Snail like progress...

There is always something...and this time it is a wretched nerve compression causing me problems and slowing me down to snails pace...but I will get there...just not as soon or as organised as I had hoped.
Due this little setback it has now become more urgent to simply get the remaining boxes unpacked and things packed away than to have them properly sorted. So for now like will be with like and the organising proper will have to take place later. Not what I had hoped for at all but you have to go with you have you...lemons and lemonade spring to mind

Electrical shocks

Imagine how daft we feel when we realised that although we had carefully planned and noted our need for electrical sockets around the room, we had neglected to put them in place before we finalised the layout and stacked goodies on all the shelves and filled all the drawers....

The electrical stuff was delivered today and we have sent hours moving  stuff again... and one we had all the wires connected to the sockets and put the units back we realised we had not accounted for the increased depth of plug sockets once loaded...sigh!

Now it may be just us being super dense, and anyone reading this may roll their eyes at our lack of planning...but if we cannot be a shining example we may as well be a  horrible warning...If our mistakes help someone else in future than great.... But next time I mention doing anything remotely like this again, please remind me I need to get the professionals in because this is way above our pay grade!

Of course this little glitch has meant that the tallest units are a little more forward than we had hoped and  now really have to be secured to the wall. Hubby is of curse thrilled at the extra work...but he is easily bribed with pizza and this will be done by the end of the day.

I love that I now have extra sockets...lots of them...maybe its time to get some new tools ;)

Happy Happy Bargain Buy

I am not a huge fan of ebay and I can count the number of ebay purchases I have ever made  on my fingers,without resorting to counting toes too...but when I saw a 12x12 standing paper rack with a starting bid of just £7 it was just too hard to resist.

 Due to the size and weight it was a collection in person only listing but after a quick consultation with hubby we decided if I could get it for under a set amount it would be worth the trip to go and get it...

and so I waited ...

and with just minutes to go I entered my bid...

and then I entered my max bid in case I might get pipped at the post...

and then I got notification that I had won the item...

for just seven quid!

We drove over and picked it up today and it is fabulous. It is a really solid shop quality rack and will be a great addition to my new craft room layout. I felt ever so slightly guilty that I clearly got a total bargain,  but the seller was lovely and needed the space so said she did not mind one bit and was happy it went to someone who would use it.

Tomorrow we have to go and pick up the electrical stuff (isolated sockets and lighting) and we will move a couple of units just to be able to  make the electrical connections and then  we really will be in the final stages.

I can't wait!

A work in progress

After a few false starts we finally have the furniture configured - who knew it would be so complicated to expand into twice the space? Not me for sure...

It hasn't helped any that I have a compressed nerve in my left arm and have pulled a large muscle on my right side shoulder...so things have slowed somewhat  and we are surrounded by boxes that seem to be multiplying...

So today  we went to Ikea...

I was really disappointed to find they have discontinued the oak colour Ribba picture ledges - I wanted more to match those I already have...now they only do black or white and only the larger sizes, not the small ones. Boo to that!

But a person cannot stay disappointed in Ikea for too long and  in the kitchen dept I found some really cool drawer inserts that will fit the narrow drawers of the Alex drawer units....and they were just £1.50 each. These will be perfect to keeping small things tidy inside those drawers. I bought four to begin with ...I may get more later.


I also picked up four fabric bins for my expedit unit...and I chose these because 12x12 paper and card will fit inside these easily...and I took some 12x12 with me in a 13x13 poly bag to double check. Yes I really did walk around the entire Ikea store clutching a poly bag containing 12x12 textured cardstock...I believe it was  tangerine tango in colour. It was a case of lesson learned because the boxes I bought previously, while designed specifically for the expedit cubes,are too small because the joints of the box reduce the internal dimensions... Something I had not considered when I bought them. Anyhow these were only £2.50 each and I bought four...two black and two in a turquoise blue colour. They had some pink florals and a navy paisley pattern option too but for extra money...and since they are storage and not a design feature I chose to spend the extra elsewhere...




Like on this really cute little pot ...these were just £2 each and are made from metal so won't break if they get knocked off the counter top and they are definitely wipe clean. As we were leaving I spotted them in some other pastel colours too and I may go back for some more at a later date.





The other main things we bought today were a couple more tall Benno units. Designed as media storage and boasting to hold 88 dvds each unit, these are perfect for dies and stamps. I already have four of these but they are all filled already...The beauty of these is that you get loads of shelves and fixings and so they are completely adjustable to make cubbies whatever size you need...which means I can fit the extra long dies in their original packing as well as the thin metals dies in cd cases and stamp sets in dvd or video style boxes alongside stamp sets in clam shell cases. They are brilliant. And they are not too deep so don't protrude out into the room too much. They will be going up tonight and will be filled tomorrow.

It has been a far slower process even getting this far, but it does feel like things are finally coming together. There are still lots of little things to sort out...like power extensions and some extra lighting in key work areas, but it is starting to look and feel like a craftroom now and I can't wait until it is done and fully operational.

Watch this space....

Label it...

In my quest to be more organised - and because if I cannot see it, it ceases to exist - I am trying to organise the new craft room before I start to put things away.  So while I am waiting for the last two units to go in there and the shelves and rails to be put up I have been busy thinking about labels....

And what better than My Digital Studio... The Label This Craft Room designer kit for MDS is perfect. It allows me to make easy labels as has   ready made options for all the different items from adhesives through to Washi Tape and it lets me pop the headings into frames that match the label punches I own. It also lets me print blank label frames to add my own headings...which is going to be vital when I need at least a  few labels that say SCRAPS!

I opted to stick with plain black and white labels because they are easy on my tired old eyes and I have printed a few sheets and have started to punch them out and I popped them into a clear envelope for safe keeping...

I will use them to help me decide where everything will go before I start to fill the units...but for now let me share this little pic with you... my first little baggy of labels

On the home stretch

At last I can see an actual craft room emerging from the chaos... but the process has meant that the one room that was completed and fit for purpose has now temporarily found itself full of stuff again as we curse the size of this central London house  and decide oh lets just pop this in there for a minute...

The tape measure has never seen so much action, but the end is in sight and  after three hours of moving things around, we think we have finalised the  layout for the new craft room. It was hard -  we already had so much of the furniture to work with  and needed to make that work in the new room...and we will I am sure.

We have decided to quit for tonight and look at it again tomorrow... of curse the real proof will be when  come to work in there... After weeks of craft room deprivation, I can't wait!

A Victory for common sense...

Finally after submitting a formal complaint (which received an automated response but nothing further)  and three follow up emails to Virgin Media I rang them again and I spoke to a lovely lady who agreed the situation was ridiculous and within a few minutes had arranged that an engineer will call on Tuesday to rectify the problems...and free of charge too.  I am of course very grateful to her for employing common and sense and applying good customer service...but it makes you wonder  why they couldn't have done that in the first place?

As things stand right this minute...the top floor of our house is freezing cold because the  front window frames have been painted today and the paint takes sixteen hours to dry. We had painted two sets using the quick drying stuff but even with a couple of coats the results were pretty awful so this time we have got the proper stuff...stinks to high heaven but goes on like a dream and is glossy white as it should be... Tomorrow we are going to add a coat of super stinky but super glossy to the window ledges that were already painted and  because our bedroom is being decorated as part of this whole upstairs reno thingy we have going on we need to touch up the feature wall with some more suede paint because somehow it got a big splodge of white paint on it at one end of the room  and several speckles of  white (ceiling paint) and pastel rose (end walls). At least we can get those last bits done tomorrow while we are waiting for the Virgin man to come Tuesday and do his thing...

It is no small coincidence that while we were moving books from a pair of shelving units downstairs (tall Billy bookcases with doors on the bottom are coming upstairs into the craft room) we came across an Ikea catalogue... and the current one at that...pristine condition, pages unturned. There is no doubt at all that we will be visiting Ikea very soon...the catalogue will  make great bedtime reading.

The decorating a whole floor of our house in one hit was a crazy idea but has actually been a lot less stressful than I imagined...that said  its been horrid being without my craft room and I am so pleased that the end is now in sight...

The craft room should be taking real shape this week and by this time next week I hope to have some photos to share...


Once again I have to say Watch this space....

And on it goes...

The new craft room was painted what seems like ages ago ... and yesterday the painting of the old craft room was completed.  Amazingly it took one less coat of the same white paint to cover the red walls in here than it did to cover the blah mocha walls in the other room...we are not sure why but suspect the first lot of paint might not have been all that good because when we bought the next lot it seemed to cover so much better ...and it did a great job in here...

So two rooms down and hubby has decided it makes perfect sense to keep going and has started on our bedroom today...especially since we are at the mercy of Virgin media to re-site the broadband connection... thanks to the operative who while upgrading the TIVO, took it upon himself to splice the upstairs tv service to our broadband and cut our broadband cable so short that we can't move the modem more than few inches...

When I rang Virgin  Media I was told that while they could send someone free of charge to sort out the weird cabling the upgrade guy left behind him - we discovered that mess when we emptied this room of all its furniture and were almost strangled buy the half mile of cable that sprang up out of nowhere  - we would have to pay £99 for someone to move the broadband modem. Now this seems a little unfair to me since we had enough cable from our original installation and we want to move the modem back to the original installation point...but we can't because old sneaky cut the cable...but the girl I spoke to would not budge...so I had to make a formal complaint...and we are still awaiting the outcome of that one...

Ironically  while I had to provide my full name ,address with post code, telephone number, account number and security password before she would even speak to me, little miss helpful at the call centre did not feel comfortable giving me her name.... apparently she is concerned that customers might seek her out via social media... I guess she hasn't heard of security settings...or being helpful...

But I digress... back to the craft room...or lack thereof... I am currently reduced to working on a 75cm square table in the middle of the floor. This is not good...stuff falls off the table all the time, there is no room for mess and I plain can't find anything I need...

So the windows are clean, the wood blinds in the entire house are completely dust free, my oven is so shiny you need sunglasses to look in there, the bathrooms gleam and the cupboards are all organised...

The bedroom will be completed in a  few days and  I really hope we get a reply from Virgin Media soon...I am clearly going crazy without my craft room...

I am taking bets that hubby will fall out of bed in the morning...he has taken lots of stuff out of our room in prep for the painting tomorrow and his alarm clock is on the floor... he won't be able to hit it like he normally does...  I am betting there will be alarm sounds, then a thud followed by cussing...

Watch this space ;)

The horrid stage

We are that most horrid stage in the process...where the decorating of the new craftroom is complete but until the redecoration of the old one is completed we cannot sort either room. I am stuck in limbo.

I have a small table set up in the new room and I have bare craft essentials to hand  but it is far from ideal. The computer and printer is in the old room. Currently I am  sitting on a very uncomfy wooden stool in the middle of the old room , the floor is  covered with dust sheets and I am surrounded by stepladders and paint pots...It is most unpleasant.

I  will be glad when this part is over and I can seriously get to the interesting part.

This bit is no fun at all.

A Proper craftroom day

Oh the weather outside is (still) frightful....  what better than to stay indoors in the warm and work on the craftroom reno.

I spent an hour or so surfing around gorgeous craft rooms on the web...all of which sent me running back and forth with tape measure in hand to see if I could do that... what am I like? (no need to answer!)

I had in my mind what my ideal craft room will look like when it is completely finished, but  my inner ditherer has emerged and I am horribly unsure that my sketchy plans will actually work...or will the best option...or any other self doubty thingy it can think of. Thankfully my husband is calm and funny and is both strong and patient and promises me it will be fine and it doesn't matter if I want things moved around a bit from the original (non-plan) plan... I wonder what qualifies as  a bit ...  and how far I can stretch that patience of his ...

Anyhow back to the non-plan plan.... The main idea I have (and I am still firmly set on) is that I want stations/zones for certain tasks with the tools/materials accessible right there in that zone... With space being limited (even when moving into double the space of the previous craft room)  there is also a limit to the number of zones I can achieve. I do an awful  lot of die cutting and embossing and a lot of stamping so these are my two main areas...along with a messy pit for the tasks involving those processes that get stuff everywhere...stuff like glitter and glue.

My other main concern is storage..I need tons of storage and more importantly I need it to work for me...which means that I have to be able to see the stuff and it has to make sense to me and how I craft.

Looking at the majority of the ooh wow craft rooms featured around the web most (if not all) of them are beautifully coordinated, with matching cabinetry and pretty decorative touches... they are almost all very neat.  That is not going to be my room....not ever, not in a million years...

My room is hopefully going to reflect me and my crafting...so it will be a mix of functional and fun. The room is completely painted white...ceiling, walls, doors, window frames and skirting boards...its all bright white and sparkly clean (at the moment.. ) The floor is a warm light oak. I have intentionally chosen a complete mix of  assorted wood shades ranging from light beech to dark wood, with some black and white draw sets thrown in for good measure  and  I am hoping that the distinctions will define the zones and help me to organise my stuff ...and keep it organised.

But my blank canvas will not be stark...there will be colour...from storage options - a variety of pretty boxes and baskets and jars -  and  from the stash itself.... All the pretty papers, ribbons, fabrics, buttons and bows will be on display and will add colour.

But I am getting ahead of myself here... and I really should stop day dreaming about the end result and get on with putting the shelving units together and wiping off the dust-bunnies...

The weather outside can do what it likes..until I need to head to Ikea - and I will need to head there before too long... I am as happy as can be just pottering and dreamin'....