separate entrance so we could have clients come to the house - I think that's happened about 4 times in the 7 years we've lived here and to be honest most of the time the office is such a dumping ground that I couldn't invite clients in anyway!! I don't actually work in there - I usually work in the kitchen or loungeroom - it pretty much just holds computers and printers! Half of the area is office, the other half used to be just a book room, then we turned it into Billy's playroom so he had an area to play. Unfortunately he only likes to play where other people are - which usually means the kitchen or the loungeroom - so the playroom just becomes another dumping ground. Added to that, the loungeroom is quite unbearable in summer as it doesn't get the breeze, and the office is right at the front with big windows & doors...
So our plan is to move the office into the loungeroom, and make a big combined loungeroom and playroom in the other room. It will mean doing some rewiring - tv, power, surround sound etc - I guess we'll have to see who can do the wiring for a case of beer (umm, of course I mean who we can find to do the work and we'd pay GST and everything :) ) It will hopefully mean a new lease of life for a big room that gets ignored now. It will also mean a lot of work shifting stuff around, but hey, a change is as good as a holiday, right?!
Speaking of the playroom - it was in such a state that we made Billy clean it up today. By 6pm it was still disgusting - he'd spent most of his time whining that he was too hot, too hungry, too tired etc or moving in slow motion. So when the timer went off at 6, I got to be the "mean mummy" - I grabbed a couple of the big green garbage bags and set to work throwing out everything that was on the floor! It was mainly paper & junk (the boy likes to keep every piece of paper he has ever touched!), but there were some toy parts, pens, craft stuff etc. I was so over it I didn't care - it all went. 2 and 1/2 garbage bags later and you can see the floor again! Didn't do my stress levels much good though!
I spent most of the day working on a website that's just about ready to go live. My list is down to 2 things and I'm just waiting on their host to do some stuff before it goes live. Will be pleased to cross another one off the list..
2 comments:
Great that you determined how to make your house work for you - without doing an extension or moving. In both houses we built we didn't put in a formal lounge room cause we didn't like the idea of having a room that was rarely used. Now we do have a formal dining room - but that's in the same room as the "lounge room" (that we use daily to watch TV) but we use for jigsaws too :-). Anyway, it all sounds like a great solution.
I've done the same thing with regards to kids things - get so annoyed it all goes out. Sad thing is usually my girls don't care too much what is thrown out - which annoys me even more. They are now 6 and 8 and getting better at tidying their things up.
Libby
I do my best 'thinking' in the shower too! Pity that most of it is forgotten once I leave the bathroom though.
Sounds like a fabulous plan.
As for the kid junk, I so hear you. Boo was standing next to me this morning as I was cleaning up his 'drawing table' (old dining table) and he was grabbing every bloody scrap of paper I picked up saying 'Don't throw it!' sigh.
Will have to wait till he is in bed. Fingers crossed he goes to sleep at a decent hour tonight!
Post a Comment