Bringing Outdoors In

It was back on November 4^th that I tweeted “Guess who’s making plans to renovate something again”.  I didn’t give anyone any details other than admitting that it was the nature area that was going to be refurbished.

I planned to complete the remodel last weekend but the detail work was more time consuming than I anticipated and there is still more to do.  Shopping trips and errands took up big chunks of time too – 14 stores over three days – yuck!  I hate shopping but there were things I needed and of course couldn’t find, hence the delay in completing the project.

I’ll give you a brief description of what has been done so far.  We started with some ‘landscaping’ – my husband helped when I needed extra muscle and power tools.  The trees were relocated and the ‘river’ was diverted to the other side of the room.  Then we built some shelves.

It was the shelves that required the most time and effort.  You see, the last time I revamped the nature area I ‘planted’ the trees close together with the intention of someday building a tree house in the space between the trees – this never came to fruition mostly because I could never devise a plan that would meet our needs. The new shelves will.

There are three shelves under the window.  Each shelf is divided into three sections so in total there are nine sections.  They are the forest, the garden, the beach, the mountain, the winter scene, the desert, the bedroom, the kitchen and the living room. Not all of these sections are complete and knowing me they never will be.  Seriously – nine ‘rooms’ to plan and arrange and rearrange and remodel and rebuild…. Depending on when and if I find the supplies I want some of the sections may be changed in the future because there were others I considered like the farm and the jungle/rainforest.

Here are a few pictures of the current – not yet complete – nature area;

The ‘grass’ was really popular — so fluffy and soft;

There is space on each shelf for little people and animals to live and play;

I’ll give more detail on each individual shelf in a future post when they have all been completed and I can add details of how the children use them.  For now it is still a work in progress.