Shared Space: The Combo Room

Like most mom's I tried to give my child his own area in the family shared living space.  Like most mom's I ended up with an area that did not fit the rest of the decor or the house.  Ethan's initial space contained his train table and a toddler table with two chairs.  Not only did these pieces look out of place they were not used by Ethan or his friends. I believe the space I had made for him was rarely used because there was very little usable space (in fact I tried to locate some pictures of this area before I changed it and I could find none -- because Ethan nor his friends ever hung out there.)  Moreover, I wanted a space that blended in with the rest of the room. Often times on HGTV realtors and the like say these combo rooms rarely blend together nor look pleasing.  I have strived for both blending and good looks thanks to one great piece: the table.

After a great deal of deliberation I got rid of the train table(kept all the trains and tracks and put in a box in the closet) and toddler table.  I put in one large table that was low enough for little people (and big) to sit around -- thereby creating a usable space.  I found a table on Craigslist that measured was five feet long, three feet wide and fourteen inches tall  -- it needed some work but it was the perfect size.  I bought it for the amazing low price of $15!

I sanded the table allowing the flaws to be exposed (particle board....it is a table with wood legs and trim but veneered top).  I painted the legs an earthy green (Ethan wanted flourescent green), stained the top two different colors and lacquered the top liberally.  I put the table on a rug from Pottery Barn similar to the one on this link.  For the seating and storage I purchased four 26 x 26 pillows and one Expedit single unit from Ikea to house the craft items.  The modern style of the Expedit did not match the craftsman style decor of the room so I put six bun feet on it.  I got the bun feet from Home Depot and painted them to match the shelf with black and brown spray paint alternately until it matched.  Unfortunately, I purchased four of the Knipsa storage boxes made out of a natural wicker type material -- very bad choice.  They look good but they shed horribly.  I am constantly vacuuming and wiping the area around the boxes.  Ikea has a new box the Drona box, which they did not have when I bought the Expedit.  The Drona box is 1/3 the price of the Knipsa, not messy and very colorful.  I duplicated this same Expedit shelf for Ethan's room and used the three green Drona boxes.

I filled the baskets and shelves with paints, papers, games, puzzles, puppets, pencils, craft supplies and labeled them accordingly with mini chalkboards (made from wood from Home Depot then painted with chalkboard paint).  This has been the most worthwhile project I have done for Ethan.  He spends most of his free time at the arts table, as we like to call it, creating, playing games and doing puzzles.  When friends and family come over they gather around doing many of the same activities.  I am not sure if HGTV hosts would say I achieved  my goal of a shared space both blending and looking pleasing but I do know what once was unusable has now become a very usable space.

The Little Blue Composter

Many Sundays (last October to be exact) ago I was in the backyard working on the un-ending-backyard-renovation when I noticed Ethan, my wonderful four year old, going in and out of the house muttering the follwing words : compost, george, garbage, dirt.  I knew he was referring to the Curious George episode on recycling which kind of worried me because it didn't work out well for the man in the yellow hat that episode. I very discreetly followed him to side of the house where I noticed coffee grounds and a pineapple top lying on the ground in sand.  I asked him what was doing and he told me he was making a compost bucket like Curious George did.  I was very impressed with his iniative, creativity and devotion to making his own compost pile -- just not in the middle of the walkway!

At lunch we decided to look at You Tube Videos of composter and recylcing ideas.  There were so many amazing and creative ideas for creating your own composter and after veiwing several we decided to get the materials to make our own.  We bought a fifty gallon water drum from a guy on Craigslist for $20 and bought some hinges and a latch at Home Depot for $10.  I drilled  probably to many holes in the barrel, cut a hatch and we put on the hinges and latch.  We took an old bench from the front of the house put four wheeled casters on the top (wheels up) then mounted the barrell on top horizontally.  Voila! our very own-cheaper-than-buying-it-at-the-store composter -- and did I mention one can mix it by spinning it on the casters?  Yes it really works.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the results to show the composter did in fact work like composter should -- it took a really long time though -- four months to be exact.  We used the compost we generated in our raised garden beds (that is another blog).  This has been a great learning experience for Ethan and a great way to not add more waste the the landfills -- not to mention keeping my house looking nice and not sharing in the fate of the man with the yellow hat.

Mini Skateboards

Life

According to the dictionary life is the animate existence or period of animate existence of an individual.  Put that way -- once you are no longer animate you are not alive -- seems scary and enlightening at the same time.  I am older but alive.

Age is encroaching -- something one never thinks will happen.  I am getting those wrinkles on my chest I used to see on older women.  My face looks older, but when I imagine myself I remember the way I looked when I was younger.  One's children get older, move away, go away, -- one way or another they are...away.  My oldest son, whom my world revolved around, is somewhat estranged from me.  No he is estranged, but he is nineteen -- does that count?  I think about death more now.  My death the deaths of my loved ones.  I fear dying alone, again something I never thought about before.  Perhaps being an Rn has focused much of my attention on the latter encroachment-of-age issue.  I see so many many older people discarded in the hospital and alone.  They have children because the tell me they do -- but they never visit.  I would rather be quartered and hung, no, fall from a plane, than to be in the hospital in my old age...alone.  I never thought about these things before, but my skin is changing.  My sleep habits are changing.  Age is encroaching, but I am still alive.

I look at anti-age creams now.  A year ago I did not.  I even think about extreme anti-aging measures like face lifts like which one is best and is 44 to early?  And of course botox or maybe dermabrasion.  Can I get botox injections into those permanent wrinkles in my chest?  At the end of the day, once gravity has finally kicked in, the wrinkles on my chest disappear but only because the weight of the aging skin below the chest pulls everything above taut.  I also have gray hair.  At first it was one or two but now there are so many new recruits.  I used to tweeze them out but then they came back kind of wiry.  Now I cut them off at the base but there are just too many.  I guess I should find solace in the fact I am still animate.  Alive.  And I do, I just wish I were the younger looking version of me without the more animated features of chest wrinkles, gray hair, spongy dry skin (yes, there is such a thing).  It is so hard to see oneself grow older.  Even harder to see your parents grow older.  It is the circle of life.  That's life.  The facts of life.  Life is what we make it.  Life is a canvas.  Life is full of ups and downs.  Yes, life, a very animated life with wrinkles is the much preferred alternative to the inanimate with or without wrinkles.  Although I prefer without wrinkles.

Coronado Island

Prior to moving to Chandler all we could think about was getting away to California for a cool (as in temperature) vacation.  For those of you who don't know we moved in July to a house with a swimming pool and "Wow!" who knew summer in Arizona could be so fun?  Alas summer is nearly over (yes, it is still in the 90's even in November) and we have been working so hard (that is another blog) we decided we should go on our much needed vacation to California. 

Our California destination?  Well our first pick was Santa Monica because of its 25 miles of bike pathway along the ocean, however the drive time seemed a bit difficult to navigate with only four days off so we decided on Coronado Island instead.  We stayed at Loew's Resort which was 4 miles from downtown Coronado and connected by a very nice two lane bike path. The Loew's was a decent hotel with horrible restaurant food -- seems to be more popular with conferences than families.  We did however enjoy the kayaking offered at their dock near the popular neighborhood of Coronado Cays.

If I were to review the town of Coronado (Island) I would say it has a beautiful sandy beach in front of Hotel del Coronado, a walkable downtown with lots of shopping and dining options.  They also had a really great dog park at the beach which the entire family enjoyed.  I would definitely not recommend biking in town.  I was nearly hit by a big suv trying to cross a crosswalk while the "little white man" was showing safe to walk.  Granted you may say it was an isolated incident however the downtown area was very congested with cars, with no bike lane and no riding on the sidewalks.  I had read there is a 30 mile-plus bike path along the entire San Diego Bay shoreline which perhaps is more conducive to hardcore cyclists than a biking family.  Overall for a biking mini-vacation it was fun, relaxing and active : two and half days of riding five hours each day to the town, around the town and to the beach.

Our next holiday/vacation is in December and we are headed to what should have been my birthplace: Boston.  I can't wait and aside from not anticipating the plane flight I am absolutely ecstatic!  Having visited Boston now three times I can't think of any other place where I feel most at home.  I love the weather, in the winter of course, the transportation system, the culture, the architecture -- the list goes on. We could not go to Germany this year due to buying our house but look forward to seeing my husband's family next summer as well as northern France.  Stay tuned.....