New & Improved!!

Several years ago, some friends gave us a desk for our office area in our Family room.  We were so thankful and it filled the need for quite some time.  After all, it upgraded us from a three drawer writing desk, which was very inadequate.  However, as time went on, and as we tried to move the desk and the right side of it fell off, we've realized that perhaps we might need to upgrade our desk again.  I've also become involved in many more areas that require the use of the computer and such, which has increased the amount of "stuff" going on in the desk area.  Not just me, but Brian uses the computer for his schooling and work related things.  The kids use the computer for their schooling, and the list goes on.   "Stuff" was always getting piled up on the desk.  Things just weren't fitting in our space and it was always messy and unorganized.  That made both Brian and I very grumpy.  Just being transparent here, don't judge me, you do it too.  Since I'm being transparent, I've decided to share with you a photo of our former desk space at its worst.  It got very ugly and out of control.  Keep in mind that it didn't look like this all the time, but the thing just became a magnet for the stray items that just didn't seem to have a place to call home.  You can also see that I caught Brian at home reading the news on the computer, while Caleb, who is in his pajamas was reading over his shoulder.  (It's not a beautiful moment, but its just part of life sometimes which is why I took the picture in the first place.  Just in case you were curious)

For over a year, I have been watching the price on a certain desk unit and hutch at a local office supply store.  I kept thinking that they would surely just sell out of them before the price came down low enough for me to even look twice.   I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.....

...and waited some more.  

Then...one day...it happened...I went to the store for something totally unrelated and as I had picked up what I needed, I thought I'd just wander over there and "just see" what the price was.  You know, not that it would be cheaper, but it couldn't hurt to look, right?   Well, to my surprise and GREAT satisfaction, the entire unit, plus the hutch was on sale for lower than it had ever been before.  In fact, it was lower as a whole set than it had been previously for just the desk!!   I brought Brian over there after picking him up from work that evening and to my surprise he said "Well, go tell them you want one!  Happy Anniversary!!"  At first, I thought he was just joshin' me, especially since our anniversary was over a month ago, but to my surprise, he was serious!!  Yippeeee!!   Of course, it came in boxes and would have to be assembled, but that was no problem!  The next day, Brian and the two older boys were able to work together to get everything assembled.  Titus and Emily worked really hard on the empty boxes.  It was fun to watch the intensity of Titus and Emily as they worked on the empty boxes and to see the same intense faces on Brian and the boys as then assembled the actual desk.  soo funny.

After searching all over town, we were also able to find a matching filing cabinet, which was badly needed as well.  We've had the same 2 drawer metal filing cabinet for over 10 years and since its not the best quality, it has many dents and thrashes that make it a bit dangerous to use.   

 

I was also able to re-fashion an old, icky looking bulletin board to coordinate with the new set.  It was super easy and cost less than five dollars!   Here is a close up of the bulletin board.  If you want to know how to do it, let me know and I'll send you the info.

  I know, the lamp doesn't match very well, but don't worry, I've got a can of spray enamel to take care of that and I'm going to embellish the shade to tie it in with the "espresso" color of the desk.     I recently was able to replace our ratty old vertical blinds with some bamboo Roman style shades, so next up, in my mind is paint and to make valances.  We'll see if I can share my vision and turn it into reality.

*Please also ignore my ugly pink carpet, I promise I did NOT choose it.  In fact, I'm certain that even my evil twin would not choose  pink carpet, but that's a topic for another post.  :)