A Productive Weekend

[lokheed]

Ben's Playroom

The above picture gallery shows the finished makeover of Ben's playroom. Kris put in a lot of time and energy this past weekend to pull this off, while Ben spent the weekend with his mom. Yeah, I did some of the manual labor, but the color scheme and ideas were 100% Kris. I love the room, and I think Ben will too. I love the curtains on the television wall, turning that side of the room into a theater. I love that the autographed t-shirt given to Ben by the folks at The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is on display. I love that the crown given to Ben by Snow White herself to commemorate his 1000th ride on Snow White's Scary Adventures is hanging there on display on the right hand end of the curtain rod. On the large wall of the room there is the Sorcerer's Apprentice cross-stitch that my mom made for Ben from scratch, devising the pattern from the page of a story book that he loved. On the same wall are the two scrapbook-style collages that Kris made a few weeks ago; the first commemorates Ben's writeup in The Unofficial Guide, and the second commemorates his 1000th ride on Snow White's Scary Adventures. Also on the wall is a long mirror turned sideways, because Ben loves to look at reflections. The mirror is specifically placed at just the right height for him to be sitting on the couch and be able to see the reflection of his television. Beneath the mirror is a low table that was again completely imagined by Kris. A long flat board, which I rounded the edges with the router, mounted to a cheap shelving unit turned sideways. Every wall of the room has pictures, or something else on display. The couch has a new slipcover, and the stripes on the slipcover echo the stripes in the flanking curtains on the theater wall. The blue of the main curtains on the theater wall is repeated in both tables in the room. The red curtains over the window really pop, and are picked up in a couple of the picture frames around the room. The whole thing is just amazing, and I am damn proud of Kris for pulling it all together. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes owning a home so satisfying, and I look forward to all the future projects we will do together over the years.

Speaking of other projects, I have also been busy outside of Ben's playroom. When I wasn't up there helping to paint the high spots or hanging pictures, I was out in the garage working on the paperback bookshelves I am installing in the office. I had a ton of cutting and routing to do. Speaking of which, I got a new router, too. Yay! The new one is *sooo* much easier to use. I am off from work all this week, and my goal is to have the paperback bookshelves done and installed by the end of the week, and to also have Kris' new desktop installed as well. I don't know if I will pull of that second bit, but I am surely trying. I'll post pictures of that once I have it done.