Movin' In!

We finally got these shelf units anchored and ready, so I cleaned each and every SU stamp set I own and brought them all down. The shelves are 15" deep, so they kind of get lost on the shelves, so I told Rick that he'd have to modify the shelves for me with false backs so they're all near the front, and he blew a gasket! He couldn't understand why I'd purchase such deep shelves when I only needed them to be about 10" deep.

When we went to Ikea today, he finally understood. The other shelf system they have is called 'Billy', but those were too tall. With our drop ceiling, I could only go as high as 78". That's why I had to go with the Besta shelves, but they only came 15" deep. I figured it was better to have them too big than too small.

After we put together my table, we felt that the lolley-column in the middle of the room was in the way, so we decided to put the table somewhere else and re-configure the whole room. I'm glad we did, cause I like it this way much better!

These are my paper racks for my SU cardstock. The cabinet below the smaller rack has been hanging around us for about 15 years, through many a flood, and Rick wants it gone, but I told him that we could keep it for now. I usually store things in here that I can alter ... journal books, coasters, candles, coffee mugs, etc. Things I use for special classes or hostess gifts.

This is my Die Cut Station. I snagged this from Joann.com when it was on sale and had to build it myself (like everything else down here!). I have all my dies in the drawers, and all my Sizzlit alphabets, strip dies, etc. are on the shelves. I have my Big Shot & Vagabond on top and ready to go! Now, if I only knew an electrician who could put an outlet nearby, I'd be all set! lol

This is the new table we bought today at Ikea. I'm calling it my "Creation Station". I usually stand when I'm creating because I'm always going here & there to get stuff. I'm going to adhere my craft sheets to the top and just play here. I can put my paper cutters in one drawer, and miscellaneous tools in the other two drawers. On the lower shelf is my doctor's bag for my Big Shot.

This view is of the part of the room I've been working on ... stamps, cardstock, die cutting station. To the right is the table for my classes. It comes with 2 leaves to extend the table for larger classes.

This is the view from the other end of the table you just saw. We haven't anchored the big wall 'o shelves yet, because Rick wants to wait until we know what we're doing in the far corner here. We were looking at more shelves today to fill this corner and along this wall, but they're going to be more like book shelves ... only 11" deep. When we get those, I think I'm going to move my wall 'o stamps into those.

Let there be light!

Do you know what these are? More importantly, what they mean? I have light switches! And ... that means, I have lights! Yayyyyy! The lights are finally done, so that means that now we can start moving my shelf units to their permanent homes!

This is my 'faux wall' between my craft room & laundry room. I'm going to house all my Stampin' Up! stamps here. Someone asked for a person in the pictures to get a better perspective ... Rick wasn't interested, so I posed and he took the pics. So far, these units are the only permanent ones set up so far, so tomorrow I'll be busy filling them up!

Here's another perspective shot of the room. My table will be going down the middle. That big pile next to me are all the shelves for all the units. When they're gone, I'm going to move down my paper racks to go along that back wall.

This will be my main storage area for everything that's not SU stamps ... Ranger stuff, tools, embellishments, jewelry making supplies, etc.

Those two boxes on the floor are my new table. We're probably going to put that together tomorrow night when Rick gets home from work. He wants to see how it's going to fit in the room before we permanently attach these other shelf units to the wall.

My 'faux wall' to the laundry room.

I caught Rick in one of my pics when he wasn't lookin'!

Can't wait to start bringing my stamps down and loading the first "wall 'o shelves"! I might even get started tonight after dinner!

Got my table today!

Just got back from another trip to Ikea where we bought a table for my classes. Rick is going to work on the lights this weekend, while I finish building the last 3 shelf units. I wanted to put some cabinets in for a refreshment area, and some more for a work table, but we saw some alternative ideas at Ikea. We're not going to get anything else now cause I've got everything I need to get my classes going again (oh, still need chairs). Rick thinks the other items can be birthday & anniversary gifts. All I want right now is for him to finish the lights and painting so I can start filling those shelves!

Ooooops!!!

Did you ever rush to get a mess cleaned up, and ended up making a new mess 3x the size? Hello! Just did it! Rick wanted the garbage out because it was starting to smell, but I can't stand throwing out half empty garbage bags (we have to use special bags in my town that cost $.50 each!). I decided to grab all the styrofoam packing from the shelves, plus empty paint cans, rollers, etc. The roller I used 2 days ago was soooo stuck on the handle that I asked Rick to help me get it off. Luckily (and I mean luckily!), he said "let's do this outside". Good thinking Rick! So, he pulled, and pulled, and not only did the roller pop off, but there was tons of wet paint inside that spurted big gobs of light turquois paint on my paver stone walkway! I had to laugh, but how to clean it up? I grabbed some paper towels to get most of it off, but it also smeared. Rick told me to use the sponge mop. Haha! OK, so I did. Now, we have wet, watered-down light turquoise paint that is in the grout and seeping under the ice! I have a bathroom right inside the front door, so I kept running in & out rinsing the mop and trying to get the paint off. Now, there's a new mess inside! My neighbors must've thought I was nuts! I think I got it all, but we'll see when it dries and the ice melts.

Drawers

Rick couldn't help me today because he got called out on an emergency job. He does industrial electrical work--mostly pump stations for the water companies in the tri-state area, so when they're down, he's gotta run or people have no water! We've got a huge storm going over us right now--ice, rain & slush!--so he's probably going to be running around in it all day. My poor baby!

I put together the remaining smaller units today. I've got two more of the big ones, but I'm gonna wait until Rick's here cause I needed his help with the others. Those big guys are definitely a two-person job!

I had lots of boxes left, so I opened one to check it out. Drawers ... I almost forgot! I ordered 3 different types of drawers ... 5 deep, 8 shallow, and 3 glass (don't ask me where I came up with these numbers!). The first one went together pretty easy, and pretty soon, I was on a roll! I installed two of them into one of the shelf units to see how they looked, and I love 'em!

Since I can't put these units in their permanent homes yet, I just laid the rest of the drawers on shelves of the finished units until I see where I want to put them.

I really wish I could just move these to where I want them and start filling them up, but I gotta wait for Rick to finish wiring the lights. Maybe I'll do the 2nd coat of paint today to get that done while I'm waiting for him.

Painting & Building Shelves

I built my first shelf unit! These Besta units from Ikea only come in certain heights, so in some places I had to order a 48" unit that would get a 24" unit on top. This is one of the top pieces. Unfortunately, this is one of the units I can't put into a permanent spot yet because that's where Rick needs to work to finish hooking up the lights. When the delivery men came, they just stacked up all the boxes, and since I have to get everything built anyway, I just started with the top box.


Rick came home and informed me that's he's got lots of work this week, so he wouldn't be able to do any work in the basement. About an hour later he came down and started taping and preparing to paint. Lucky me! He finished the work he had to get done and decided to get some paint on the walls.

It was nice having him down there with me while I was building shelves, but he's so used to having a helper work with him, it's easy for him to ask me to do something for him every 20 minutes or so--"can you tape that for me?" "Oh! Wipe up that drip!" "rinse that paint brush out" "lay some paper down here" "do you have a knife?" "maybe you can reach this" "where'd I put my glasses?" and so on, and so on. Of course, I had to jump for him! My mama didn't raise a fool ... I want this work done!

Rick also kept reminding me how much he HATES to paint. He'd also say things like "ya know, when this can is empty, I'm done here." Luckily, we had enough in the first can to completely finish the first coat.

This area here next to the stairs is where I'm going to set up my little refreshment area. The wall is slanted because the stairs continue up into the rest of the house, so I'm going to install a couple of cabinets with a counter top and a small refrigerator that I purchased when another LSS went out of business.

This is one of the tallest units. I purchased four of them to go along this wall. I had 3" clearance to the drop ceiling, and Rick was amazed that we stood it upright without hitting the drop ceiling! Ha! He thought, for sure, I wasted all that money on shelves that wouldn't fit! I love it when I'm right!

I got two of these built, and three of the short units. Still got lots more to build, plus I need to drive to Ikea to pick up the last unit that was on backorder. Time to get to work!