Built Ins Being Built In

Today the carpenter arrived to do the built ins in the homeschool room. He estimated it would take 5-6 hours for them to be installed and painted. A team of four men was here for ten hours getting them installed, and they will come back tomorrow to paint. It turned out more time consuming than expected! They sealed off the computer desk to protect it from dust, which completely relieved me since it never occurred to me that they would generate so much dust during this process, but it leaves me once again without my camera cord and the ability to upload photos. So, that part will have to wait until tomorrow.

These shelves are a huge blessing to me. I really needed some additional storage in our homeschool room and I wanted to make efficient use of vertical space. I went to an unfinished furniture store and inquired about shelf units that were 16 inches deep, 36 inches wide, and 72 inches tall. The quote for three sets of shelves put me over my budget, and having them painted was going to cost as much as the shelves themselves! I was really discouraged, and looked in several furniture and office stores, but could not find exactly what I wanted. So, I drew out a sketch of my dream storage unit, adding depth to the bottom of the shelves, some flat panel doors, and taking the height all the way to 96 inches. I showed the sketch to the contractor who has been working on the house and he bid a price to build a custom unit and attach it to my wall, adding crown molding and baseboard trim. His price was less than the free standing, much smaller units from the furniture store! The workmanship on these shelves is amazing. This man is a skilled craftsman who takes much pride in his work, and I am honored by his meticulous dedication to making this room exactly right. Speed isn't the name of his game, obviously, but he is a complete perfectionist, and I feel guilty that he is spending so many extra hours here. It is a timely lesson for my boys on diligence and integrity, and we have had some good talks here today about the benefits bestowed from going the extra mile.

Speaking of extra miles, Emma is full throttle lately. She's all legs, and since the furniture has been sparse in here it's like a wide open race track at her disposal. I'm completely exhausted and can't figure out why she isn't too. I suppose that's the fun of being a kid when you're living in chaos. You can be cavalier and carefree because you aren't responsible for regaining order and putting everything away!

And speaking of putting things away, we did make some significant strides over the weekend. In hindsight, I can hardly believe I knick knacked the entryway yesterday, since it is right off the homeschool room and now covered with yet another blanket of dust. Buzzard change the a/c filters for me last night thinking we had cleared the worst of the dust hurdle, but I'm so tickled by what is happening with those shelves that I don't even care. It will all get cleaned up eventually. Or not. The dust matches my new Autumn Blonde paint rather well! Ha!!

A cute thing happened yesterday. I'm a woman obsessed when it comes to felt feet. I'm scared I'm going to gouge my beautiful new floors, so before I let anyone move any furniture onto the wood, I flip it over and put felt feet on the bottom of it. I have felt feet in every size and shape you can imagine. So, in the middle of shuffling things around here we looked over and noticed that Emma had opened a package of felt feet and was trying to adhere some of them to the bottom of her own feet! Is that adorable?? I think I'll keep 'er. She's sweet enough to eat, and cute enough to stick on a bookshelf and admire. A handy, built in bookshelf in the homeschool room, to be exact!

Photos tomorrow!!