its office-ial!

thats a terrible pun. sorry.

just wanted to share with you all our latest office progress, since i'm sure you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats for an update. but mostly just because i spent most of this weekend working down in the cool basement and hiding out from the 100+ degree temperatures outside.

Before:
our "office" was a hot mess. i mean, just look at it. ugh.

During:
when this all got started, we did a LOT of cleaning and organizing, simultaneously tackling the office closet, the mountain-o-junk, and the storage shelves in the other half of the basement. we also fixed the moldy drywall in the corner of the office.

on Saturday, i spent all day down in the basement painting. (Mark helped me do the cutting in around the windows and doors so i wouldnt have to tape them) we used the same color that is in our front room and dining room upstairs, since i figured it wouldnt clash too badly with the carpet, and because we had over a gallon of that color left over thanks to my wonderful over-estimating skills.

on Sunday, Mark helped me assemble our new IKEA desk, and then i spent the afternoon putting the office stuff all back into the office and making sure it all fit on the shelves.

and then ...drumroll please...

After:
this doesnt even look like the same room. just go ahead and scroll back up to the before picture, then come back down and be amazed.

as Mark put it, we're probably not going to win Design Star or anything like that (not while we're working with that carpet anyway) but it is 1000% better than what it was. it actually looks like a functional office space/guest room, which it was not even close to being before. it was probably the most embarrasing room in our house (we made sure the door was closed anytime anyone came over) but now here i am being all proud of it on the internets!

and just for fun, how about an akward angle to try and capture all the elements of the room in one picture? working clockwise from the left we've got the new computer desk from IKEA, a bookshelf from Target that is full of Mark's textbooks, the (reorganized) office closet, and our garage sale futon from last year.

and now our office to do list is looking more like a to-done list:
- finish spackling/sanding the corner.
- paint.
- install baseboard? we opted not to do this since we would end up taking it
    all back down when we eventually tear out the carpet
- get a new desk.
- move the futon into the office.
- put some boxes in the attic.
- figure out what to do with the zillion CDs we own boxed and shelved.

all that's left is to move some boxes, and get a futon mattress so that we can actually USE the futon. but as far as i'm concerned, this room can be called office-ially done!