Dumpster Diving

Several weeks ago, we went to a school event at our new building (our school is moving buildings this year while our current building is upgraded and expanded). The school that was in the new building before is getting a brand new building, with all brand new furniture, so they didn't want the stuff that was in this building. Our school didn't really need any of the furniture, since we had our own stuff as well, so the district decided to toss most of it and it happened to be outside, in and around a huge dumpster, the night of our event. Several of us snagged various pieces of furniture, including wooden teacher desks, 6 foot long solid wooden tables, teacher chairs, student desks, bookshelves, etc. I grabbed a small wooden desk, which was pretty beat up. However, it was solid as the day is long and I figured I could refinish it fairly easily, since it was all straight pieces. RF wanted to use it as a game table, but I decided I wanted to use it as a TV table in the living room. Here is the picture before I started working on it. You can see the scratches, gouges, and paint splatters all over it.

I took it all apart and sanded it all down and put poly on it. I don't like painted wood and I'm not a huge fan of stain on wood either, so I kept the natural color and used a clear coat. It was about as easy as I expected it to be, except for the fact that it has been a thousand degrees recently and I wasn't interested in working on it in the heat, so it has just been sitting in the garage. But I've decided to do some redecorating in other parts of the house and it all hinged on getting this table done, so I can repurpose, and get rid of, other furniture. Since the weather was nice on Friday, I hauled everything outside and hit it hard. We bought some new hardware (the bolts were all mis-matched and different sizes) and got it set up this afternoon

We are using the drawer for loose games and things and Xbox and controllers are perfect on the shelf. For a total cost of less than $4, for all new hardware, this is one of my better dumpster diving finds!

I'm finished

When I was a kid, my parents bought a living room furniture set. I remember it being really ugly, but it was the 80s so everything was pretty ugly. It had a couch, a love seat and two end tables. Over the years, the couch and love seat were replaced but we kept the tables When I moved out, they gave me the old tables and I've lugged them to all of our various houses. They were dark wood and pretty messed up (they were 28 years old after all) but were rock solid. I decided while I had some time this summer to work on refinishing them.

Here is the picture of the table before I started on it:

I don't know how well you can see it in the picture, but the varnish is chipped and the wood is all icky and scratched and scarred up.

I sanded it down as best I could but quickly figured out that the wood underneath was nothing but 2x4s pinned together and no amount of sanding would make it a pretty wood.

So I decided I would go ahead and stain it to match the writing desk that RF got from his grandma and is at least as old as he is.

After I put a couple of coats of the cherry stain on it, I put new poly on it and reassembled it today!

Go to your room

Now, when I say that to The Boy, he can actually go to his own space. When I pregnant, I mae the worst statement a potential parent could make. I said "no kid of mine will ever sleep with me" Those of you that know me know how well that worked out. When he was born, I fought and fought to get him in his crib. I spent hours rocking, nursing and walking until he was asleep in his crib. Then, at 6 weeks old, he got RSV and ended up spending a night in the hospital. When he came home, he was still on all kinds of breathing treatments and was having trouble sleeping. We brought him in to our room so that I could monitor his breathing through the night because that was when he had the most trouble. He would sleep draped over my hip so that he could remain upright and maintain normal breathing. By the time he was better, he was 10 weeks old and I was going back to work. I spent weeks fighting with him and sleeping on an uncomfortable twin mattress in his bedroom, trying to get him back in his crib. Eventually, I gave in and just brought him back to my bed because at least it was comfortable in there. I was exhausted and I couldn't do it anymore. He slept with us until we moved into this house and we set up the second bedroom for him. I chose not to move him right away because of the stress of the move and all that. About the time I was planning to move him, RF changed jobs and started working nights and weekends, which made it really hard for him to share a room with me, because I was still keeping normal hours. I got him a big bed for the second bedroom and moved TB's bed into my room. He wanted nothing to do with sleeping in it and since it was just me and him, it wasn't as uncomfortable so I didn't push the issue.

Then I got PG with Ms Thang and decided it was time to start pushing the issue. He really wanted nothing to do with it and when MT was born, we found she slept better alone so she started sleeping in TB's bed. By the time he was 4, I decided that he simply had to sleep in his own bed and we moved the bunk beds in so MT could have the bottom and TB could have the top. He didn't like it but he eventually got used to it and has been happily sharing a room with us since then. That works well for all involved because RF still works odd hours and can't share a room with anyone else and we only have 2 bedrooms. All of a sudden, the other day he says to me "Mom, all my friends have their own rooms, I need my own room too" I told him that we didn't have room, but that in the next year we would be moving to somewhere that has more bedrooms and then he could have his own bedroom. Then I got to thinking. If I got rid of some stuff (which I was intending to do anyway) I could move things around in the dining room and block part of it off and put his bed there. It isn't a room but more of a "sleeping nook". Regardless, it is his own space and it is seperate from other people and it will work for the time being.

I measured it all up and the bed will fit in the little alcove where my desk was, minus the foot board piece. It is about 6 inches too long so I have to take that piece off but otherwise it is perfect. So today, I spent the day sorting and cleaning the stuff I'm getting rid off Then I drug it all up on to the porch to be taken to Looseyfur's for the playgroup swap in Oct (I'm taking it this week, but the swap isn't until Oct). Then I unloaded my desk and file cabinet, hauled it all across the room to where the toys used to be and set it all back up again. Tomorrow, I have to go the fabric store and buy the AWESOME Darth Vader fleece we saw to make him a privacy curtain, while RF goes to the hardware store to get a dowel rod to hang the curtain on. My mom is going to sew the curtain and then I'm going to set toy shelves in front of it so no one accidently pulls it down.

I've also been spending some time looking on the internet for noise machinces since the dining room and the living are all connected and I sit in the living room to watch TV at night. I looked at a "white noise" cd and some Star Wars CD players for him, but I think we will just get the machine and not mess with the CD. I've also been looking for night lights and lamps. He needs a night light because he has never slept without one and he needs a lamp because the way we have to mount the curtain puts the ceiling light in the room outside it. It would make for a dark room if I didn't get a lamp. Finally, I have to call MIL and have her ask FIL to bring in MT's bunk bed that they have been storing at their house since we didn't have room for it. Now, TB will take his fire truck bed (although he won't get to have the firetruck cover on the bed since it won't fit without the footboard that we have to take off) and MT will have the original bunk beds that we bought for TB when we first moved here. They are nice, heavy solid oak and really pretty.

So, while I can't yet tell him to go to his room, in the next week I will be able to and he will be able to!

Moving

Not out of my house but we have moved nearly everything in the house around in the last few days. Several months ago, I set up centers for various activities around the house and it has helped keep my house so much cleaner!! The centers worked great over the summer when dh was working fairly normal hours. Since he has started working nights, they haven't worked as well. The two favorties, art and kitchen were in the dining room, nearest his room. I was forever shushing them and eventually making them leave the centers because they were being too loud. Last week, I decided that I needed to move them into the living room. Well, I don't have enough room in the living room for all the stuff so I had to move blocks and trains into the dining room. I backed blocks up to my desk (partly hide the crap that falls off my desk) and put the train under the bar. Then I decided that I was tired of the laundry room the way it was. We drug out this nasty old cabinet (it was a ktichen counter that someone had tried to cut a sink in and then covered with masking tape when it didn't work) Since we just stored soap in there, it wasn't a big deal. I decided that I wanted to put the dressers in the laundry room so that I could put clothes away as they came out of the dryer. Previously, I had been tossing clothes on the floor (my typical place for storing clothes, unfortunately) and then I set up a basket system, where each person had a basket in the laundry room and I would toss each person's clothes into their basket as they came out of the dryer. This was working well, but the baskets were taking up lots of room and it was hard to get through to the washer. The other issue was putting away clothes because they all go in the room that Evan sleeps in. I couldn't put them away during the day and I couldn't get them back out in the morning either. We have moved the dressers in there and they take up way less room. I still have a basket for Lizzie because her dresser is in the other room and I'm not going to move it into the laundry room. As long as I put the clothes away as soon as they are done, it shouldn't be an issue. We are hanging a bar on one side and hanging up all the clothes in there and a shelf on the other side for non-dresser folded clothes (pants). We are also mounting a shelf for soap and bleach and other things like that and then I'm mounting a shelf over the art center for things that need to stay with it but that I don't want the kids to have access to all the time (beads, hot glue gun, extra paint brushes, etc) Since none of the dressers are in dh's room, he drug his desk into his room while I was gone picking C up at school. Now I have to clean that area up (it has been awhile since it has been vacuumed really well under his desk) and then clean my desk off. Then I'm going to move my desk in to the nook that his was in, next to the file cabinet. Then I have to clean really well where my desk used to be (also quite some time since it has been vacuumed well) and then I'm going the flatten the blocks against the wall. Not sure what I'll do with the extra wall space (our desk have been in the same place since we moved in here 5 years ago) but I'm sure I'll find something to fill it.

So I should be cleaning the dining room but I'm sitting here on my tail blogging about how I'm going to clean it. Lame :)