Friday, January 29, 2010

It's a Wrap


Big goings-on over here. First of all, my beautiful new Chevy Traverse passed a big test--thrifting! While car shopping, I had 2 major requirements:

Enough cargo space for thrift shop purchases (who wants to have to borrow a pickup truck when you could just shove whatever in the back of the car?)

and
Power Windows so that I could chat with the adorable 6 year old boy on our street who stands by his mailbox waving as I come in and out of the neighborhood. When he was on my driver’s side (coming into the neighborhood) I rolled down my window to chat, but when he was on the passenger side (leaving) I’d be too lazy to do the across-the-car-reach-and-crank and I'd feel guilty for blowing him off.

So, I got to greet little Daniel last week with a simple push of the button, AND I shoved a major purchase into the Traverse on Monday with no ill effects.

Wooohoo!

The purchase? Two large white laminate cabinets ($18/ea.) for our basement storage room. Tom was less than thrilled. He is the same one who actually said to me, wait for it… “Why do you need so much room in the new car? Don’t we already have everything we need?” Silly man.


When he saw the monster cabinets sitting in the carport, he groaned, and I knew I had the challenge of making them an indispensable part of Chez See.

On Tuesday, Molly was “sick,” so I missed work, parked her in front of the tv and got to work in the basement. I pulled every single box, bin and piece of furniture out of there, checked and sorted all the contents, and consolidated in order to make more room. Some items were super heavy—military trunks, dressers, a foosball table, toolboxes, and bins full of rollerblades not touched since I was fun and single. My back is still screaming.

You may be asking, “If you are bringing more storage into the basement, why did you need to purge first? Well, my vision for the cabinets was to make a gift-wrapping station. Let it be known I’m neither a good wrapper nor a good gifter, so I might not really need a designated space for this, but that’s beside the point.

In addition, all of our wrapping supplies have been happily ensconced with the dust bunnies under the guest bed for 6 years bothering no one, but you can’t stop a woman with a vision. So, in ADDING the cabinets and the wrapping supplies to the basement, I had to SUBTRACT other things.

Chairs went to the shed. My old teaching supplies went to the recycling bin, and a huge pile of junk formed for our Water Project yard sale.

The result? This:






Went to:












I know I could have cuted it up a lot more, but I decided to only use stuff that was already languishing in our storage room. The painting of my grandparents’ house was done by my mother in high school, the huge lamp is awaiting a make-under, and the ribbon holder was my mom's. I even have her brass turtle ashtray from when she would sneak a smoke late at night, thinking we didn't know. These are things I didn't want to get rid of, but they don't really fit in elsewhere in the house.



Don't you just love my little Sunday School drawing of my family?

One cabinet is for for gift bags, tissue paper and wrapping paper, and the other side has my fabric scraps.

So much fun!

Of course, now I have to deal with the yard sale pile:






Anybody need a tiki torch?

20 comments:

Deidra said...

Yay for you! You did a great job! I love the artwork.

Anonymous said...

That was AWESOME. I need to get myself into the garage too so that I can purge and merge. I need a magic purchase too, I think, to provide the motivation.

jbhat

Rebecca said...

Man, you're super productive!!! And I love that drawing of your family. What a treasure that is.

TheLab said...

Holy crap! That was a shocking before and after! Awesomeness!

Lynn Kellan said...

This is going to backfire, Anna. Now everyone is going to expect awesomely wrapped gifts. May the force be with you!

Masala Chica said...

Lol. Awesome - so organized. I am impressed Anna! I am all in for the tiki torch. So I can add it to the enormous pile of you know what that I have in my own house.
Kiran

dearheart said...

Fabulous. I'm exhausted just looking at your completed project. Love the term "make under" for your lamp and your mom's secret ashtray. My mom had one of those too....

Tracie said...

That was quite a transformation! Very nice!

suzanneelizabeths.com said...

Wow, great job! It looks fabulous!

K A B L O O E Y said...

Wow, you are the new Martha Stewart, with your ribbon caddy and wrapping station. Love the painting of your mom's, her secret ashtray and your Sunday school picture. Am exceedingly sorry that I didn't even get to bid on the authentic Anna See Tiki Torch. Man, that would have held a place of honor in my garage, and I would have thrown out an identical looking but decidedly non "authentic Anna See" Tiki Torch to make room for it. Darn.

Ms. Molly said...

Wow, what a makeover! It looks great.

Kelee Katillac said...

Looks great---and so do you in the other post! You are a strong capable woman!

Anna--you had offered to help on a Design Gives Back project--we have one on today.....

please stop by!

love,kelee

Pamela said...

Your shed is done? Excellent!

Glennon said...

anna, WOW.
one day you must take me treasure hunting with you.
do you ever go to lucketts?

TwoWishes Tara said...

That is beautiful!! You must have such a feeling of accomplishment every time you look at it. (And let me know if you want any good stuff donations whenever yard sale time rolls around. I'm in awe of your project and would love to help!)

Brenda Susan said...

wow! That is a wonderful make-over! So impressive, you must feel very satisfied! Hubby should be proud!

Christy said...

Wow it looks so much better! It's totally cutified! You always make me laugh Anna. Roller blades from when you were fun and single?! You're still fun! I wish I could attend your yard sale - I bet it'll be one of the good ones!

Anna Lefler said...

That is AWESOME. Makes me want to get my space in order.

Of course, I've been saying that for, um, about 16 years now...

XO

Anna

Kate Coveny Hood said...

I love your wrapping station. I could totally use one of those since I wrap gifts on the floor and spend half of my time fending off small children obsessed with tissue paper.

I also love how you're displaying a china plate on the station. Very fancy.

Cynthia said...

I'll take the tiki torch if you deliver. :) Love ya