beautification of the home: yay!

A belated Happy Father's Day to Brandon! He's not in town because he's been in a wedding in Florida this past weekend.

Anyhow, Natalie and I have been staying at my parents' house. Again. What's new? We've been here quite a bit since she was born. It makes it easier, especially since I'm not comfortable staying alone at our house with her at night. I know that our neighborhood's safe and secure, but it makes me feel better to know that someone's right down the hall just in case of an emergency. I'm probably just being neurotic.

Anyhow, with Brandon out of town, I have been pondering on ways to beautify our space and make it more practical for our family. We have a formal dining room that has so far been used as a crowded, messy "library" aka verysmallspacewithtwochairsadeskandthreebookshelvesshovedin. It is very crowded and is pretty much a cat hair paradise. Oh, I forgot. We also have a highchair in there. It's still in its box and one of the cats sleeps on it. Just not feeling it.

I know I am new to the mom game and probably shouldn't be spending my time dreaming up ideas, but this is actually within our budget and something that would bring more organization and SPACE to our home. We are going to get my dad to help us construct some diy built-in bookshelves!! :) There will be one four foot bookshelve on each side of our old desk, which will be re-painted to match the shelves. We will have a little area over the desk to hang a bulletin or dry-erase board so we can keep track of our respective schedules. Brandon will have a work space that won't be on our kitchen table, island, or the coffee table. This will eliminate so much frustration. I cannot stand for piles of junk to build up. I'm always decluttering and moving stuff around, and it's always back the next day or a few days later. Constant battle.

Anyhow, I was just excited and had to share.

First step for us will be clearing out the room and boxing up all of our books. We probably should have left them boxed up from the move in November. With the pregnancy, I couldn't really work on making this house a home. Now I can, and I'm so excited. I am so ready for making our home "ours" a little bit at a time. I cannot wait to have a beautiful view when I walk in our front door instead of looking into the dining room and feeling embarrassed at the clutter!