Coming Together

In the post ‘Alternatives‘ I wrote a little history about how I have used the various rooms in my home. I was planning a BIG renovation – so big it had to be broken down into several phases.
Phase one of the BIG renovation took place on the weekend of March 22nd and was predominantly a demolition and construction phase. Some of the built in playroom components were moved, removed, or modified.

On the weekend of March 29th my husband and I worked on phase two of the renovation. We began on Friday after the last of the children had left but this phase took longer than expected. In fact, by suppertime on Sunday I was feeling a little panicked – what if it wasn’t going to be ready before the children arrived on Monday?

To be honest, I didn’t finish everything I planned to do in phase two. It took nearly 28 hours for this construction phase but there were a lot of loose things that got buried in corners and hidden away and most of the sorting and organizing stuff didn’t get done. Still, the space was usable.

It made spring break ‘interesting’ – kind of like playing hide & seek all day, every day. The first time one of the children went to do crafts they asked for the pencil crayons. I replied “All the craft supplies are easy for you to get right here on these shelves …. except the pencil crayons.” Grrr.

I’m sure some people would wonder why I’d choose to start such a major project before spring break. Spring break is a notoriously hectic time. Everyone is here for the full day and although the weather is improving we still spend more time indoors than out.

There were difficult periods, not everything went as planned but this was a good thing too. We got a chance to discover the flaws in the design before the project was complete.  Both the children and I had time to evaluated the space and recommend changes.

This past weekend was spent making some layout adjustments and finishing a few of the incomplete phase two projects.  I began some sorting and organizing and by Sunday afternoon the playroom looked like this;



As for the ‘finished’ project….we’re not there yet so I won’t include any other pictures. The plan is nearing completion. One more weekend to complete a couple of smaller components and some painting etc. We will have spent approximately 112 hours over 10 days working on the project.

Paper work is piling up on my desk. I’m neglecting the laundry and other household chores. Everything is coming together, slowly, and the big main floor renovation is nearing completion.  Then, over Easter I’ll have a four day weekend to recuperate and catch up on all that other stuff.

Added Features

Last week I wrote about how I renovated the playroom to improve the walkway issues.   As always, no renovation is ever truely complete so now I want to tell you about some newly added  features.
First, I was a little concerned about the corners of the items attached to the loft post;

This photo angle may show it better;

It didn’t cause any problems the first week after the renovation but I was concerned that it may at some point in the future.  To address the possible problem I added some pieces of pipe;

One is there to soften the pointed corners but both of them are used for play.  The words ‘vertical’ and ‘diagonal’ have been used often in our daily conversations this week.  The toddlers have been experimenting with what toys slide best through the tubes;

I used some pieces of the leftover pipe to create some more tool storage in the workshop area too;

A mesh curtain was also added at the entrance to the block area;

Which I have been informed now makes it a pirate ship

That’s just a few of the added features – there will be more.

Upgrading Spaces

Back in August I mentioned that I had spent the weekend working on ‘phase one’ of a playroom  remodel and that I would show it to you when it was completed.  There are still a few bits and pieces that I want to add but both of the big weekend projects have been completed so here goes:
The old music/workshop area was working well;

My problem with this space was that it was a little cramped if the children decided to form a music group and dance.  Now, I can’t perform miracles and create a bigger room but I could reorganize the shelving to increase the usable floor space like this;

One thing you can’t see in the picture above is the mirror that is on the wall on the right hand side — the children love dancing in front of a mirror but the old music area had no available wall space.  This part of the project was phase one – phase two involved the old housekeeping area and the walkway;

The walkway (area with grey coloured mats) was necessary to get to the nature area but if children were building in the block area they often blocked the walkway.  In such a small room having a dedicated walkway was a waste of 12 square feet of playspace.  I began working on a plan to combine the walkway with the block area – more building space – and in the process we got a new housekeeping area too;

On the left side of the above photo you can see the music area mirror.  The block storage is in the area where the walkway used to be and the entire floor space under the library loft is now open for building;

The clear plastic panel on the back of the block shelf allows a viewpoint between housekeeping and block areas.  Also, because the counter area is combined with the block shelf there is more floor space in the houskeeping area too – bonus!

When the new housekeeping area was built we used a bigger bowl to make the sink – and my husband put in a drain too – thank-you

We left space under the sink to add a drain pipe and a water line (non functioning) but they haven’t been added yet.  In this photo you can see the space under the sink counter and the view into the block area;

The stovetop and oven were not included in the counter area and instead they have been relocated over to the area by the refrigerator and laundry centre;

 

Now I want to get some silver paint to upgrade to ‘stainless steel’ appliances