Magical Growing Rooms

As you know, we like to work on a minimal budget. And by minimal, I really mean free. If you talk a walk through our house, you will find furniture we have found on the side of the road, some we bought from thrift stores, and others we have made ourselves. Our artwork is usually free/under ten dollars. I like to hunt for a bargain. I like to wait until I find the best deals.

That being said, it takes a while to finish a room at this pace. The office is slowly but surely becoming the room I want it to be, but we still have leaps and bounds before we're anywhere near "finished." The rest of the house is coming along very slowly, if at all.

A week ago, before J left for New Mexico, our guest room consisted of a bed, a dog bed, a dining room chair, and a tub filled with bedding. With the exception of the tub, which is now put away in the closet, it's still the same. But it's bigger. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have discovered the secret of making ordinary rooms grow.

Now, I did not take any before pictures for you, so I cannot really prove I expanded the room with nothing more than my own muscles. The problem was, my brain and hands were moving my quicker than my camera. It was not a planned extension; the idea actually hopped into my head as I was washing my hands in the bathroom across the hall, so I walked right into that room and made some magic. Forgot to take a picture. Whoops.

If you're really interested in seeing a before, you can revisit this home tour of yore, and skip ahead to 1 minute and 35 seconds in. It looked a little something like that. Plus a tub and a chair. Please feel free to mute me.

Now, while this room is no closer to being finished, it is bigger. I swear it. Check it out.

 

As these pictures were loading, I suddenly got embarrassed. This room is nowhere near done. I can't believe I'm showing it to you in this state. Technically, all it is is a bed and a chair. How lame is that?

But then I remembered that this blog is about our life. And our life is not always perfect. It is not always finished. It's far from where we want to be. So this is like a metaphor for our life. Take it or leave it.

Things I still need to do for this room (besides everything): make a headboard out of the door we found on the side of a house that was being torn down, make curtains, get a dresser (and probably make it pretty, because any dresser we can afford probably won't be pretty), stretch and hang some paintings I have in the closet, find a real side table, get a lamp, maybe a desk? (non-dining room) chair? armoir?, figure out the artwork situation (aside from the aforementioned canvases that need stretching), new bedding (new sheets, new comforter, possibly borrow the duvet from our bedroom, and get a quilt for our room), aaaand break down Duke's cage and move it out to the garage.

Not bad. Lets bring this post back to the positive... I can grow rooms! Don't you agree the room is so much bigger now than when we first moved in? It is, I measured. Its at least 10 feet longer. At least. 

Also, I would like to add a disclaimer that the reason for new bedding is that we are using a big chenille blanket with a quilt over top it. Not that I don't love the quilt. The quilt was handmade for us for our wedding, and I love it. It's just a little too small for that bed. I usually use it while watching movies on the couch. The chenille blanket on the other hand, I do not like. Thus, new bedding.

Here is a closeup of that awesome quilt. Side note, does my guest bedroom look like a prison cell to anyone else? If someone is going to come visit me, it will give me a reason to fix this room. Just saying...