AE Projects In Progress | The Office, Part II

Big week around here last week as the new floors were installed in my office and we set up the new workspace.

You can check out the first part of this series here.

I have to tell you that's it's been my dream to make something like this happen in my workspace. I just feel so thankful and excited and can't wait to start making stuff in there.

Here's a look at the progression over the last week or so:

It took a couple days to move all the stuff out of my office and into my bedroom.

It might sound crazy that I moved it all in my bedroom (shown above) but it's the next biggest room and it's the most un-decorated. Normally there's nothing in there except the bed, end-table and two bedside tables. Everything else you see there came from the office.

We moved most of the little things out first and then Aaron (aka my "tech guy" and "guitar guy" if you've been following along on Instagram) helped us get the rest of the bigger things out.

During the move-out process we did set aside some tubs for products and supplies that I intend to giveaway or donate. I still plan to go through the drawers as we assess what will actually go back into the office. I think I'm going to find there's a lot of stuff I don't use or stuff that can be stored differently to minimize the number of pieces of storage furniture that actually need to be in the office.

On Sunday I moved out the last of the computer equipment and tables.

I set up the computers in the dining area as a temporary work space. Katie and I worked from here all week.

The guy arrived Monday morning with the wood laminate (a blonde maple - I used a local company Imperial Floors for the flooring and the labor). He pulled out all the carpet first and then got to work.

Katie and I kept peeking in there to see the progress and we were getting very excited as the day went along.

By Tuesday mid-day the floors were all complete.

And I was so happy.

Katie and I learned early last week that the free-standing kitchen islands (Varde) I wanted from Ikea were out of stock at the Portland store. Portland is our "local" store that's two hours away from here.

We had multiple discussions and phone calls about what to do. Because we were in the mood to get this in progress we checked and found out that the kitchen islands were in stock in Seattle. We made the crazy decision to make the 5-hour drive up there to acquire them. Totally worth it. And for the record we checked to see how much it would cost to have them shipped - it was around $300 and would come in about two weeks. Since the kids were with my parents it was feasible. We left home about 1pm, drove up, spent a couple hours at Ikea and turned around and drove back home (into town about 12:30am).

Along the drive we stopped in Kalama, Washington (just north of Vancouver) for a quick photo at the school where they shot the parking lot scenes in the Twilight movies.

We had measured the box dimensions so we knew that the six boxes were going to fit in my Subaru.

Walking into this space is awesome. It's such a change from what was in here before.

George approves.

We went through and counted all the pieces before starting to put the kitchen islands together. Everything was in order.

Not too bad to put together. The main thing was that our hands ended up hurting from all the twisting of the screws.

A totally satisfying project once they were done. They are just what I wanted and they take up a big piece of the space. I've long been a stand-up scrapbooker so this style of workspace is perfect for me.

That's where it stands right now. We found out on Saturday that the desks (also from Ikea) don't fit in any cars or trucks we have access too so we might have to make some different plans to get the desks. My plan is to set up a temporary computer space near the windows for now as we figure out how to get the desks here.

Here's the deal: I'm not in a hurry to bring all the stuff back in the room. I'm thinking I might bring things back in as I need them. This will help me see/know what I really use and what can go in deeper storage.

I love the open feel. I love the white and the light wood. I want to be really intentional about what comes back into this space.

Up next:

• Adding baseboard molding.


• Painting trim and doors and adding new hardware to the doors. This is happening today.


• Lights.

I'll continue to share some updates over the next few weeks as things start happening in here.