Office Overhaul part 2

Here's where we left off... a pretty disastrous room.
Having a baby changes everything! We thought we were prepared after we had Luke, but #2 has really made us rethink how our whole house functions.

We decided that regardless of gender, we wanted this baby to have it's own room. We are huge believers in sleep and creating an environment for sleep. Luke slept in our room for 5 weeks (he started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks), and it was the most miserable 4 weeks of our life. None of us slept. I woke up to every little noise, coo, and squeak he made. He woke up every time we rolled over, stepped on a squeaky floor board, or coughed. It was not fun. We knew the whole sharing a room thing wasn't for us.

If this baby was a boy, we planned to get good sleep habits established (2ish years) and then have the boys sleep in the same room. But since this baby is a girl, it's a pretty obvious choice that she will have her own room. 

We have 3 bedrooms, so 2 kids' rooms plus our room totally eliminated Josh's office and my sewing space. Although we were both a little bummed, we both knew turning the office into a nursery was for the best in the long run. We have also decided to stay put here (Josh's new job in July, we refinanced in October, trying to finish paying off a student loan) and work with what we have. Once we had a plan, and figured out what was best for us, it was an easy choice to stay. Sure a 4 bedroom house with a basement sounds like total luxury- but we're just not willing to do that right now. 

Soooo our minds were made up, but now we had to make it happen. Absorbing an entire room into the rest of the house is REALLY hard. Especially since everything already had a place. We had to rethink where e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g went. All our files, our desk x2, 3 filing cabinets, my fabric and all my sewing tools (machine, stabilizer, thread, etc); oh yeah and Josh's closet! Whew. I blogged about the chaos of moving closets. We both had no idea how it would work to share a space- but 4 months in and it is going way smoother than either of us thought possible! We purged, purged, purged and thought about everything we kept. Did we have room, did we love it, and was it still practical? We even rethought the need for a desktop computer. An iPad, iPhones, and a MacBook are wonderful, but when it comes to embroidery software that I use for sewing a Windows PC it had to be. Blah.

As far as the "office" aspect we did a trial run having our computer in the dining room. Here was the set up:
We knew we eventually wanted a hutch type cabinet for all the office supplies. But figuring out if the office was even going to work was #1 on the list. We tried this for a few weeks and quickly realized that it was totally do-able. We just needed to find a hutch to hold the rest of our things! A few quick searches on pinterest and I found the look I was going for:
But with a $400 price tag plus nearly $75 shipping it was totally out of the question. So off to more brainstorming...

With the closet and office situation nearly solved, we moved on to my sewing storage. I pretty much had one bookshelf that held all my fabric and sewing tools (minus my sewing machine which stayed out all the time). 
Since this shelf became our command center everything had to find a new home.

I knew I wanted to keep my fabric stored like how I organized it here (on comic book boards). So I found some locker sized crates (which held the comic book boards perfectly). It took 3 crates to get the job done and store all my fabric. Scraps, stabilizer, and tools are still stored in the clear boxes with blue tops and labeled with what's inside. 
I'm really not sure how we did this, but Josh puttered for an afternoon in our hall closet and made space for all my stuff. I knew that if I stored my sewing things in the attic that I would never use them or my machine again, so I desperately wanted to keep them within reach.

So what did we do about the office?
Some friends of ours were moving one weekend in early November. They had a hutch/office that they were using in their old place and while they tried to fit it in their new house, it wouldn't turn the corner into their office. They knew we were looking for one and asked us if we'd be interested in buying it! $75 later it was ours. Much better than the hefty price tag from Pottery Barn.
Josh is the primary budget person. He crunches the numbers, keeps up with the bills, balances the checkbook, etc. So this space had to be 100% functional for him. The entire right side is his stuff.

I sew, cut vinyl, keep some craft supplies, and coupon here, so I needed space as well. The left side is mine.

Our new to us hutch/office holds some much needed supplies:
a small filing drawer:
The rest of our files are held in the attic in plastic filing bins. We can easily put our hands on whatever we need thanks to our attic organizing system! Also extra office supplies are kept up there in a box (CDs, paper, etc).
My Silhouette:
and our small shredder:
(yes our shred pile is outta control!)

and because of how much the office sticks out from the wall, we had to move our dining room table over which in turn meant that our chandelier had to be re- positioned. That was seriously a pain! (finding a stud, centering it, and having enough electrical wire/chain, oy!).
The bins on top are from the Container Store. I immediately fell in love with the Rugby stripes. At $9.99 a pop they were pricey, but totally worth it! They hold all of our DVDs, which frees up some space in the entertainment center for other things.
I am totally thrilled with this whole project. Of course it gets out of hand on those totally crazy weeks. And it's a constant reminder to pick up after ourselves. It is so nice to know that we freed up an entire room by putting some thought into this space and making it work!

We did end up getting rid of a few pieces of furniture: 3 filing cabinets, 2 desks, and a bookshelf. Actually they're not totally gone- just waiting patiently in the shed for a spring yard sale.

Also I'm happy to say that my sewing machine is perfectly within reach. As you're looking at the new hutch our command center is directly behind. And my sewing machine fits on the bottom shelf. It's nice to not have to lug my machine half way across the house!
And you know what this means?? Now that the room is cleared and baby stuff is moving in it's almost time for a nursery update!! Paint will be going on the walls this weekend... the crib is already up, the closet is full, the dresser is ready, and the rocker is put together! Of course it took me 2.5 years to finish Luke's room- but maybe this one will come together more quickly. I mean we have already been through it once!

2 comments :

  1. Hey,
    I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading your blog. I can't wait to see what you do for your little girl's nursery! If you ever see a reader/stalker from Turkey, that's me =) Julie W

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! And the nursery is slowly coming along! I think I'll be ready next week to share ;)

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