Today´s tackle: trading spaces

A couple of weeks ago my husband started making some changes in the bedroom of our oldest 2 boys. This has had a domino effect that resulted in today´s tackle. For a long time I have been concerned about our kids using our computer and getting online from the study in the back of our apartment. I wanted to move the computer to a more central area. At the same time I knew we needed to make a change in the bedroom situation. Several months ago our 7 year old son, who had been sharing a room with his two older brothers moved into the bedroom with his little sister. It put a major crimp in finishing the decoration of the Princess bedroom, and once again our son didn´t really have a space of his own.

A very good friend came over to visit us and she jumped right in to help us tackle the job of redefining our spaces. We spent Friday morning shopping at Ikea for
this bed and a mattress to go with it. We had a few laughs as we got the 103 pound box (the bed) onto the cart, into the car, out of the car, into the apartment building, into the elevator and into the apartment. We are women, hear us roar. HA!

We then did the "tourist thing" Friday night and al day Saturday which was fun. Sunday was church all day and then Monday we spent her last full day in full tackle mode. My husband worked hard to dismantle the desk area in our office. He also took the two large bookcases that divided the office half of the room from the storage half of the room and moved them out. Their temporary home is in the hallway but they will most likely end up in my bedroom once we get rid of a huge piece of furniture that is in there. While my husband spent the afternoon building the new bed, Miss Cindy and I worked in the living room/dining room to create a space for the computer and printer. We moved things around a few times, tried out various set ups with extension cords and ended up with a nice little internet area as well as running phone lines through the wall so that we can have both our Spanish phone and a vonage phone set up in the living room and another set of phones in our bedroom.

My son was so thrilled to see his new bed ... and not just any normal bed, but an elevated bed that has a cool play area underneath. "the cave" as he calls it. We put a drawer unit (for his toys) under the bed and a hanging basket (for his socks, undies and pjs.) There is a little shelf, a lamp, and our old crib mattress on the floor for comfort. There is still a half of the room that is full of stored boxes and the closet is not accessable but that is a tackle for another day. For now, my son has a place to sleep "under the stars" and a little man cave underneath.



"The office" before the big change




The new space for the computer is now in a much more central area, where I will be able to better monitor what the kids are doing and seeing online.



The new bed with its star canopy.

The little man-cave provides a play area and storage under the bed.

All smiles with his buddy, Miss Cindy.

Head on over to 5 minutes for mom to see what others are tackling this week.