Merry Christmas to Me!

I absolutely love our home but one thing that it lacks is a mudroom to put all the kids' STUFF.  It's always just been dumped in our front room right where anyone that came to our door could see it.

It's been driving me crazy...especially in the winter when there's so much more STUFF.

For years I've wanted to do something about it.  I love entryway organization furniture but our entryway is small and would not allow for much of anything.  I've looked for really skinny benches but nothing was thin enough.  Finally I decided that I should have one of our neighbors (who is a master wood worker) to build something for us.  For a couple of months before December I had it on my to do list to talk to Bill about it.

I was justifying it as a Christmas present to myself :)

I mentioned it to his wife once but never got around to talking to him about it.

One night Andy approached me and said that he couldn't keep it a secret any longer...Bill had told him to get together with me on the project.  Andy had talked to Bill about building something for me long before but Bill couldn't really move forward with it since Andy wasn't quite sure what I wanted.

(I don't know if that made sense :)

Anyway, I was thrilled but Andy was disappointed to have to spoil the surprise.  I didn't care...I was just so excited to finally be getting something to solve this problem.

We decided it might be better to put it around the corner in the front room.  There was more space for it there and it would hide the STUFF from view of the front door.  {The only problem with this is that no one can easily see Bill's beautiful handy work.}

Bill wasn't sure if he could get it done before Christmas, and he didn't but that's okay, it was well worth the wait.

It was delivered yesterday and I couldn't be more happy with it!

 

 I have some ideas about how to decorate the shelf.  I want to take my time and do it just right...so it might take a while.

 

My plan is to get some baskets for the bottom for all the shoes and STUFF to go in.  The really short shelf will come in handy for library books, papers etc...

I had the kids pledge to never put their coats, hats, gloves, boots, shoes, books, or backpacks on the floor, couch, or table again.  There is absolutely no excuse now!

Ben was pretty cute.  He raised his hand during the pledge and while the kids were repeating all the things they wouldn't leave hanging around anymore, he would sign the ones he knew...hat, book, shoes.  He loves being a part of everything that goes on around him.

Thank you Bill!  Thank you Andy!

Now my Christmas is complete :)