new year, "new" office, etc.

someday i will post an update about christmas complete with pics of levi's first christmas, etc. but for now i'm on a roll with other stuff and i don't want to take the time to upload photos, etc.

with the new year i've been scrambling around trying to make our home more homey and less messy. (of course this will be a lot easier when we hang up a coat rack, and cabinets in the laundry room, etc....the joys of remodeling...but anyways...) yesterday levi and i burnt a giant stack of cardboard boxes and our christmas tree. i was rather proud of myself for taking the tree down all by myself and lighting my own big fire outside :)

i was very tired of how the office looked. whenever i walked in the room or even glanced in the room all i saw was the giant treadmill in the far corner. and the giant white table in the middle of the room. for some time i've been thinking that the white table did not work well as the computer desk but i wasn't sure what else to do. i want to build this desk (plans on ana-white.com).

i really, really do. and i think that i could almost do it by myself without dave's help. but let's face it. we have enough projects going on right now. and even thought it would be cheaper than the pottery barn version cuz i'd build it myself it would still cost. so i figured i should wait. so that's when i got the idea of shopping my own home to see what i could find to make the space work better.

and...i decided to use a wood table that we had cluttering up the great room. so there you have it. a new desk.

so i stayed up late last night piling everything on one side of the office so that i could have david help me switch the filing cabinet and the treadmill around and put the desk in here beside the filing cabinet this morning before he left for work. i promised him it would only take 10 mins. and it did! and today i've been earnestly working at putting everything away. decluttering the filing cabinet, etc.

we did go have lunch with daddy at red habenero today though. boy was that yummy! i LOVE that place.

i regret that i didn't snap a before pic of the office but i've got afters coming soon. i also like this new location of the desk because i can easily see out more windows while sitting at it and there's not as much room to let papers pile up, etc. so i have to file them sooner. and it's closer to the closet where i have lots of officey stuff stored. it just makes more sense. and now when i look in the room i see a desk and filing cabinet first, not the treadmill. it is way more pleasing to the eye.

and i eliminated the need for a bookshelf and a cabinet by decluttering lately (and gaining cabinets in the kitchen) so i gave one away the bookshelf on craigslist and the cabinet we are going to put back in the laundry room. we did not think it would fit but yesterday i came up with a brilliant idea to add more storage to that room and have a mudroom type area to store coats, shoes, etc. i can't wait to share that when we get it done!

i've also finally convinced david to let me hang some artwork on his pristine walls. we have had some of these rooms done for over a year and he has yet to let me make a nail hole in them :P maybe this weekend we can do that together. of course between him mudding the kitchen, laundry, painting the ceilings, etc, etc.

i also moved the cabinet that we'd been storing food in in the kitchen into a corner of the front room yesterday and i put all our books and board games in it. and the CDs and the CD player on top. our own little library/media center. i love it. i decided to try it out to make sure. and if we continue to love it, it's getting painted and new hardware soon.

i've also spent a ton of time dreaming lately about the great room. how i can decorate it without spending hardly any money and have it still look fabulous. the ideas are flowing. yay!

in other news, mice are apparently still in our kitchen. they ate one tray of decon in 2 days. i want a cat. i hate cats. but maybe it would help.